How many courses of bread is too many courses of bread? How many sandwiches are too many to stand? When does a loaf of sourdough weigh so heavy on the soul that you, yourself, become sour? Answers to all these questions and more are what I seek at Asda’s pop-up bread restaurant. At London’s Baker’s Dozen, I am treated to 13 courses of bread-centred meals, partnered with 13 glasses of carefully selected wines for good measure.
Going out for a meal is an exercise in pageantry. I don’t have to tell you that we all need food to survive, but making it pop with rituals and theatrics is just one of the things we do to make life fun. We eat with our mouths, but also with our eyes and arguably our minds, so why not dress up and go out to do it? Or swap three-course meals for tasting menus? Or forgo a balanced diet to eat just a ridiculous amount of bread?
