The Observatory
The New York Observer

By Bread Alone

For 10 years, Daniel Leader, chef’d around at some of the city’s best restaurants, including Le Veau D’Or, La Grenouille, Regine’s, The Water Club and the River Cafe. But seven years ago, Mr. Leader found himself tired of “the theater of the fancy restaurant scene.” He said: “I wanted to do something more substantial, and bread is about as substantial as you can get.”

He moved to Boiceville, N.Y., near Woodstock, and started the company he named “Bread Alone.” Now, 20 employees of Bread Alone bake 24 hours a day, five-and-one-half days a week, producing more than a million pounds of bread a year. That breaks down to 15,000 to 20,000 loaves a week, in nine varieties, including the best selling whole grains and sourdoughs, all made by hand and baked in two brick ovens built by a mason Mr. Leader brought in from Paris.

In a phone interview in mid-August, Mr. Leader, 35, said he was finally setting up a fax machine for his booming business. He also is halfway though a bread cookbook for William Morrow, which focuses on traditional European-style hard breads.

In the city, he can sometimes be found at greenmarkets, selling the breads from his trucks, or dashing around to consult with leading chefs. David Bouley, whose eponymous TriBeCa restaurant was recently anointed with four stars from the New York Times Bryan Miller, has asked Mr. Leader to do special breads for him.

Bread Alone breads are available in retail stores in Manhattan and at the Boiceville bakery, where those in the second-home set leave their Jaguars in the parking lot beside the less flashy vehicles belonging to natives who take advantage of this phenomenon in their back yard. “The bread cuts across class lines,” Mr. Leader proclaimed with pride.

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