Press about Ben

From Edible Ojai & Ventura, Summer 2013:

The Staff of Life:  An Interview with Baker Ben DiGregorio

by Quin Shakra with Photographs by Tania Korvenmaa

Ben DiGregorio, bread baker for Mano Farm’s community-supported agriculture program, is one of the first people in Ventura County to have his home kitchen permitted under a new state law that “allows individuals to prepare and/or package certain non-potentially hazardous foods in private-home kitchens, referred to as “cottage food operations” (CFOs).”  The California Homemade Food Act took effect on January 1.

Through his cottage kitchen label  “I Cook You Eat Ojai,” Ben sells bread and pastries directly to his customers, making between 15 and 20 local deliveries every Sunday. He also makes pastries and scones for the Coffee Connection in Meiners Oaks, frequently sourcing the produce he uses from our farm.

The process to obtain such certification is multi-tiered: First he had to get a Home Occupation Permit from the County Planning Division, which was $75. Next, he submitted a Food Protection Manager Certification, which included a sample of his ingredient labels. Finally, he applied for the Class B permit itself, which was $198 and must be renewed annually. The county then conducted an inspection of his kitchen to assess the storage of ingredients, cleanliness and setup of kitchen, temperature of refrigerator and other details. A business tax license is also required. Ben’s permit allows him to make up to $35,000 of sales from his kitchen; according to the California Homemade Foods Act, that number will go to $40,000 in 2014 and $50,000 in 2015.

Ben, 65, was raised in the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. His father was a first-generation Sicilian baker, and his mother a cook.  “I have four brothers, so it was a big family; there was always food being produced. My mother was a pretty good cook. And we always had to help. I got my interest that way.”

For most of Ben’s life, however, baking and cooking were backdrops to his other pursuits. After initially starting pre-med school at Columbia University, Ben dropped out to join the United States Marine Corps, serving as a lance corporal with a communications specialty for four years, which culminated in serving a year in the Vietnam War. Afterward he moved to Boston to study English literature at the University of Massachusetts. There he landed his first cooking job, at The Charles, a restaurant situated next to the Charles River. The job helped Ben pay for college, and made him realize he had a skill that could complement his lifelong interest in poetry, theatre and acting. His travels took him to the Bay Area in the mid-1970s, where he became involved in experimental theatre; he’s also lived in Japan and Seattle, where he spent a substantial portion of time to raise his son, who also cooks professionally.

Ben and his partner Kerry Slattery (an independent bookstore owner) moved from Los Angeles to Ojai in early 2011. Before long, we were trading our farm’s vegetables in exchange for Ben’s fresh baked loaves. And even though our CSA is nearly four years old, it’s difficult for me to imagine a time where one of our Sunday picks ended without a fresh loaf of bread to tear into with my bare hands.

During our two hours of conversation, Ben reminded me that bread has been colloquially referred to as “the staff of life.”

In the time you’ve been baking and cooking, are there signature dishes that you’ve taken with you throughout all your life history, through all of your life experiences and jobs?

No. Not at all, actually.

So you’re always doing things differently?

To my detriment. I always want to try something new, to put a little spin on things, you know? I don’t think I ever make two loaves that are the same. I mean, basically it’s the same – but I’m just looking for something else. Different texture, different flavor…

But surely you learned from your history of doing things; of what not to do?

 Absolutely. I guess a basic rule is, whatever it is you are using, use just a little bit of it – you can always add, but you can’t take out. It’s very, very difficult, especially with bread; if you put something in it, there’s no way to get it out once it’s mixed.

And a simple thing that I’ve found is that the best ingredients are always the best ingredients. That is to say, always try and use the best ingredients you can possibly find and afford to use, because that will always give you the best product.

Is that what led you to organic food? Or were you always kind of interested in sourcing organic ingredients…

Kind of both things. Years ago when I lived in Oakland, there was this wonderful place that sold grains and flour in bulk–10 pounds, a 100 pounds, whatever you want. This place was great for all sorts of grains and rice and flours.

Also, growing up in the baking world–my father was an excellent, excellent baker–he made fabulous bread. In the middle to the end of the 19th century New York, they built all these ovens under the street. So in a lot of all these old bakeries, especially where my father used to work, you went down into the cellar and there was this brick oven, coal fired. And from what I understand there were hundreds of them all over the city.

And then somewhere along the line I learned that traditional Sicilian breads are sourdoughs.

Did your father make sourdoughs?

No, he didn’t. He used compressed cake yeast.

Sourdough procedures make everything much longer time-wise. The bread that I make is very difficult to do in a big volume because it takes so much time and you need so much space for it. But those long, slow fermentation processes are where you get all your flavor and aroma, character, texture, crust, crumb, which you don’t necessarily get with a dry yeast product.

Over the last couple of years, I’ve done a lot of experimentation to see how much rye, how much whole wheat can I use, and how little high-gluten flour or white baker’s flour can I use and still get a lighter product; something that has volume and a good exterior and interior and doesn’t dry out in a day. Although I don’t really believe in perfection, I do believe in approaching it, I do believe in the pursuit of it…

But I’m also a firm believer in using what you have. There’s this book by Miyamoto Musashi, a Japanese martial artist from the early 1600s called The Book of Five Rings. He said, in relationship to weaponry, “Don’t say I’m a short sword guy or a I’m a long sword guy or I’m a spear guy.” Just use what you have, whatever it is. Because if you have these preferences then you’re going to be stopped.

Did you start with a recipe for your bread, or have some kind of a base to work from?

Kerry (Ben’s partner) got me this book called The Bread Baker’s Apprentice by Peter Reinhart. Over the years, he developed a bunch of recipes and approaches to bread. I have used his basic recipes as my springboard.

And you write down your recipes?

No. Because they’re proportions. The proportions have to be accurate. You know, it’s chemistry. You have to have one part of this, and two parts of this; you can’t use two parts and two parts, because you end up with something else.

Do you write down your proportions?

No.

So they’re in your head?

In a matter of speaking. The proportions are really almost always the same. Time becomes a factor. For instance, if I’m making a white bread with corn meal in it–I fermented a bunch of corn meal, made a starter out of that, and then added a white starter to it. It needs to sit at least four hours to eight hours to move, to expand, and then you put that in the refrigerator overnight. And you do that the next day, and you do that the next day… that takes three or four days to do.

Why do you bake for people?

Because it’s what I can do; it’s how I put out there; how I give. It satisfies my creative urge and need. And for my own taste, I’m creating the best loaf of bread that I can find around. You’re not going to find a loaf that good anywhere else, either health-wise, as far as ingredients go, or the attention to detail that I put into it – and also the aesthetic of it.

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Quin Shakra co-manages All Good Things Organic Seeds (Agtoseeds.com) and Mano Farm (ManoFarm.org), both located in Meiners Oaks, California.

 

Mel Bloom:  An Unforgettable Dinner,     Ojai Valley News        

June 10, 2011 (reprinted with permission)

My instincts are more gluttonous than epicurean. If  I wouldn’t die I could devour three meals a day at “all-you-can-eat” and fast food restaurants. But fortunately I know better and equally as fortunate, on some rare occasions I have been exposed to genuine gourmet dining including a dinner at a three star Michelin restaurant, Paris’ Tallivant. And most fortunate of all, I didn’t have to pay for it thanks to an affluent aunt. But six friends of Sweetie’s and mine who have more patrician tastes than I could ever dream of thought it would be an adventure in haute cuisine to have a dinner made especially for us. So, we hired a chef for an evening who has recently moved to Ojai from Los Angeles with references so impressive attention must be paid and equally significant are the raves about him personally which matched those pertinent to what and how he cooks.

Ben DiGregorio, a master of cuisine, is possessed with a name so euphonious it rolls off  the tongue with cavalier grace and is reminiscent of other noble Italian family names — Visconti,  Medici, and Borghese. Ben, however was born and raised in Brooklyn where his family owned a bakery in which  he worked since boyhood and where the seeds of culinary magic were first embedded in his imagination.

In Los Angeles Ben catered for an entertainment business clientele. He did parties for as many as a hundred people. But his biggest pleasure comes from intimate dinners for two to soirees of eight to 12 people. He has also prepared in one day dinners for the week for busy people or those recovering from surgery and illness. He was highly recommended to us by a dear friend  who endured a lengthy recuperation from hip surgery two years ago. After interviewing him and reading his references, our group was gung ho to get him started in Ojai. He made suggestions which sounded good to all of us.

How did it work out? Splendidly. It was an evening of conviviality heightened by the consumption of delicious food. We felt we had dined at a Versailles banquet set for Louis XIV. We began with appetizers of garlic braised shrimp and a platter of flat bread onto which was sprinkled a delicious salsa.  Next, an exotic salad of orange, onion, spinach and beets. Chicken Genovese, chicken breast stuffed with Danish Fontina cheese and spinach which had been simmered in chicken stock and herbs was the entree. The Parker House roles were a meal unto themselves. And the Sacher Torte for dessert with its companion bowl of whipped cream couldn’t have been better had it been made in its place of origin, Vienna’s Sacher Hotel.  In fact had Marie Antoinette said “Let them eat Sacher Torte”, the entire French Revolution could have been avoided. Especially if it was Ben’s Sacher Torte.

To inhale the enticing fragrances wafting from the kitchen throughout the house and to watch the preparation of the whole menu was what Ed Sullivan would have called “a big ‘shew.’ ” Everything was made from scratch and to see these gourmet gems materialize from raw ingredients was comparable to the miracle of a caterpillar metamorphosing into an exquisite butterfly. It was magic and more exciting than anything I had ever seen years ago on any of Ed Sullivan’s “big shews.” It started with the making of a chicken stock which in itself was a fascinating procedure,  and ended with the molten chocolate of the Sacher Torte.

Hamburgers and tacos are fine. I couldn’t live without them. But once in a life time, to dine like the landed gentry, or perhaps even an emperor, is a treat we should all experience. If you share that notion and are game to break the hamburger and taco addiction, give Ben a call. Ask for his references, you’ll be impressed. Eat his food, you’ll be grateful. There are eight of us in Ojai who bet if he cooks for you, you’ll ask him to return. Ben can be reached at (805) 272 8023. Or look at his website –. Icookyoueatojai.com.

— Mel Bloom,     June 10, 2011