"Country Bread", "Natural Leaven", "Organic dried fruits" are keywords which have now become indispensable in the Japanese bread industry. This would not have been possible without the contributions of one man.
Pierre Buch (Pierre Buch (french born in Morocco, raised in France, lives in Japan)
Despite being paralyzed from the waist down, he hitchhiked to Japan and established the bakery "Levain" in 1982, a pioneer in the use of natural leaven (home-cultivated leaven), and worked to popularize hard breads such as "Country Bread". In 1985, he founded "Nova" and began importing and selling organic dried fruits and nuts, which were not yet distributed in Japan.
Levain has trained hundreds of bakers to date, and played a role in the spread of natural leaven (home-brewed bread) baking in Japan.
Today, the number of bakeries specializing in home-cultivated leaven in Japan is significantly larger than in Pierre's home country of France.
"Nova" has also grown to support natural bakeries in Japan, with more than 1,000 bakeries as its customers.
This series aims to delve into the fascinating world of bread once again, while looking into Pierre's life, which has not been publicly discussed until now.
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The beginning of "Country Bread" in Japan and the origin of "raisin leaven
There is a record of "Country Bread" being made and sold by Donk Corporation in July 1974 under the guidance of Professor Raymond Calvel, who made the sourdough (the company stopped selling it a few years later). It is said that there are various folklore about baking bread using fruits, such as "raisin leaven," in various regions from the olden days. Please understand that the interviews in this video are the personal opinions of the speakers, as I have not been able to interview all of the people who were involved at the time.
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Pierre Buch
A French natural leaven baker-master, born in Morocco in a family who owned a wine farm. He was diagnosed with polio at the age of two and his legs have been paralyzed since then. In 1959, due to the ravages of the Algerian War, his family moved to a small village in southern France near Avignon.
When he was a teenager he turned to Oriental Philosophy, became macrobiotic, and in 1976 started a macrobiotic restaurant in Avignon but there were not many customers.
During the management of the restaurant, he became very interested in "Miso" (a fermented food made from soybeans, koji-malt, and salt ) and came to Japan in 1978 to study MISO. He tried to negotiate with an artisanal miso maker in Tokyo but he got turned down because of his disability.
During this time, as he couldn’t find a natural leaven bread to eat, he started to bake his own bread with locally grown wheat he stone-milled and fermented with a starter of raisins and apple at home.
He needed to earn a living and so he started working as a French teacher. One of his French students, Yasuhisa Tsunoda, the president of Hombic (a company that sells baking machinery), saw Pierre Buch as a kindred spirit and established the "Levain Bakery" in 1982 with him to bake and wholesale hard bread made with home-cultivated natural leaven.
At "Levain Bakery", the bread was raised with a starter made from raisins and stone-milled flour.
This method was completely unusual even in France, as the ordinary bakeries use whole wheat flour as a starter for making natural leaven even now.
After leaving the company due to health matters, he set up Nova company in 1985, a natural leaven bakery and an importer of organic dried fruits and nuts.
Until 1999 the company also produced bread (the pillar of the company) made from Japan-grown, pesticide-free wheat, home stone-milled flour and few natural different leavens, which was delivered nationwide
As of now, he continues his research at his home in Nasu, Tochigi, in pursuit of the ideal baker's leaven.
Levain Bakery
The pioneer bakery of domestic wheat and home-cultivated natural leaven bread in Japan.
In 1982, Pierre Buch (Macrobian) and Yasuhisa Tsunoda (President of Honbic) set up the Levain Bakery in Chofu, Tokyo. They started selling hard bread such as sourdough bread made with home-cultivated natural leaven. In 1984, Mikio Koda became the owner of the company, which became independent from Honbic, and in 1989 opened a retail shop in Tomigaya, Tokyo, in 1992 a café, Le Chalet, and in 2004 a shop in Ueda, Nagano.
The shop has produced many bakers and established home-cultivated natural leaven bread as a part of the culture in Japan.
(Levain means "natural leaven" in French)
Filming and Editing： REIYA Watanabe
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