February 21, 2003

The Slow Rise of a Breadmaking Star

By LAWRENCE BIEMILLER

"It's 2:15 -- is anybody still mixing?" Peter Reinhart calls out above the general din of the bakery classroom. Five teams of freshmen are at work this afternoon on three different breads each -- baguettes, cranberry muffins, and croissants -- and not everything is going smoothly. One group has put too much water in its baguette dough, and Chef Reinhart has already been called over twice to advise -- first when the dough was just a sticky, shaggy mass in the bowl of an 80-quart