A Show Review: Nancy Silverton on "Chef’s Table"

I recently looked for something new to watch on Netflix and rediscovered the series “Chef's Table". Scanning down the list of episodes available to watch, I landed on one featuring Nancy Silverton. It spoke to me because of the sourdough baking I’ve been doing lately. I felt like I could relate. 

For those of you who don’t know Nancy:

"Nancy Silverton is an American chef, baker, and author. The winner of the James Beard Foundation’s Outstanding Chef Award in 2014, Silverton is recognized for her role in popularizing sourdough and artisan breads in the United States.” (Wikipedia)

Wow. You had me at sourdough!


But it’s not just bread that she’s known for. Nancy is famous in Los Angeles for many things:

She got her start as the Pastry Chef at Wolfgang Puck’s “Spago” restaurant on Sunset Blvd.

She was on Julia Child’s cooking show and brought Julia to tears - her dessert was THAT good!

She travelled to Italy where she fell in love with the bread and decided to bring its deliciousness to L.A.. Her love for bread led to her opening La Brea Bakery where she’d sell out by mid-day. Eventually her little bakery turned ginormous and she started producing loaves commercially and were sold in supermarkets.

She ran a well-respected Italian restaurant in Los Angeles named Campanile with her husband. They later divorced and closed the restaurant.

She sold La Brea Bakery for about $60 million.

After selling La Brea Bakery, she went again to Italy to take a well-deserved break and probably figure out what would be next. While there she developed a love for cheese and upon her return to L.A. started making it in L.A., opening Osteria Mozza (short for mozzarella) and Pizzeria Mozza and several other cheese-themed restaurants through LA, Orange County and Singapore, collaborating with Chef Mario Batali.

This was a fascinating story about a woman who had a single-minded obsession with bread. In fact Mario said she had OCD. She tweaked and tweaked her recipes until they were perfect. Now she’s really into cheese.

I really enjoyed the episode.

If you’re a foodie and are looking for something to watch, check it out.

Here’s a link to the show:
https://www.netflix.com/title/80007945