Often life is filled with parrallels sort of life lessons….one in particular which I learned while serving as a army cook, was the saying, "hurry up and wait." This particular line can be superimposed to my life as a chef and part time baker…. Most often I have to hurry up, then while waiting to finish my work, so I can rush home and mix some bread. And all in weird ways, without a standardized scheduling, without the usual lessons, of slow knead or long proofing, most often it's mix, proof a bit and pop into fridge. I've moaned about this for so long, I never can get accustomed to not having time to make my favorite or new loaves in perfect time. This loaf just above in the photo is an example. It's an old levain bread formula from my days in school, standard, some white flour, bit of wheat, a firm starter. I've made it over and over, but it had a strange feel from out of the oven, almost spongy and too soft, and since I had no bread, I sliced it, and wasn't too impressed. In hindsight I forgot a lesson in bread, slow it down, let it cool, bread needs to mature, let the crumb set and it's a lesson, just like hurry up and wait! Good food takes time.