For over 10,000 years, bread has been part of our daily lives. However, Adriano Farano draws an observation : the more the years pass, the more the flour industry (over)processes wheat to ultimately make it indigestible, with a glycemic index that is much too high. From journalist to baker, Adriano Farano tells us about his journey and his approach behind Pane Vivo, the bread that does good.
Hello Adriano. Could you introduce yourself in one sentence ?
Yes. My name is Adriano Farano and I am the creator of Pane Vivo. I started making bread quite by chance and then I noticed that a lot of people had a problem related to bread, as much for digestion reasons as for glycemic index reasons. So, I decided to retrain ! I moved from journalism to baking, but today I continue to inform as much as I bake this bread that feels good.
Awesome ! Can you explain to us the whole process behind Pane Vivo ?
Already, the observation : normal wholemeal bread will fill you less than Coca Cola ! Obviously, there is a problem... The glycemic index of normal wholemeal bread (the baguette, let's not even talk about I t!), will be higher than that of Coca Cola ! The second problem is the gluten in this wheat that we use today. This modern wheat will be fundamentally indigestible, not only for people who experience this gluten digestion problem, but also for others. Lots of studies which show that we all have more and more digestion problems. And thirdly, bread today has become empty calories, that is to say there are fewer and fewer trace elements, dietary fiber. In short, the bread of our ancestors, which was supposed to nourish and satiate, has today become a poison, something that is even very harmful to the human body ! When we eat foods with a low glycemic index, with digestion problems, we can suffer from intestinal inflammation. It's not just the microbiota that suffers, it's not just the bloodstreams that are full of sugar, it's the entire organism that is threatened ! On a food as important as bread, there should not be these problems. Our approach is therefore as much gustatory as scientific to be able to offer bread that does us good !
It's incredible. And so, what if you had to summarize this approach in one sentence ?
In one sentence, the idea is really to offer bread that feels good ! Good for the taste, because that is fundamental for gastronomy, good for human health and then good for environment, for biodiversity, especially thanks to an old variety of wheat that we have been able to recover.
Bread is a central food in our diet. Are there any benefits to Pane Vivo bread ?
Yes ! We adopted a scientific approach. Already, to choose wheat, we tested the gluten of 35 varieties of wheat in vitro to be able to ultimately choose the variety whose gluten would degrade most easily. In terms of benefits, gluten, from the moment it degrades, for the vast majority of people, except celiac patients, there is no problem. On the contrary ! The gluten will release the proteins. We all need it, especially in a world where we try to eat less and less meat protein. A bread like that of Pane Vivo will have nutritional benefits, but also benefits for the environment, because it represents a source of very high quality vegetable proteins.
We recognize the work of a journalist. Besides, from journalist to baker, what made you change jobs like that ?
I felt a sense of urgency : even before it was nutritional, a cultural emergency. I deeply believe that when bread, which is the basis of our diet, collapses, everything collapses. And we cannot abandon this food to the mercy of industrialization. Today, even artisanal bakeries are problematic. They are called artisanal because the bread is made on site, but in fact, it is not just the tip of a much larger iceberg. This is what I call the agro-baker conglomerate, which is very well structured, including from a marketing point of view, to make you believe that since it is made on site, it is artisanal. Very good that it is made on site, but we can very well make poison on site ! What is happening today is that bakers are receiving bags of flour of which they do not even know the wheat variety. It’s like asking your wine merchant: “What is the grape variety of this wine ?” » and the wine merchant is unable to answer you. Today, this is the case for 99% of bakers. They don't know it. Typical, because it's not even written on the flour bag ! Why isn't this written on the flour bag ? Because it changes all the time and every year, we will look for modern varieties that are increasingly genetically tampered with to increase yields, but which, ultimately, will have a deleterious impact on the environment and also a deleterious impact on our health.
What do you do on a daily basis to combine pleasure, indulgence and well-being ?
Well-being, ultimately, is also a reflection of gustatory pleasure, but of the real thing, when we rediscover tastes and scents that will be raw, of ancestral ingredients that are very little processed. When you do that, as a general rule, you will necessarily have to use products that come from the earth, therefore ancient varieties. This is the case for bread, it is the case for olive oil, for example. In general, when we do good for the planet, ultimately, we also do good for ourselves, from a taste point of view. It's not going to be the too salty, too sweet taste of what we eat today. It's going to be a more subtle taste. In our bread, I put 30 to 40% less salt. Wheat will leave an imprint on your taste.
Pane Vivo is a great adventure. Do you have barriers today ? Do you feel like you're shaking up habits a little or ultimately, is there a very easy reception ?
Reception is never easy when we are talking about a basic food and for which there are codes of consumption, purchase, presentation that are disrupted. People are accustomed in a bakery to finding croissants, pain au chocolat, a Coke, the formula which is worse than a Big Mac with a sandwich full of butter, vile mayonnaise, frozen pastries on which we put a little whipped cream... We don't have that, we don't have a baguette for example, we must be one of the few in Paris. We come up against preconceptions, but at the same time, there is a part of the population which advocates these changes.
Fortunately, it is not too late to reverse the trend because there is still the generation of our grandparents who knew this bread. We're not talking about something completely crazy. We are just saying that in fact, we should recover ancient varieties of wheat, ancient baking practices such as 100% natural sourdough fermentation, which has nothing to do with “sourdough fermentation with addition of yeast” which represents most of today’s so-called “sourdough” breads, which is a huge scandal… It’s difficult, but we try to cling to an experience which is there and which, in addition, is engraved in our history, which is engraved in our culture. Bread is not just any food !
Your customers today, right ? These are the people who knew this bread ?
There is a little nostalgic side for some generations who are part of our customers, of course, but I would say that we mainly reach a clientele of people between 30 and 50 years old !
How do you define each bread recipe ?
We have the same recipe for all the breads, but then some breads are going to be plain breads and other breads are going to be special breads to which we are going to add special ingredients, on which I am striving for find the best associations. For example, we have one of my favorite breads called Livia, with olives from Sicily and rosemary from Cap Corse, which is really delicious. This ancient variety of olives called Nocellara is a PDO from Sicily. We will collect the olives and oil from the same producer, in a short circuit.
Best advice you've ever been given ?
I would say to always keep smiling and always look on the bright side of things. In life, you can't always decide. And it's better to do good for our brain as well, because inflammation, whether intestinal or cerebral, in fact, starts even with small things. You always have to put things into perspective, say to yourself “It doesn't matter, it's not me who decides, I'll continue on my way. » But it took me a while.
The best advice you would give ?
Already being optimistic is universal, I would say. And then eat my bread ! I really think it can do you some good. And then, recently, what's great is that we were invited to a medical conference on nutritional psychiatry. Our bread contains 38% more dietary fiber than normal wholemeal bread, meaning your microbiota will be better nourished by fiber. When we have a healthy microbiota, it seems, we will have less risk of developing mental pathologies too, because the intestine is our second brain.
For an aperitif, what do you recommend ?
A beautiful bruschetta, with good old tomatoes, a little olive oil, a little garlic crushed like that and a small glass of OSCO , it's perfect.
If someone offers you a non-alcoholic cocktail, what do you say ?
An OSCO alcohol-free cocktail ! I love verjuice, it has this little bitterness, it’s great. What's great and that's where we come together, I think, it is really on raw ingredients, as natural as possible, as least processed as possible, to ultimately re-educate the palate and really indulge yourself. We have been told for years that we should eat croissants, pain au chocolat, orange juice, etc. in the morning. It is no coincidence today that France has exceeded the number of people who are overweight. It's incredible and it's a situation that is unbearable. And what's more, it's not good. People think it's good because they're used to it, but it's just addictive. We need to get back to real perfume. Already, I start with smell. I always tell customers, “smell the bread, smell it because you can smell it as much as you want.” When you eat it afterwards, it's too late.
A place where you would like to share a glass of OSCO ?
Positano, on the Amalfi Coast, a small terrace overlooking the sea. I usually have limoncello, but it's true that it's nice to have a good glass of OSCO too !
If everything was possible, who would be the 3 people with whom you would like to have an aperitif ?
I would say Oscar Wilde ; Sophie Marceau (plus, she's a Pane Vivo customer, but I've never seen her !) and then, the actor Massimo Troisi ! He's a Neapolitan, I come from the same region and he's an exceptional guy, who unfortunately died too young and who had a slightly melancholic humor, typically Neapolitan. I never knew him and I would dream of knowing him.
What is the secret ingredient of a successful aperitif ?
Company. Do you know where the word “company” comes from ? “Cum pane”, with the bread. Company, friends, companions, all are of the same origin. Being well accompanied means having good bread and the right people to share it with.
It’s crazy how important bread is !
It is etched into our history and our culture, the mirror of who we are as a society. The choices we make, for example, at the level of the wheat industry, at the level of the methods of transforming wheat into flour, ultimately determine who we are. I'll give you a not very encouraging example, but I talked about it in a video on Instagram. If you take the main miller in France today, he will also be de facto the main baker because he will give bread recipes which will be adopted by most bakeries. It is also the main polluter : it is the same company which will be the leader in flour, which will be the leader in bread and which will be the leader in phytosanitary products, that is to say fertilizers and pesticides. It is the same company, the same group which contains several different companies. Do you see the importance of wheat ? In addition, France is the European leader in wheat and the production of soft wheat, Italy in durum wheat. We are two countries which have a huge impact on biodiversity, because unfortunately, today, we are only making the wrong choices by favoring modern varieties of wheat with high yields, which will have a very harmful impact. on digestion and our health.
Where does the wheat come from at Pane Vivo ?
The wheat comes from Sicily. We took 35 varieties of ancient wheat, we measured them all for gluten and this Sicilian variety was the best. Sicily today has more ancient varieties cultivated than France and Italy combined. So, there is incredible biodiversity !
An address to discover ?
The Hommage restaurant, in the 13th, a member of the Collège Culinaire de France, like us !
What are your news ? Any new projects coming up ?
We are working on a new research project on gluten, in partnership with the Agroparistech school. We will observe the manipulations on the gluten of our wheat but also of other varieties to be able to go even further in the study of this gluten, to see its behavior. A student is going to write her thesis on the subject ! On the side of the glycemic index, we have completed a clinical study with the University of Avignon. We gave Pane Vivo bread to fasting volunteers and took blood samples to understand the impact on blood sugar levels. Our bread was very very low which therefore allows diabetics to eat it.
The final word ?
In our tradition, bread and wine, or another drink, is a winning duo ! Eating and drinking good things with good ingredients... What's more wonderful as long as you're in good company !
Where to follow Adriano Farano : right here
Pane Vivo is available in its 5 Parisian stores but also by subscription with free delivery in France !