“We eat with our eyes—we’re not going to eat anything that looks bad,” says Teri Culletto, the Massachusetts-based bread maker known as the Vineyard Baker. Culletto has become something of an expert on the aesthetic aspect of food over the last couple years, as her eye-catching loaves of focaccia—each adorned with edible depictions of nature or her takes on famous artwork—have earned her internet (and Instagram) fame and led to the writing of a book on bread art (due out in April 2022.) La Cucina Italiana caught up with Culletto in the midst of her book deadlines to talk about the inspiration behind her “Van Dough” pieces and get some tips for creating our own edible works of art.
How did you come to baking? Did you grow up doing it?
Í grew up in a town along New York State’s Hudson River, and would spend every Sunday having dinner with my Italian nonna and my father’s side of the family. But it was my mother’s mother—who was from the Czech Republic—that instilled in me a love of baking. I don’t even know if she realized that they sell bread in the grocery store—it never crossed her mind to buy bread! She made all her own baked goods, and even grew her own vegetables and had chickens, all in a town that was just a few miles north of New York City. I would spend my summers watching her and helping to create European-style baked goods, such as kolaches and poppy seed sweet rolls.
Van Gogh's Irises, left, and the Vineyard Baker's edible Irises, baked into focaccia.
Did you then study cooking as an adult, or work in that industry?
For a long time, I was primarily self-taught—I probably have over 100 books on such topics as baking, bread science, and bread history—and I didn’t work in the culinary world. I moved to Martha’s Vineyard over 30 years ago, had four sons, and was working in other fields. But when I got divorced and found myself a single mother, that’s when I turned back to baking. I started to take classes at places like King Arthur Baking in Vermont, and with the Bread Baker’s Guild of America, through which I got to study with baking legends like Peter Reinhart. Then, back on Martha’s Vineyard, I set up a commercial kitchen in my home, started selling bread at area farmer’s markets and farm stands, and began teaching adult education classes in breadmaking.
So how did the bread art come about?
A few years ago, I had driven two of my sons down to college and on the way, stopped to take a picture of these lovely fields of poppy flowers. Then, a while later, I was in my kitchen cutting up some mini red peppers, and they reminded me of those poppies, so I decided to decorate a loaf of bread to look like the flowers, using Kalamata olives, feta cheese, chives, basil leaves, and various peppers. It turned out delicious, and looked great!
Not long after that, in early 2019, I was teaching a six-week course on bread traditions from around the world, and one of the classes was going to focus on Italy and focaccia. That class happened to be around Valentine’s Day, so I thought it would make for a nice gift for loved ones if we made focaccia in different shapes and decorated them. I made a “creation station” with lots of different toppings, and encouraged everyone to use their imaginations. I’ll never forget their smiles—everyone had such a great time.
A focaccia heart by the Vineyard Baker.
Why choose focaccia as the base for your bread art? Is there something about it that makes it look (and taste) better than other styles of bread?
Focaccia is one of the easiest and fastest breads to make, so that is a big plus. For anyone who is a novice to baking, it’s great to start with focaccia—you can just pour it out from the bowl, spread it out, and stretch it with your fingers. You don’t have to shape it for a specific pan, which can be more challenging. Also, the taste works well with lots of flavors, and the flat, square shape looks like a canvas—it invites you to make it pretty!
What kinds of designs do you think work best?
I get inspiration from all over, from nature to works of art. I’ve done piece inspired by Degas’ ballerinas and Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, and recently did one based on Van Gogh’s Irises; for that, I sprinkled on piles of cheddar cheese to get the brown/warm orange color, the used pickled cabbage and red onions for the purple color, and beautiful leeks—mainly the green part, with a little bit of the white stalk—to make the leaves. I’ve seen someone do Edvard Munch’s The Scream, too, using eggplant for the dark clothing.
So let’s talk toppings. What works both for taste and the visual effect?
Focaccia pairs well with a lot of flavors, so you have a lot to work with—you just have to think about what an ingredient will be like after baking, both in terms of its taste and its color. Ingredients have varying amounts of natural sugars and oils that can cause them to get darker. Seeds are good, but you have to be careful about nuts, for example; they are high in oil so they can burn or turn darker easily, so you want to bury them in the dough instead of using them on top.
In general, use fresh, raw vegetables. You can cut colorful mini peppers into strips or circles, and Kalamata or black olives can be chopped up to use as the centers of flowers. Thin slices of garlic make for good petals, while scallions are great for branches or stems (and they have a nice, sweet flavor). You can use a circle of gouda cheese—which bakes well—to represent the center of the flower, then sprinkle black pepper around it for a pollen effect. Fresh herbs are also good when creating flowers, but in order to make sure they keep their flavor and green color, keep them in a bowl of ice water with a few drops of lemon juice before using, so they are plump and moist when you put the bread in the oven. Otherwise, they can get dry and crackly.
You have to be careful with some veggies, though. Cherry tomatoes should be sliced and laid on a paper towel to soak up some of the seeds and moisture first, while sundried tomatoes—which can burn up quickly, because they contain so much sugar—should be soaked in water instead of oil. Some people use cauliflower when they need the color white, but cauliflower has a lot of water in it, so you often end up with soggy bread. If you are going to use it, cut it up into little florets and just use a few. Thicker-cut veggies tend to leech water, which they then drain out into the bread. Carrots should be sliced thinly, too, and mushrooms—also high in water—should be sauteed a bit and patted dry before using. Another tip: if you’re using a lot of veggies, sprinkle some finishing salt on the top to help bring out the flavors.
Focaccia quilted buns by the Vineyard Baker.
What are some other ingredients to use to add color?
Feta cheese is great to use if you need a white color. It may sound odd, but get the fat-free kind—it will not burn in the oven (as long as there is no olive oil in it) and you’ll get that nice white tone.
If you need purple, use pickled purple cabbage. I like to heat up some vinegar, pour it over the cabbage and put it in the fridge the night before; just drain off the moisture before using it and you’ll get a nice, acidy flavor that’s lovely on bread.
Can you use sweet ingredients, as well?
Absolutely. I’ve layered the focaccia dough with a bit of sweet cream or mascarpone, then used strawberries or pineapple to look like flower petals and sliced blueberries for the center of the flowers. Combining sweet and savory is delicious, too. Pear and goat cheese is a good combo—just make sure to use pears that are a little firm, because they have to hold up in the oven. Apples and pecans are a good mix, too. And I love mixing sweet and regular peppers.
What about alcohol—can you bake with that?
Yes, but it’s best to cook the alcohol off first. Red wine adds a nice tart, sourdough-like flavor to focaccia. Just reduce it down on the stove until you get a condensed version, then use a brush to glaze the bread with it after it’s been in the oven for a while; I would say wait until the last six-to-eight minutes of baking before adding the glaze. I’m also working on a bourbon wash to use with fall flavors.
Find more tips and step-by-step recipes for Culletto's focaccia and bread art at vineyardbaker.com. Culletto will be appearing at the virtual International Symposium On Bread, September 22, showing “How to Make a Focaccia Garden.”