Rating: 
Summary: Great for baking serious breads
Review: I live in Argentina and heard about La Brea Bakery through fashion magazine. Being an avid home baker and being unable to go just like that to Los Angeles I was dying to get the book. It didn't turn me down. Once you get the hold on the sourdough starter (which is really easy, the hardest part is waiting) and internalize the chemistry and misteries of bread baking you start, with the help of Ms. Silverton, to bake such GOOD bread it's hard to believe. It took me some time to find the exact combination of ingredients (which flour/s, kind of water, etc.) that worked best where I live, but once that was accomplished it is easy now, not to mention the AMAZING breads I can make!!
Rating:
Summary: Catching Yeast?Driver- to the bakery!
Review: I must confess that I don't actually *use* this
cookbook. I love to cook and I love to bake and I
love her bread but I cannot! catch my own yeast.
It is fun to read about. If she had included any
comments on perhaps substituting dry yeast I would have given it a "10." Maybe if I didn't live so close to the bakery itself I would be more tempted. It is hard to spend the time when it is so close.
Incidentally, Breakfast at Campanille and weekend
shopping at La Brea Bakery is one of the most pleasant way to spend a day in Los Angeles
Rating: 
Summary: Too much for too little
Review: I read the other reviews here and, as a result, bought this book. Overall I think Nancy does a really good job of explaining the process, of leading you through the first recipe, etc. I would not consider myself an "expert" bread baker, but I'm no novice, so I knew what I was looking for -- and understood what was supposed to be happening. I got a working starter on my second try.After three months of feeding the starter three times a day with extreme care (measuring water temperature, for example), and with nearly 2-1/2 lbs of flour per day, I had something that created a GREAT tasting but gummy wad of dough, batch after batch after batch (though the loaves did have some other nice characteristics). It seemed my starter never was strong enough to make the bread rise. It never got the kind of bubbles Nancy describes in the book. This week I threw it away. After all the time and trouble, I felt I was losing the equivalent of a pet. I had named her Audrey after the plant in Little Shop of Horrors. (FEED ME!) I am trying again, this time with the starter recipe from Peter Reinhart's "Crust & Crumb." Nancy's starter took 2 weeks to develop, Peter's only takes 5 days -- and the process uses much less flour, and gets fed much less frequently. Already I have something that is much stronger and much more workable; possibly this is because I really am a novice. I'll keep Nancy's book and use the recipes, but with my new starter. And I suggest that novices try the Crust & Crumb version before moving along to the La Brea monster!
Rating:
Summary: A guide to understanding what it takes to make good bread!
Review: I searched for years to find a way to make good "old world" style bread at home and have finally found a guide to get me there. It's not the oven, it's not some super-d-duper flour. What it takes is understanding, attention to detail, and time. This book will give you the understanding necessary to get a good loaf. The author dedicates about 60 pages, going through every phase, to the first recipe!). If you are serious about your bread this is a terrific place to start or end your search!
Rating:
Summary: She has her own style
Review: I think she sums up this book herself when she says that the people in her neighborhood had to "get used" to her style of bread. It's good bread, yes, if you like black, thick crusts and don't mind waiting a few days. This is good for the elevated baker who wants to perfect themselves, (my pastry chef side) but my kids want bread they can eat peanut butter and jelly off of. It's not worth the price, so check it out of the library first.
Rating: 
Summary: The Most Wasteful Sourdough Ever!
Review: I tried this book in my search for info on baking "artisan" breads. Her process for making a sourdough "levain" is ridiculous. It requires a great deal of flour, most of which she recommends discarding along the way! If she runs her business on this model, she can't possibly be making any money. I also agree that she makes it uneccesarily complicated and esoteric. It's bread- a daily staple- that's the miracle- it's simple. Instead, I recommend "The Village Baker", by Joe Ortiz- it's here on Amazon in paperback. He also gives much more comprehensive info on why certain techniques are used and regional bread recipes.
Rating:
Summary: The best pastry chef and baker?
Review: I want be available to tell you, this book is so boring
Hardly any pictures none in colour I don't no how the product suppose to look like lengthy explanation who do not make you feel like baking or even in appetite I am a pastry chef mi self and own a large collection of cooking book from Women Weekly to highly sophisticated professionals one, this one will have to be the worst one
Rating: 
Summary: Not worth the money.
Review: If you like to look at nice, glossy pics of bread rather than really bake, this is the book for you. While Silverton no doubt produces some of the best bread out there, her book leaves much to be desired. Her recipe for starter will have the unwilling participant end up with something like 7 pounds of starter!!! And, she specifically says not to scale it down. Ridiculous. Also, the yeasted breads in the cookbook all call for compressed yeast, which is next to impossible to find anymore. Why does no one use it anymore? BECAUSE IT'S EXACTLY THE SAME THING AS ACTIVE DRY AND INSTANT YEAST!!! But Silverton has to make it difficult, as some bread masochists think difficulty is necessary to produce good bread.
If you want a good book on bread, buy Reinhart's "Bread Baker's Apprentice." I feel it will probably be a classic in no time. It is, without exception, the best book written on bread baking. Ever. The recipes all work, and every step of the process is explained in great detail.
Rating:
Summary: Making Real Sourdough
Review: If you want real sourdough -- and you are serious about wanting to eat good bread that you can make yourself -- then this is the book.
Rating:
Summary: The best book ever, but not for the meek (weak)
Review: La Brea Bakery produces an amazing product that I hoped to duplicate (or at least make an attempt) at home. Although I feel very comfortable in the kitchen, I was very intimiated by her lengthy home made starter instructions and thus her book has sat on my shelf unused. Unless you are willing to make the costly and time consuming starter, this book is of no value.
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