Tenacity and passion permeate Breadsong, a moving, life-affirming memoir and recipe book by Kitty and Al Tait that celebrates the joys of bread-based baking. Red-haired and freckled Kitty Tait had always been fun-loving, good-natured and chatty. However, in 2018 Kitty's parents and others noticed a change in the 14-year-old girl: she'd become "subdued, distracted, pale and sad looking." The youngest child in her British family, Kitty experienced unattributable symptoms that morphed into emotional malaise, anxiety and panic attacks. Mental health specialists prescribed pharmaceuticals, breathing exercises and other coping strategies. But nothing seemed to work.
One day her exasperated, stressed-out father, an amateur bread baker, decided to distract himself by baking a no-knead loaf in a cast-iron Dutch oven. This one simple act piqued Kitty's interest; surprisingly, the process drew her away from her anxieties. Frequent baking quests suddenly turned the tide of Kitty's life. Soon, the Tait family's adventures in making bread nourished more than just Kitty and her family: their loaves started feeding the neighborhood, rippled into the larger community and ultimately lead to their opening the Orange Bakery in their hometown of Watlington, Oxfordshire.
The family's hopeful, feel-good story is leavened with fun photographs and Kitty's and Al's own words, ones that reveal their innermost thoughts and feelings about their journey. The book showcases more than 80 recipes and tips for baking perfect savory and sweet breads. This includes honey buns, sourdoughs, brioche, soda breads and even pastries, tarts and cookies. The family's amazing story is alchemized with equal amounts of inspiration and deliciousness. --Kathleen Gerard, blogger at Reading Between the Lines