LOCAL SPOTLIGHT: UPTOWN BAKERS
LOCAL SPOTLIGHT: UPTOWN BAKERS
Didier Rosada reminds us that there’s nothing better than fresh baked bread.
Over the next several months, we’ll be highlighting some of the regional farmers, bakers, cheesemakers, and other food purveyors that we work with at Silver Diner, in honor of our 15th anniversary of sourcing fresh and local ingredients.
Last month, we let readers in on a little secret: that seven days a week, 365 days a year, a few boxes of fresh bread get delivered to the bustling kitchens of Silver Diner. It’s a bounty of buns, ciabattas, sourdough, wheat, and rye, all arriving in time for the breakfast rush each morning. But its journey truly begins well before that.
More than 24 hours earlier, in a tucked-away facility just up the road in Hyattsville, Maryland, French-born head baker Didier Rosada is taking part in an old-world practice that he’s been perfecting for most of his lifetime. Around 5 a.m. at Uptown Bakers, he rallies his team to start the dough—nothing more than “just flour water, yeast, and salt,” he says, “and then the magic happens.” Throughout the day, they shape and reshape the dough, slowing but surely turning a ball of ingredients into beautiful loaves of artisanal bread, with an hours-long fermentation ultimately yielding an abundance of flavor. Around 6 p.m., they start going in the oven, and by 3 a.m., the first delivery trucks head out the door, bound for chefs across the Mid-Atlantic, including our very own Ype Von Hengst at Silver Diner.
Didier Rosada of Uptown Bakers in Hyattsville, Maryland.
“For me, it’s that transformation,” says Rosada, 56, having first fallen in love with baking many years ago as a child.
Growing up in southwest France, Rosada was walking to school one day when he noticed the back door of the village bakery out of the corner of his eye. As his senses focused, he became transfixed—by the smells, the sounds, the sights of the baker in action—and quickly, this little pit stop turned into a daily ritual. Before long, his mother helped him land an apprenticeship, with her son working on weekday mornings, as well as during winter and summer breaks.
“I fell in love with the product—all the country loaves, all the sour boules, all the baguettes, and the croissants, too,” says Rosada.
“Just flour, water, yeast, and salt. And then the magic happens.”
He went on to a degree from the prestigious National Institute of Baking and Pastry in Normandy, and, with a dream of moving abroad, landed at the century-old Bay State Milling Company, based outside of Boston. It was the early 1990s, and as hippie kids became adults, artisan bread was suddenly booming across America, thanks in part to pioneering bakers like Acme Bread Company in Berkeley, Bread Alone in New York, and La Brea Bakery in Los Angeles. In an era of mass-produced food, each was newly focused on hand-made and high-quality.
“My first job was to test and select wheats for this kind of baking,” says Rosada, which eventually landed him jobs as a baking-school instructor and in consulting, through which, in the early 2000s, he met Mike McCloud, owner of a then-small bakery called Uptown Bakers in the heart of Washington, D.C. “The demand was there, Mike wanted to grow the operation, and he was looking for someone to run it.”
An assortment of Uptown breads.
Now, Rosada moves through some 20,000 pounds of flour a week in Uptown’s 40,000-square-foot facility. And with techniques he first learned all those decades ago, his 30-person team bakes a wide range of artisan breads and pastries for more than 500 restaurants, caterers, and other hospitality businesses from Virginia to Delaware. Fridays are the busiest, in preparation for the weekend.
“It stays interesting,” says Rosada, also noting the other 80-some employees who handle the likes of packaging, sanitation, and maintenance. “There’s definitely no time to get bored.”
Besides, as head baker, he’s constantly evaluating his products. In fact, it took him two years just to choose their flour blend, which is sourced from a miller in Pennsylvania, with most of its wheat hailing from Texas and Kansas, chosen for nutritional value and versatility. Much like our Chef Ype—who first started buying Rosada’s bread in 2010 as part of Silver Diner’s new emphasis on sourcing fresh and local—his primary focus is on working with the best ingredients.
“Because they play a major role in the finished product,” says Rosada. “It just tastes better, and it’s better for you, too.”
Campfire Deluxe Shake and Dairy-Free Mocha Cold Brew.
COOL DOWN
It’s officially the dog days of summer in the Mid-Atlantic. And as the heat and humidity reaches its peak, there’s no better time to come into our air-conditioning and cool off with old-fashioned milkshakes, made with all-natural Tillamook ice cream and local milk from Lehigh Valley Dairy Farms. Indulge in classic flavors or deluxe specials, like the s’mores-style “Campfire” and the chocolate-banana “Chunky Monkey.” And for something on the lighter side, go dairy-free, or split our “world’s smallest sundae.” (Spoiler alert: it’s not tiny at all!)