Making Wilden / Lula, the bread, cake and meeting workshop in Trani
Wilden.herbals meets producers and artisans close to the wild philosophy. Today it takes you to Puglia, specifically to Trani, where Luca Lacalamita has put down roots with his yeast products.
That Lula is an authentic emanation of Luca Lacalamita, you can guess it from his name, composed of the first syllables of his first and last name. Apulian by birth, Luca is a Pastry chef with international experience and Best Pastry Chef of Italy 2018 Gambero Rosso.
Lula workshop workshop opens its doors in 2019 in Trani with a desire to experiment with stone-ground flours, sourdough (he even has a name, his name is Giotto!) and special attention to the seasonality of local products. All this gives rise to breads, desserts, ice cream and chocolate that are born in an environment where the pace slows down and everything becomes a confrontation, encounter and welcome – of guests as well as of each gastronomic creation.
The same spirit underlies a collaboration signed Lula x Wilden.herbals: it’s called Taralli with Remedium No. 3 – Digestive and for us it is the healthiest and wildest taral there is. We chatted with Luca about the concept of Lula and the connection with Wilden.
How was Lula born in Trani?
Lula was born from the desire to return to our land of origin, from the desire to immerse ourselves in the biodiversity of our land and use the extraordinary products that the earth grants us in our processing.
What is the philosophy in yeast processing?
We work our leavened goods with fresh sourdough; we use stone-ground flours, preferring ancient grains grown naturally by small Apulian producers who own their own mill and grind only their own produce.
What is the point of connection with Wilden?
The points of connection with Wilden are the close and direct contact with producers and the exceptional raw material.
The search for excellent raw materials, sustainably and organically grown, corresponds to forging friendships and collaborations with curious and knowledgeable people who enrich the story of each of our products.
Shaping doughs: an anecdote in your life/profession.
The months before the opening of Lula were dense with walks through the narrow streets of our towns’ villages. We fell back in love with the Apulian Romanesque style that characterizes our entire area and so, as a cultural tribute to our history, we had a wooden stencil made to represent the rose window of Trani Cathedral on our Apulian whole-grain durum wheat bread: the Rosone, a Lula best seller, was born.
What does it mean to be healthy and wild?
It means first and foremost eating healthy.
It means choosing products that are not whole grain (an all too overused word), but whole in all their parts. So choose organic milled whole ancient grains without decomposition and recomposition, which naturally contain starchy part, bran and wheat germ.
Choose synergistically grown, unprocessed vegetables and greens and choose not to cook them or cook them just enough so as not to lose their micronutrients; choose untreated (or as our supplier says “mistreated” referring to forgetting the fruit trees until harvest time) fruit so that we can eat it whole with the peel. Choose fresh fruit juices thickened with agar agar to give freshness to our desserts. Choose to lower the amount of sugar in each recipe in order to appreciate the quality of raw materials.
To remain, in every bite, connected to the products of the earth, as mother nature delivers them to us.