Courtesy of Boscoyo Baking Co.
The display at Boscoyo Baking Co.
“J’sus un boulanger,” said the young man with the beret, sitting in the back of our makeshift French classroom in a bridal shop in Broussard. His name tag read “Chris.”
The teacher turned to his partner, the curly haired woman sitting beside him and asked, “Et tu, Haley? Quoi c’est tu fais comme ouvrage?”
“J’sus un boulangere, aussi.”
“Ohhh,” responded the rest of us, most of whom are still struggling through this new vocabulary. But even those of us in our deepest Cajun French infancy recognize, somehow, the word “boulangerie”. Bakers.
Courtesy of Boscoyo Baking Co.
Boscoyo Baking Co.'s Pain de Campagne
We live in a world where such crafts as baking bread from scratch—once ubiquitous in homes and communities—are now considered artisan and novel. Something about the presence of these young bakers in a room of people holding some tenderness for the old ways, inconvenient as they can be—here to learn the language of our ancestors—felt apt. I wasn’t the only one to approach them after class, asking where I could buy their bread.
To mine and my husband’s delight, we discovered Boscoyo Baking Co., which had quietly opened in October, is only a five minute drive from our house. For the past few weeks, we’ve left the Evangeline Maid off of our shopping lists, and made the short drive to grab fresh bread for the week a part of our Saturday morning ritual.
Courtesy of Boscoyo Baking Co.
"Boscoyo" translates to "cypress knee" in Louisiana French.
The warm, fragrant space of the bakery has an earthy edge carved out of the knobby cypress knee—boscoyo—displays, all dried bread, of course. Co-owner/baker Haley Smith tells me they created them for décor, but have already received multiple requests from customers for the enigmatic bread sculptures. The couple, Smith and Chris Frazier, run Boscoyo Baking Co. themselves, keeping their menu simple and short. All of the breads are made with organic ancient, heirloom, and modern grain varieties—which are specially stone milled by Barton Springs Mill in Texas. They are made simply, by hand, with slow-fermented sourdough culture and sea salt—a careful balance melding long-held tradition with creative craft. The Pain de Campagne, your classic sourdough boule, has become our regular sandwich bread. The Méteil is a rye and spelt flour blend, inspired by the classic 18th century loaves of Auvergne. The Blue Grit Focaccia, made with Hopi blue corn grits, was such a hit at our family Christmas that I bought it for Friendsmas the next weekend. It never made it there; my husband cut into it as soon as I got home. For the holidays, the Boscoyo folks brought out other ancient delights: Winston knots made with roasted sweet potatoes and Louisiana cane sugar; and Christmas stollen, a Dresden specialty resembling a swaddled Christ, sweetened with almond paste, house-made candied oranges and kumquats, and rum soaked raisins.
Courtesy of Boscoyo Baking Co.
Baguettes at Boscoyo Baking Co.
So far, every Saturday morning I’ve gone, it’s just Smith—Frazier is usually bringing bread to the folks at the Savoy Music Jam in Eunice. The couple chose Lafayette as a home for their bakery concept after meeting in Portland, Oregon. Each coming from a rich professional baking background, with experience working at various bakeries and restaurants, they decided to bring their craft back to Frazier’s home state, and they’ve gone all in. The bakery is open on the weekends, but you can frequently find Boscoyo at community events like the ACA’s Gulf Brew fundraiser in October, or the production of An Acadiana Christmas Carol at Cité des Arts, or at the local L’ache Pas Boucherie. Or, trying to learn the language of the land.
Visit Boscoyo Baking Co. at 117 Westmark Boulevard in Lafayette on Fridays and Saturdays. boscoyobaking.com.
