The Whole Grains Revolution Has Come for Your Croissant
Two dozen dishes in New York and L.A. that will change the way you think about grain—and the Tehachapi farmers and Gowanus millers making it possible
Today’s story is The Angel’s first bicoastal feature. Jamie Feldmar and I have spent the last two months eating through our respective cities—from seasonal veg-topped pizzas to jammy fruit tarts—and talking to the farmers, millers, bakers, and chefs reshaping the way we cook and bake with grain. It’s free to read, but if this is the kind of reporting you want more of, a paid subscription goes a long way. Zoé Albert is responsible for the gorgeous, detail-rich illustrations throughout. Let’s get into it.
Citrus, grapes, nuts: these are the crops synonymous with California agriculture. Avocados, dairy, and lettuces, too. But amber waves of grain? That is, traditionally speaking, a Midwestern thing.
But California has never been bound by tradition, which is why, about 12 years ago, a group of Kern County farmers decided to experiment with growing more whole grains. And not just any whole grains—ancient, heritage breed varieties like Red Fife and Sonora wheat that flourish in Tehachapi, a low mountain valley halfway between Bakersfield and Fresno—that would eventually become the cause célèbre of dozens of L.A.’s best bakers, pastry chefs, brewers, and distillers.
The undertaking, appropriately dubbed the Tehachapi Heritage Grain Project, is a joint effort between Alex Weiser of Weiser Family Farms, and biologist-turned-grower Sherry Mandell, an incredibly well-connected ball of energy who is largely responsible for getting the grains to said chefs and bakers. With encouragement from L.A.’s own Japanese food luminary Sonoko Sakai, and seeds donated by heirloom grain evangelist Glenn Roberts of Anson Mills, what started as a two-acre experiment has expanded to nearly 400, and resulted in Tehachapi-grown grains getting name-checked on menus from Providence to Petitgrain.
Growing landrace heritage grains is good for the planet: they’re drought-tolerant, with unique root systems that spread deep into the earth, functioning as a carbon sink and conditioning the soil between plantings of other crops. It’s also good for the diner: “We grow it because it’s delicious, and it’s delicious because of the way we grow it,” says Mandell. “Even if you only add 15-30% of a heritage grain or flour to your product, it makes a huge difference,” she says. “You can tell just from looking at it. And once you taste it, it’s life-changing, because that grain becomes a part of the flavor profile itself,” she says, describing items made with whole grains as “deeper” and “more luxurious.”
2,500 miles northeast in America’s other cultural capital, a similarly spirited local whole grain renaissance is underway, led by Brooklyn Granary & Mill, a bakery and mill opened last year by Patrick Shaw-Kitch, a grain whiz and the former head baker at Blue Hill at Stone Barns, alongside his wife, Laura Huss. From their facility on Huntington Street, just off the Gowanus Canal, they stone-mill whole grains such as spelt, buckwheat, rye, einkorn, and various strains of wheat—grown on regenerative farms across the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic—for use in pastries and bread at their on-site bakery, and for an impressive roster of wholesale clients, including the restaurants Gramercy Tavern and Borgo and bakeries like Elbow Bread and Diljān.
Part of the impetus for Brooklyn Granary & Mill was the 2021 closure of Union Square Greenmarket’s GrowNYC Grainstand, which served as the hub for local, whole grains in New York City; professional and home bakers could purchase regionally grown grains and flour and learn how each variety performs. Furthermore, New York City lacked a milling operation that could supply bakers and chefs with flour milled to order, and just-milled flour means more nutrients, more texture, and more flavor.
Whole grains are perishable in a way many people don’t realize. Once a grain’s seed is cracked, its natural oils are exposed to air and begin to oxidize, eventually going rancid. This means grains are at peak aroma and flavor right after milling, when those oils are still intact. Processed white flour, by contrast, has the bran and germ removed entirely—and it’s precisely those elements that give a grain its color, character, and fat, and with it, most of its flavor.
Accordingly, working with local, freshly milled whole-grain flours requires a certain level of skill and patience. “You usually have to adjust your hydration with whole wheat flours…they’re typically thirstier,” says Navil Rivera, worker-owner at Proof Bakery in Los Angeles, who also notes that gluten levels can vary, so using a mix of whole wheat with AP or a high-gluten flour can help create a more balanced product. But the extra effort is very much worth it: “You’re replacing an ingredient that adds nothing other than structure to the mix with something that adds everything,” says Karen DeMasco, the longtime pastry chef at Gramercy Tavern in New York.
Shaw-Kitch’s lineup of baked goods pushes the boundaries of what the average consumer expects from a croissant or a loaf of bread (ancient grain bread comprised of emmer, einkorn, and spelt; Bolles hard red spring and Red Fife wheat-based kouign-amann; biscuit-scone hybrids made with spelt and a soft white winter wheat called Frederick, stuffed with ham or jam). “People don’t necessarily associate whole grain flour with tender, flaky, soft, sweet, juicy, luscious. It’s more like: dry, brittle…” says Shaw-Kitch. “We try to show that you can make dynamic, interesting things based on what is being produced in our region, and that you can have a diversity of offerings without having to buy ingredients that you don’t know the provenance of.” At the bakery, bags of freshly milled flour are available alongside local eggs, cultured butter, and maple syrup, for those who want to try their hand at whole-grain baking.
The response thus far has been extremely positive, and the wholesale business has been steadily growing. When the author Mark Bittman tried Shaw-Kitch’s 100% whole-grain bread at a conference last summer, he called it among the best he’d ever had.
Bittman isn’t alone in his reverence for the flavor, nutritional value, and environmental benefits of whole grains. As more chefs, bakers, and even brewers and distillers on both coasts experiment with locally farmed wheat, spelt, rye, and beyond, it’s become easier for diners to taste the difference themselves. To guide your journey, here’s our list of where to find a dozen of the most delicious whole-grain dishes in both New York and L.A.—from an Afghan flatbread to a nori-crusted everything bagel.
This is the Angel’s first-ever bicoastal collaboration, and we invite you to tear into it with abandon, like a warm, flaky croissant studded with—you guessed it—whole grains.
Morning Bun with Cultured Butter and Cheddar at Brooklyn Granary
There are two types of morning buns: sweet, laminated rolls with a citrusy, cinnamon and/or cardamom filling and caramelized edges, popularized by the OG Tartine Bakery in San Francisco; and Danish morning buns, which are really more like breakfast rolls, comprised of a chewy, fluffy, generally sourdough mound of bread, sliced in half, smeared with butter, and stuffed with a hard, nutty cheese, like Comté or Gruyère. The savory latter version is one of Patrick Shaw-Kitch’s specialties at his mill’s bakery, made with his whole wheat bread flour blend that combines red winter wheats, hard red spring wheats, and spelt. It’s on par with the best morning buns you’d find in Copenhagen, but flatter in volume, with a crunchier crust and a richer, more wholesome flavor. Plus, the cheese inside is not from France, but instead, a sharp American cheddar (Cabot Clothbound from Vermont).Olive & Polenta Sourdough at Radio Bakery
Radio Bakery is best known for their seasonal croissants and focaccia sandwiches, but research for this story led me to their stellar olive-and-polenta sourdough. The loaf is extraordinarily hydrated—even a non-baker will understand what that means the moment they tear into the dark crust and find an ultra-plush crumb studded with black and green olives, citrus zest, and rosemary. The effect is that of a porridge loaf, achieved by folding a glossy, starchy cooked grain—here, Brooklyn Granary polenta—into the dough, creating a soft, bouncy, almost-wet texture. It’s a perfect dinner party gift and a brilliant base for a tuna sandwich, available Sunday through Thursday at both Radio Bakery locations, in Greenpoint and Prospect Heights.Seasonal Upside Down Cake at Gramercy Tavern
At Gramercy Tavern, Karen DeMasco takes the task of milling into her own hands, sourcing whole spelt, renan, whole wheat, buckwheat, corn, rye, and einkorn from Brooklyn Granary and using her own mill to make flour daily for desserts on both menus—the prix-fixe dining room and the more casual front-room tavern. Currently in the former, she’s serving an apple tart with puff pastry made from spelt, rye, and whole wheat, paired with goat’s milk, dates, and pecans. Her puddingy fruit-filled upside down cake (featuring pears when I had it in February, now Meyer lemon) is a crowd favorite that puts einkorn front and center. The cake is vegan, made with olive oil in place of butter and eggs, “so the flour really comes through,” DeMasco explains. It has a robust honey-nut flavor and a feathery, textural crumb; I could not stop eating it.Potato-Sauerkraut Knish at Elbow Bread
Zoë Kanan’s knish is a work of contemporary New York art rooted in Lower East Side Jewish history. To make it, she rolls a sheet of pastry dough paper-thin—on a tablecloth, to prevent sticking—and drizzles it with clarified butter before folding it over dill-flecked pillowy mashed potatoes, caramelized onions, and sauerkraut. A big bite off the top is at once shattery and cushiony. Because the dough-stretching is such a delicate process, it requires a smooth sifted flour; Kanan uses an all-purpose blend by Brooklyn Granary, a mix of three wheats that Shaw-Kitch rotates according to what’s seasonally available. Elbow Bread also makes use of BGM’s cornmeal, adding it to their chocolate chip cookie for nuttiness and crunch, and as the star of their rightfully popular salty honey butter-glazed buttermilk cornbread donuts, which reliably appear in the pastry case come summertime, and reliably sell out.Naan Roghani at Diljān Bakery
It’s fitting for Diljān Bakery to have found a home in Brooklyn Heights, a hub for Middle Eastern and Central Asian baking for nearly a century (Damascus Bakery opened in 1930, followed by Oriental Pastry & Grocery in 1967). Diljān, from restaurateurs Ali Zaman and Mohamed Ghiasi and baker Bryan Ford, focuses on gorgeously crafted Afghan baked goods: laminated pastries like the Saffron Shah, a crescent-shaped pastry stuffed with saffron cream; and a dense, almondy halwa sticky bun. They also serve naan roghani, hand-stretched into an oblong shape with three scored parallel slashes. The dough is made with 25% BGM whole wheat and 75% stone-milled flour from Cairnspring Mills, enriched with high-quality olive oil for a distinct grassy flavor. Cream cheese dips are available (halal beef bacon-and-scallion or sour cherry), though it’s best in its purest form.Any of the pies at Ops
Mike Fadem, chef-owner of Ops, was hesitant to mess with his pizza dough recipe, which had been consistently great for a while. But when he tried using Brooklyn Granary’s flours, he was blown away by the difference. “There’s this freshness and aroma that is unlike anything I’d experienced with flour,” he says. “There’s definitely a flavor difference, too, but so much of eating a freshly baked bread product is the smell.” He makes his sourdough pizzas with a bread-flour mix and spelt—in Neapolitan-ish style at the original Ops in Bushwick and, at the newer East Village location, also in thin-crust tavern form. Both crusts have a grounded, wheaty flavor, not in-your-face, but also far from boring, with some sweetness and a dose of tang. Recently, a marinara pie studded with anchovies, sliced garlic, and black olives delivered in airy pockets of crispy-crusted dough, an easy chew, and a heavy dose of funk and salt, cut by an acidic tomato sauce; while a classic, cheesy tavernetta pizza was cracker-y and pliant, with a just-right amount of oregano.Buckwheat Chocolate Chip Cookie at Rigor Hill Market
“I truly believe in the benefits of more whole grains in our diet, and that is reflected across our bakery program,” says Jonathan Sze, head baker at Rigor Hill Market. He incorporates a number of BGM flours into his pastries and breads, including a 7-grain loaf featuring renan and tom wheats, rye, oats, and emmer—which serves as the base for a roast turkey sandwich with Swiss cheese, thinly sliced kohlrabi, and pickled shallots—pain de mie and croissants made with sifted spelt, and a streusel of cornmeal and einkorn that tops muffins and oat bars. The standout is Sze’s buckwheat chocolate chip cookie: the earthy, nutty flavor of buckwheat pairs beautifully with chocolate, and the cookie’s ripple-textured top yields a crispy exterior that gives way to a gooey centermost layer. Simple and sophisticated, my ideal style of baked good.
Cardamom Bun at Gem Home
Gem Home’s sourdough batard, also served in thick slabs with softened butter at chef Flynn McGarry’s fine dining counterpart, Cove, is a beautiful shade of beige, with a remarkably crackling crust, tangy undertone, satisfying chew, and satiny crumb. The bakers use a mix of Brooklyn Granary flours to achieve that texture and flavor: spelt for softness, whole wheat for rootedness, and bread flour for bounciness. On the sweeter side is Gem Home’s now-signature Scandinavian-style cardamom bun, twisted into sugary, spicy coils. The brioche dough, which incorporates some of BGM’s whole wheat, is so fluffy it’s cozy, and the tingle of cardamom lingers on your tongue after each bite.Maple Oat Sourdough at She Wolf
At this point, She Wolf is famous for so many loaves that favorites differ by New Yorker: miche, toasted sesame wheat, polenta pullman, sprouted rye. Mine is the maple oat sourdough, which recalls, nostalgically, a crusty, elevated version of store-bought Health Nut bread—warming and sweet from a dose of pure maple syrup. The cracked oats, sourced from Brooklyn Granary, yield a pleasingly gritty crust and a nutty, substantial crumb; the deep honey-colored interior is a bonus. I like it straight-up, toasted with butter, but it would be equally great in a PB&J or alongside a caramelly cheese like aged Gouda. Also worth ordering: the cracked oat cookie, with lacy edges, brown sugary depth, and no sign of raisins.Rhubarb Tart at Borgo
Everyone I know loves Borgo, in part because it’s a gleaming example of a mature restaurant run by bona fide pros. Also, the food is very good. During a recent solo lunch (my favorite time to dine at Andrew Tarlow’s Manhattan outpost), I finished with a rustic slice of rhubarb tart: silky, bright-pink strips of Yorkshire rhubarb paired with almond cream and encased in pastry chef Adam Marca’s tender crunch dough, made with Brooklyn Granary spelt flour, and plated with a dollop of softly whipped cream. The buttery, flaky crust, punctuated by crispy bits of caramelized sugar, combined with the puckery tang of rhubarb, conjures England while radiating intense spring energy. When there’s no tart on the menu, there’s often a strudel, also made with Brooklyn Granary spelt. Borgo serves BGM polenta as well, as a side on the dinner menu.Seasonal Olive Oil and Cornmeal Tea Cake at Hani’s
Across from the register at Hani’s, pastry chef Miro Uskokovic’s cheerful Astor Place bakery, coconut-cacao nib-and-sour cherry granola is sold alongside bags of freshly milled Wapsie Valley cornmeal, whole wheat bread flour, and rolled oats from Aurora Farm, each stamped with Brooklyn Granary & Mill’s intricate logo. These are the BGM products at work in Hani’s pastry case, including a lush olive oil cake made with cornmeal and almond flour and fashioned like a cupcake for a queen, currently crowned with a generous heap of fig leaf-infused mascarpone in the softest shade of green and a pool of jammy, sweet-tart rhubarb. Textural pops of grain run through the rich olive oil crumb, making this cupcake far more complex than anything you’d find at, say, Magnolia.Bread & Butter at Confidant
After an unsuccessful stint as the first full-service restaurant inside Industry City, chef-owners Brendan Kelley and Daniel Grossman have reopened their seasonal New American restaurant in the former home of Colonie in Brooklyn Heights. The menu kicks off with a bread and butter course that goes beyond the typical affair: a miniature boule made from a mix of Brooklyn Granary grains—subtly sweet spelt, earthy rye, and whole wheat—whose combined character comes through clearly in the finished loaf. It’s served with a squiggly mound of salted butter that borders on funky. There’s an option to add briny, extra-juicy pickles (recently long hot peppers, Jimmy Nardellos, and watermelon radish) and meaty, zesty boquerones. Order both.
Classic Croissant at Petitgrain Boulangerie
Petitgrain owner Clémence de Lutz is encyclopedic in her baking knowledge, and readily expounds upon both the art and science of whole grains (“There’s this stretchy, extensible quality, and something really sensual, about spelt”). The appropriately petite bakery is fanatical about sourcing and technique; their viennoiserie is some of the most skillful in the city. The best introduction to Petitgrain’s capabilities is their classic plain croissant, made from a dough that combines Central Milling bread flour with rye, hard red wheat (Red Fife or Joaquin, depending on what’s available), and spelt flours from Tehachapi; plus “a pretty high ratio” of grass-fed cultured French butter. The result is a pastry with a deeply burnished crust, a perfectly honeycombed interior, and visible specks of nutty whole grains suspended in fine, buttery layers.
Rouge de Bordeaux Pain de Campagne at Two Rose Bakery
I’ve written about pop-up baker Dave Wilcox’s fantastic breads before, and I’m writing about them again, because as his newly MEHKO-certified home bakery has settled in, they’ve only gotten better. The lineup rotates, but Wilcox can be counted on to offer 5-7 different breads weekly, made from a variety of flours. While his Tehachapi rye-enhanced baguette is a staple (and perfect for breaking off into hunks with your morning coffee at his backyard pickup), I’m partial to the hefty pain de campagne made with Rouge de Bordeaux flour. It’s not always available, but when it is, jump—each loaf has a tangy, robust flavor and an almost imperceptibly custardy crumb. Eat it with the best butter you can find, and a thick swab of Wilcox’s passionfruit curd, if he has any left.
Polenta with Chanterelles, Sunchokes, and Fried Herbs at Bar Etoile
Most of the items on this list are breads or pastries made with one of Tehachapi’s whole wheat flours, but Mandell and Weiser also grow Otto File corn, a heirloom Italian varietal with a beautiful gold-orange hue (the result of extra carotenoids, the same pigments in carrots) and a deep, “corny” flavor. Polenta made from Otto File is creamy and buttery on its own, but at Bar Etoile, chef Travis Hayden ups the ante by cooking it in the surplus whey he has kicking around after making ricotta for another dish. The result is extra rich and creamy, and while I’d happily eat a bowl of it plain, it’s made all the more luxurious with the addition of seared chanterelles, thinly sliced sunchokes, and a dusting of crispy fried herbs.Nori Everything Bagel at Mustard’s Bagels
While brothers Kyle and Brent Glanville finish renovations on their Culver City storefront, they’re still offering their blistered, crackly, airy new-school bagels on weekends, loose or in sandwich form. After trying several hard red wheats, they settled on Tehachapi’s Joaquin variety, which has “a really nutty flavor that shows through in the bagels, but also a very tender crumb,” and “an aroma that hits you right away,” says Brent. They’re fermented for 72 hours to break down the heartier wheat flour, then boiled in malt syrup and served warm. Salted plain and roasted sesame flavors are available, but I’m partial to the Nori Everything, with roasted seaweed, sesame oil, black and white sesame seeds, Maldon salt, and a bit of MSG, for good measure.Chocolate Chip Cookie from Sasha Pilligan
Obviously, chocolate chip cookie preferences are deeply personal. I, personally, prefer a variety that falls more on the soft, chewy side of the spectrum than the thin and crispy. Baker-about-town Sasha Pilligan, though perhaps better known for her showstopping cakes, makes a CCC that hits all of my pleasure receptors. Available at Botanica, Chamberlain, L.A. Home Farm, Granada, Kaleido, and Canyon Coffee, these puppies are thinnish, chewy, and soft, with big pools of TCHO 62% dark chocolate and a pleasantly salty edge. In my tasting notes, I wrote that “there’s almost more chocolate than cookie,” and while the overall profile is obviously sweet, there’s a hint of a savory undercurrent to the cookie itself, with a nutty, toasty depth of flavor that can be attributed to a blend of Tehachapi rye and Sonora wheat flours.Blue corn flour thumbprint cookie with strawberry jam at Proof Bakery
On the other end of the cookie spectrum, I also love the petite, shortbread-leaning thumbprint cookies at Atwater Village staple Proof. They rotate between two Tehachapi-sourced flours for the dough: the hearty, red-tinged Rouge de Bordeaux, and the softer blue dent corn, then top it with a rotating cast of seasonal jams. I’m a sucker for the blue corn-and-strawberry jam variation, which has a lovely heft, crumbly texture, and just the right amount of crunch from a dusting of cane sugar on top. It’s not too sweet, not too big, and not too much—so you might as well get two.Buttermilk Pancakes at Clark Street Diner
I rarely order pancakes at a restaurant; they’re almost always flabby carbo-bombs that contribute nothing to the table. Clark Street Diner’s are one of the few exceptions. These are purist pancakes of the buttermilk variety, made with AP from ABC Milling and Sonora flour from Tehachapi, griddled on the well-worn flattop, and served crisp-edged and fluffy-centered in a stack dripping with butter and real maple syrup. They’re big and beautiful, best enjoyed in combo form alongside eggs and bacon. When I reached out to owner Zack Hall about his decision to incorporate Sonora flour, this is all he had to say: “The Sonora MAKES the pancakes. We thank Alex [and Sherry] for deciding to grow this really wonderful grain.” What more do you need to know?Focaccine with Potatoes, Leeks, Tomatoes & Miso at Fuyuko’s Kitchen
We are lucky to have Fuyuko Kondo (fun fact: Sonoko Sakai’s sister), a classically French-trained pastry chef and former owner of a baking school in Tokyo, offer lessons in her home kitchen in Pasadena. She also pops up at the Hollywood Farmers’ Market with pastries both sweet and savory, which is where you’ll find her focaccine (a round, individually-sized focaccia), made with a mix of AP and Tehachapi spelt flours, lending a rich, smooth flavor to the olive oil-enriched dough. Toppings rotate seasonally, but the gentle fusion of Japanese and European flavors is especially apparent—and delicious—in this springy variation. Pick up a mini pear tartlet (made with Tehachapi’s Sonora flour) for dessert while you’re at it.Chilaquiles Burrito at Cafe Tropical
The crew at Silver Lake’s favorite neighborhood cafe doubles down on Tehachapi products for this surprisingly well-balanced breakfast burrito, scrambling together house-fried TGP corn tortilla chips, eggs, tomatillo salsa, bacon, cheese, and stinger peppers and wrapping the whole unholy mess in a warm, stretchy Tehachapi Sonora flour tortilla. (The cafe picks them up weekly from Mandell, who works with a tortilleria in Boyle Heights to manufacture them.) “The grain blend has a flavor profile that isn’t single note,” says co-owner Ed Cornell. “I don’t want to sound too snobby, but it’s nutty, and tastes like the high desert”—a bit poetic, perhaps, but he’s not wrong.
Any of the pies at Wallflour Pizza
The husband-and-wife pandemic pop-up formerly known as Quarantine Pizza Co. has gone legit with a charming counter-order storefront in Eagle Rock, perfect for family dinners or group outings. The 14-inch pizzas, from Ronan and Quarter Sheets vet Brandon Conaway, fall somewhere between New York and Neapolitan, and feature toppings both traditional (pepperoni) and not—the Broccaway Beach, with broccoli purée, mozz, big splotches of Calabrian chili paste, broccolini, and Meyer lemon, is the rare non-red sauce pie I actually crave. All of them are based on a naturally-leavened sourdough made with Tehachapi’s hearty Red Fife wheat, which bakes into a bubbly, blistered pie with enough structural integrity to stand up to whatever toppings you may choose.Green Bowl at Fountain Grains & Greens
Part of what makes this low-key but next-level grain bowl and salad shop stand out is Blue Hill alum Aric Attebury’s careful approach with ingredients. The base of the Green Bowl is a mix of TGP rye, Sonora, Rouge de Bordeaux, and Red Fife wheatberries (for now—Attebury will take pretty much anything Mandell and Weiser grow, which might include barley in the future), topped with a mix of seasonally-rotating local vegetables and a zippy zhug. The grains are soaked and sprouted—which plumps them up, lends a slightly sweeter flavor, and makes their nutrients more bioavailable—before being cooked, resulting in a bowl that looks, for lack of a better term, alive—no sad desk lunches here.Focaccia Sandwich at Sqirl
On its surface, Sqirl’s focaccia looks a little plain-Jane—there are no oversized salt granules dotting its surface, nor herbs to make it look pretty. But the color alone—a deep mahogany brown, with a shiny, dark, crispy crust—is a tip-off for the immensely satisfying experience of biting into it. Naturally leavened (with a sourdough starter that apparently came from Walton Goggins), dotted with air bubbles and visible flecks of TGP Joaquin wheat, and rich with olive oil, this focaccia performs best in sandwich form. I’m partial to the shaved turkey with kale pesto, little gems, and Comté, but there are also pastrami and prosciutto-based variations; all available pressed, an option you should avail yourself of to experience the full spectrum of flavor and texture the focaccia contains.






Amazing list. Come try our island breads someday.
Friends and Family in Los Angeles also uses whole grain flours in all their breads and pastries❣️