El Camino Baking Co.
Images by Allison McAdams
Cincinnati, Ohio — Walking into El Camino Baking Co. in College Hill, one’s eyes are drawn to four psychedelic artworks on the back wall. “That’s what my mind is like,” says Ryan Morgan. “I wanted us to set you on the magic carpet with our bread or pastries, and you’d go on your way.”
Morgan’s current vision can be traced to his founding days at Sixteen Bricks. Thanks to a partnership with Klosterman Baking in 2015, Sixteen Bricks has expanded production and distribution of its award-winning bread to restaurants and retailers. Morgan says, “I didn’t have my feet under me, but when I signed with Mr. Klosterman, he never told me how to bake [bread].”
At the flour mill in the front window, Morgan demonstrates grinding grains of red and white wheats, and ryes from Ashbourne Farms and Walnut Grove Farms, both Kentucky-based. “We want the whole kernel to come out flour,” he says.
On the shop’s other side, he runs his hands through sifted Yecora Rojo and Sir Galahad flours. “We’re doing an interesting bread,” he says, with spelt bran from Clarksville, OH. “And we’re making miche, like a sourdough, for Over-the-Rhine’s Wildweed restaurant.” For freekeh bread, immature grains are sprouted, ground, chopped, and toasted, to make into porridge that’s then fermented before mixing into dough. Morgan is near giddy as he describes this play with flour and flavor, like Kabocha squash and sage.
His roster of bread masters includes Jeff Yankellow, “the most underrated breadmaker of our time”; Mike Zakowski, “everything I do has a piece of Mike in it”; and Didier Rosada, “who helped me not to fear automation.” François Brunet taught him to make Viennoiserie and other pastries, including kouign-amann pastry with a soft middle and crispy surface.
“Doing what they do, understanding how they understand things is a beautiful part of the process.” And now, Morgan says, “We just do us.”
El Camino Baking Co.
5915 Hamilton Ave.
513.996.0199
No.55 / Notable
This article was originally published in a past issue of Edible Ohio Valley magazine. Subscribe to be the first to read each issue or order back copies while supplies last.
Annette is a writer, teacher, and author of two memoirs, I’ll Be in the Car and I’ll Have Some of Yours. She is a second-generation Italian-American with roots in Calabria and Abruzzo. As a resident of Over-the-Rhine, she’s lucky enough to walk to Findlay Market twice in a day whenever she forgets an ingredient. Visit annettejwick.com to learn more.
