According to cowboy lore, Doughpuncher was one of several slightly derogatory nicknames for the chuck wagon cook on the trail; the fellow least skilled at punching cattle was stuck back at camp punching dough. It's often remarked that it was probably never said to his face, lest he take revenge on the offender's vittles.
I grabbed this handle as soon as I read it in Grady Spears' The Texas Cowboy Kitchen. At the time, I was in the middle of a life-chapter working as the Ranch Manager on a Texas Hill Country guest ranch. Although my duties there included working with the cows, goats and chickens (and changing lightbulbs and unstopping toilets), I was keeping up my vocation by baking bread and pizza in a wood-burning brick oven and having lots of fun with a weekly campfire breakfast for the guests. Doughpuncher seemed the perfect thread to bind the worlds of baking and ranching.
Prior to moving to Texas, I had been baking bread around the country, including Seattle and New York City, for nearly twenty years. My last stint before heading out West was Head Baker at Bouley Bakery. After the four year chapter on the ranch came to a close, however, I decided to pursue interests sparked by my introduction to animal husbandry and welfare and I found myself traveling around North America (and once to Iceland) visiting farms for Whole Foods Market.
Now however, I have found my way home to le fournil.
I hope you will follow along with me as I begin another baking chapter. More to come on my latest project in Austin, Texas.
