L’Oven Life

ABBY LOVE, A RUSTON NATIVE, IS PRODUCING RUSTIC, WHOLESOME BREADS AND TEACHING OTHERS HOW TO DO THE SAME.

ARTICLE BY MICHAEL DEVAULT & PORTRAITS BY MARTIN G MEYERS

Abby Love knows food. But her journey from Ruston, Louisiana to one of Austin, Texas’s most beloved young chefs has followed a uniquely circuitous path, and it’s one that she’s enjoying being on. But Abby didn’t start out with the goal of becoming a player in the world of cuisine.

“I didn’t really have any goals, in that privileged, liberal arts student sort of way,” says Abby, who owns and operates L’Oven a working bakery and food studio in Austin. “It was get a degree, and then everything will go right from there.”

Much like the breads she carefully kneads from wheat ground in a local mill and slow-fermented, Abby’s path to master baker was long, careful and almost completely accidental. That’s because Abby didn’t have plans on being a baker. Instead, her first career was in editing and archival studies at museums.

“I loved it so much that, when I finished my second semester, I never returned,” she says. A few years later, divorced and looking to start over, Abby started weighing her options. Almost immediately, she settled on Austin, a city close enough to home to visit family and large enough to have the culinary bona fides she needed to continue her career.

“I just gave it a whirl, and it stuck,” she says. “I came not knowing if I would stay, but one job led to another and, in the meantime, I’d built a little community that I love.”

Her culinary star truly rose when she joined the staff of Dai Due, a hip Austin eatery that serves exclusively in-season, locally-sourced products. Named one of the Bon Appetite’s Top 10 new restaurants, Dai Due took off. Abby learned a valuable lesson in those months.

“There is a certain kind of strain, a public expectation, that comes with that kind of notoriety,” she says. Customers come in, and they are watching for everything, almost demanding perfection. A simple slip, and the customer’s experience can be ruined. “It’s hard, dare I say impossible, to live up to those kinds of expectations when people come in.”

Not long after, Abby was on vacation in San Francisco. While there, she made pilgrimage to Tartine, the world-famous bakery. She stood in line, ordered her pastries, and took that first bite. That’s when it hit her.
“I had this sort of ‘a-ha’ moment,” she says. For so long, she had idolized Tartine and the work they did, but there on the street, holding her spectacular pastry – and she’s quick to point out that it was nothing short of spectacular – it struck her. “You realize in that moment this is nothing you couldn’t do. That’s the secret to success. It’s an excellent product, and it’s always excellent.”

It was also something that she knew she could achieve. So that’s what she’s set out to do with L’Oven. Blending fresh milled, heritage grains with long-ferment processes, Abby and her staff are producing rustic, wholesome loaves and teaching others how to do the same.

L’Oven is as much a product of her “little community” as it is of her effort. When Abby set out to build the bakery, she turned to a GoFundMe campaign. The goal was to raise $5,000 over several weeks. Within the first week, she’d raised $6,500 and closed the fundraiser. L’Oven ws born.

“I’ve been surprised at how much interest there is in baking classes,” Abby says. “I left Dai Due without a plan. I knew I wanted bread and people and to be a full-time commitment.”

But that was about it. She set out first sourcing local ingredients – heritage grains, wild yeasts and other local products. Also, she started offering her classes. In a traditionally male-dominated bread baking world, kneading and mixing and working dough can be hard, demanding work. And it takes skill.

In her open-concept kitchen, Abby walks a group of six students through the techniques necessary to make a great bread. That includes the squish technique, in which the students squeeze the dough between their fingers to ensure it’s completely hydrated. Then there’s the slap and fold technique and at least a half-dozen others.
“A super-slack dough should be treated like hot lava. Don’t touch it too much,” she tells her students. A few minutes later, she stretches a piece of dough out and holds it up to the light. “Take a piece of dough in your fingers and stretch it out. You should get a nice, translucent look before it breaks.”

She calls it the “window” test. She also has a new goal, and one that may be surprising to hear from the former pastry chef at a Bon Appetite Top 10.

“I don’t care about being the best bakery in Austin or the top ten of anything. I’d like to have regular customers who enjoy my product. I’d like to provide my community with something that is delicious and nutritious,” she says. “Obviously, I want a superior product. But it’s going to be one that comes from a particular angle. It won’t be fussy, it won’t be unapproachable.”

She’s an avowed locavore, but not for the typical reasons some pick. She definitely appreciates local produce, and she’s committed to using as many as she can. At L’Oven, it’s all about the effects of yeast – both in the bread and in the community that buys it.

“It’s not just about being a locavore and eating nearby, being healthy or smart,” she says. “For me, it’s about lifting up the people who I feel have shared values, and I want to support what they’re doing. Slowing down food as a whole is a great way for all of us to connect a little bit better.”

Great food, made with great ingredients, sourced from reliable, local producers makes a great product that customers love. And it’s just better for you, she believes.

“Nature puts the right things together,” Abby says. “The foods that are complementary grow in the same places and at the same time.”