Gustain
Gustain’s defining quality when it comes to bread is his passion. It is this love that drove him to make this voyage around the world through 80 breads, and to report proof of the almost infinite diversity of techniques and knowledge in the world of bread. Gustain never hesitated to get his hands dirty, to literally put them right into the dough. In all 80 countries he stopped off in, his challenge was to retain and present a single bread hidden in the midst of a deep forest.
Jean-Philippe Girard
Jean-François Barbier was born in Lyon, France, in 1950. He took advantage of his school years to fill sketchbook after sketchbook as he happily whiled away his childhood. At the Beaux-Art art schools in Lyon and Beaune, and later at the Art Déco in Geneva, he confirmed his passion for drawing and illustration. During this period, he split his time between music and drawing, finally devoting himself entirely to illustration at the end of the seventies. More than 40 books and a few thousand drawings have used the creations from his pencils and paintbrushes since then. At the same time, he also created works for the press, advertising and exhibitions. He has participated in a long list of graphic “ventures”, which he continues to do today. The illustrations in this book, one after the other, are full of imagination, poetry, friendships, and encounters. The writing, music, and drawing blend into a sort of sound and light show of the entire world, which Barbier continues to discover through his travels.
Jean-Philippe de Tonnac
Jean-Philippe Girard is a self-taught man. He started working at the Grandes Minoteries Dijonnaises as a bread-making test manager in 1980. Then in 1984, he took over management of quality and development in the Interfarine group. He left there in 1989 to start the company Eurogerm, and is currently president and CEO of Eurogerm S.A. Out of this came a passion for the interconnections between wheat and flour and bread, so the words grain, creativity, taste, pleasure, nutrition, and innovation are used in their fullest meaning and in all their brilliance. His aim is to bring about a new way of looking at bread. It was when he met Jean-Philippe de Tonnac and Jean-François Barbier that he came up with the idea of creating and promoting this site, Tour du Monde en 80 Pains, or Around the World with 80 Breads.
Jean-François Barbier
Jean-Philippe de Tonnac is an essayist, editor and journalist. For nearly 10 years, he was the driving force behind the Le Nouvel Observateur magazine’s special issues, and has published nearly 20 books on various subjects. He currently works as editor for Bouquins Laffont and journalist for Le Monde Des Religions. In addition, he gives conferences and teaches at the Institut des Hautes Etudes du Goût university tasting institute in Reims, France. In 2007, he took the initiative of getting a professional bread-baking certificate, and then visiting some of the countries in the world best known for their bread, including Egypt, Greece, Lebanon, Italy, France, and many more. With the collaboration of experts in the wheat-to-flour-to-bread chain, as well as professional bread critics, scientists, academics and theologians, de Tonnac initiated and edited Le Dictionnaire Universel du Pain, or universal dictionary of bread, which came out in French in October 2010, published by Robert Laffont.