How I Came to Love Rye Bread

I came to New York City in 1967 with the dream of becoming an award-winning advertising photographer. I had worked as an assistant in 1964 London in the studio of David Bailey, a famous photographer of the period. Plus, I had started doing some “semi-professional” work in Athens in ’65 and ’66.

I knew I didn’t have enough insight into the techniques, and I wanted to do much more sophisticated work, such as fashion or advertising. Unfortunately, there were no real opportunities to learn in Greece at the time.

Then, I saw an ad for the New York Institute of Photography that was promising to train individuals as “professional photographers,” and I thought that would be a place to get the experience I needed. Little did I know that it was, in reality, a waste of time and money. Working for Bailey, I learned much more about the art, craft, and business of photography than the Institute and its “professionals” could ever teach me.

I stayed in New York and rented an apartment on Mott Street on the Lower East Side and started working as a freelance assistant in top NYC studios to learn firsthand from the best advertising photographers of the period. That was when I fell in love with rye bread.

There were a number of quirky Jewish restaurants on the Lower East Side offering humongous sandwiches piled high with corned beef with coleslaw on rye bread.

For a long time, I thought there was no good New York-style rye bread in any other area than Manhattan’s Lower East Side. So it was with great pleasure that I recently discovered a bakery near me that makes a classic artisanal New York rye loaf with a somewhat dense interior and a crispy crust.

The La Brea bakery, one of the largest sellers of artisan bread in the U.S. with a west coast production plant in Van Nuys, California, started in Los Angeles making handcrafted hearth-baked breads. It opened its first retail store in 1989.

In 2001, it opened a baking facility in Swedesboro, New Jersey, now renamed Aspire Bakery – the new name of the company that purchased the La Brea brand in 2021 – in order to keep up with demand from the east coast for its 35 varieties of artisan breads. It also has a bakery in Queens, and both are now wholesale operations. The brand name is still La Brea and can even be found in a number of supermarkets.

In the past, I’ve had their sourdough baguettes, and in 2024, they introduced their seeded rye loaf. Both extremely good.

I prefer the rye because I can make a humongous corned beef sandwich right in my own kitchen. This hearty rye is crafted from wheat and rye flours, making for a moist, slightly dense interior with a crisp crust. Caraway seeds, the aromatic ingredient of a classic rye, are both baked in the bread and sprinkled on top for a finishing touch.

But you don’t have to be Jewish to make a great corned beef sandwich. As far as I’m concerned, enjoying good food has no real ethnicity. I love the corned beef on rye as much as I enjoy steamed soup buns (Xiao Long Bao) or eggplant Imam Bayildi.

A corned beef sandwich with coleslaw is also an excellent way to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. Just add potato salad as a side dish!

Additionally, this rye bread can be enjoyed when fresh or just warmed up a little, slathered with fresh butter. I prefer Irish butter for its rich taste along with peach, apricot, or quince preserves for a very enjoyable breakfast or a quick midday pick-me-up.

I still like the sourdough baguette, of course, but not as much as the rye!