Atkins is dead. Bring on the bread!

It provoked hardly a flicker on the American culinary EKG when Atkins--the lifestyle juggernaut that inspired such nonsense as a bunless fast food bacon cheeseburger wrapped in lettuce--breathed its last after the company named for its founder declared bankruptcy earlier this year. Atkins, like so many other American dietary phenomena, turned out to be nothing more than a fad. Worse, it served as further proof that as a nation we will literally do anything to lose weight; that is, other than eating healthier, eating less, and exercising more.

Meanwhile, pity the poor club manager. Clubs are about culture. Clubs are about family. Clubs are about comfort, not fads. Let's face it--clubs are frequently where fads go to die. So by the time Atkins hit many clubs, it was already on its way out.

Which was just fine, because in a sense, America's clubs have taken their cue from the French and Italian cultures; those people who understand that fresh, simple food made from the best ingredients never goes out of style.

Take bread, for example. It was a national tragedy in France when Lionel Poilane, scion of the eponymous bakery founded by his father in 1932, died along with his wife when the helicopter he was piloting crashed. Lionel took his father's recipe for sourdough bread--made with stone-ground wheat flour, mineral-rich Guerande sea salt, and water--and built it into a cultural phenomenon. Parisians continue to search out restaurants displaying the "ici pain Poilane." The bread is shipped daily via FedEx to customers as far away as France and the U.S. Fortunately, the tradition continues today as the bakery is headed up by Lionel's 21-year-old daughter, Appolonia, who oversees operations from her apartment near Harvard, where she is an economics major.

You obviously don't have to pay a fortune in FedEx charges to have good bread at your club. But you might want to ship your pastry chef off for a while, as Westwood Country Club in Town and Country, MO did. Susie Hurley, CEPC, remembers--as most of us do--exactly what she was doing in the days after Sept 11, 2001. Hurley--this year's American Culinary Foundation chef of the year for her local chapter--was taking an advanced artisan bread-making class a week after the attacks at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in Hyde Park, NY.

Hurley returned home with two bread "starters" and inspiration in her heart. In 2002 the club bought her a new bread oven--and Hurley went to town. Like wine and craft beer, artisan bread is highly dependent on the local flora and fauna and such variables as the water supply.

"I learned a lot about starters in the class," she recalled. "For example, you cannot make a San Francisco Sourdough. You have to use bacteria that can thrive in a given climate." St. Louis has its own local bacillus that works just fine. It's that strain that launched The St. Louis Bread Company, which has grown into the nationwide Panera restaurant chain.

There are other local nuances to fine bread-making, Hurley said. "For example, the chef who gave me one of the starters lived near an apple orchard. For a couple of weeks the bread I made from it had a little bit of an apple tinge to it."

Some people associate artisanal breads with coarse, multi-grain flours. Hurley dispels that notion. "We use rye flours, wheat flours, high glutens flours. One of the most popular breads at the club is one I don't use a starter to make. It's Semolina flour--the same kind used in making pasta--and water. It's a totally non-fat bread."

A variety of flours is just the beginning of Hurley's creative bread-making. "Once you get the science down, it's fun to see what can you do," she said. "I'll sautee onions and garlic and add it as part of the liquid, for example. Or I'll use tomato puree, or maybe some apple juice for a little bit of sweetness."

Once, she had some carmelized onions and goat cheese left from something else she was making. She tossed it into bread dough and created an absolutely stunning bouquet of flavors. One of the favorites with members is her "five-onion roasted sourdough." Hurley oven-roasts five different kinds of onions and then she folds them into the dough in layers.

Hurley's breads have proven incredibly popular with Westwood members. "The reaction is very positive," she said. "Our members eat here on a regular basis. If you do the same thing over and over again, it gets boring."

Who thought bread could be fun? But, as Susie Hurley will be the first to tell you, getting the basics of bread-making down and then taking a playfully inventive approach to your members' daily bread is a recipe for success.

Goat Cheese and Caramelized Onion French Bread

Yield: Approx. Seven 20 Oz. Loaves

Ingredients:

2 Large yellow onions, sliced thinly
6 Tblsp. butter
2 Tblsp. sugar
Salt-and-pepper
4 lbs. high gluten flour
1 oz. active dry yeast
5 Cups water (105-110 degrees F)
1 Tblsp. salt
1 Eleven oz. log goat cheese,
  blended with 2 Tblsp. of heavy
  cream or sour cream to soften

Procedure:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
In heavy skillet on low heat, melt
butter, and add sugar and onions and
a pinch of salt and pepper, stirring occasionally
until onions are caramelized
and most of the liquid has
evaporated, approximately 30 minutes.
Let cool.

To mixing bowl with paddle attachment,
place water and yeast to bloom
for five minutes. Add half of the flour
measure and mix on medium speed
for 10 minutes. Add salt and continue
mixing another minute. Remove paddle
and replace with dough hook. On
low speed add goat cheese and remaining
flour in increments until a
smooth and elastic dough is
achieved. A small amount of additional
flour may be necessary. Place in
greased bowl, and grease dough as
well. After 30 minutes, turn dough
out onto floured surface and carefully
stretch to a big square. On one half
place 3/4 of the onion mixture. Fold
the other half of the dough on top like
a book. Place remaining onions on
half of the dough and fold once more.
Return to bowl and let bulk ferment
another 30 minutes. Repeat above
turning process but with no additions
(onions). Then return to bowl for final
30 minutes.

Turn dough out and scale to 20 Oz.
pieces and roughly round. Cover and
let rest 15 minutes. Do final forming
into rounds, baguettes, or batards
and do the final proof uncovered and
at room temperature until doubled in
volume.

Slash with lame or sharp knife and
load into steamed oven for approximately
25 minutes, depending on the
heat of your oven. Crust should be a
dark golden brown, and should sound
hollow when tapped on the bottom.
Let bread cool completely before slicing.