A Wheat Scientist Hopes To Get Flour Back On A Nutritious, Flavorful Track

For a hundred years, American wheat has been grown – not for flavor or nutrition – but for industrial “profit and expediency,” says Steven Jones of the Bread Lab in Mount Vernon, Wash. Jones is on a mission to change all that. Long ago America milled flour from a wide variety of wheat. The flour made bread that was “astonishingly flavorful and nutritious.” Not so anymore. Part of the problem is that mass-produced flour, even purported whole wheat flour, is missing the nutritious stuff, all of which was sacrificed for, among other reasons, increased shelf-life. Jones’s answer is to breed new wheat varieties for ‘‘flavor, nutrition, funkiness.’’ He has succeeded. The Bread Lab’s reputation has grown quickly, drawing in a widening circle of bread masters and renowned chefs, including some from fast-casual chain Chipotle.