- When I want a cake, I go to my girl, Betty Crocker.

(woman laughs) She tells me what to do on the back, you know, and I just kind of, you know, put it in.

- You can always call us up.

- You know, my girl Betty, (Shawn laughs) she takes care of me too, you know?

I'm Chef Yia Vang.

In my restaurants, I share my family's Hmong heritage through the food we serve.

Every bite tells a story.

And the most memorable meals not only reflect who we are, they connect us.

From field to table, mill to market.

Let's explore food from around the world.

(upbeat music) And relish the cuisines and cultures of our neighbors.

(upbeat music) The Midwest might be known as the country's 'breadbasket', but these days, wheat, one of the oldest crops in the world, is grown in almost every state.

In fact, in 2023, farmers from all over the United States harvested nearly 2 billion bushels of wheat.

That's a whopping 120 billion pounds of fresh grown wheat produced right here in America.

So how has this ancient grain stayed relevant?

And how are farmers, millers and bakers re- imagining it for the future?

(upbeat music) If we're gonna talk about wheat, we came to the right place.

(upbeat music) Meet James Anderson.

He's been studying wheat for more than three decades, including here at the University of Minnesota, where stocks have been grown since the late 1800s.

So, Jim, I, I mean, I work with flour all the time as a cook.

So I think that there's just only one kind of wheat, right?

- No, there's several market classes of wheat, and they're delineated by the color of the kernel, the hardness of the kernel.

So what we're breeding is hard red spring wheat.

It's a very high quality wheat.

It's high in protein.

It makes a good loaf of bread.

Soft wheats would be used for crackers, pastries, donuts, just a, a totally different baking profile.

- So here in Minnesota, is it known as a, you know, wheat growing state?

- I think we're number three in, in spring, - Yes.

Number three, bronze.

We take in the bronze.

(people cheer) (upbeat music) As a breeder, what are you looking for?

- We're looking primarily for traits that are important to growers, and also traits that will do well in the bakery.

So for growers, it's yield and straw strength.

So how well it stands, disease resistance.

And millers and bakers, they're concerned with the protein level, how strong the gluten is, and how good a loaf of bread it makes.

- So like on this, this area here, this field here, what kind of wheat do we have here?

- So, in this area, there's about 55 different named varieties.

And then on the other side of the field, we have about 500 first year variety trials.

Those are the ones that will be tested for another five or six years.

Talk to me about the anatomy of a wheat.

So we're at harvest ripeness now, so all we have, we can really see are the stalks and the spikes, and within the spikes will be the wheat kernels.

So from from here, we can literally separate the wheat from the chaff by rolling it out and blowing away the chaff.

So this is essentially what the combine is, is doing.

And then we can get to the kernels.

And within a single spike, there's usually about 30 kernels.

- .

I already got tired from that one, actually.

I was like, oh, break time.

Oh, wow.

I'm thinking about back in the olden days, how they would do this all by hand.

- Yeah.

- I mean, I mean, I don't know.

Like, we got machines now, - So do you wanna try some harvesting?

- Yes.

To the harvest.

- Let's do it.

(funky music) Wheat was first cultivated 10,000 years ago in what's known as the 'Fertile Crescent', a part of the Middle East, around present-day Iraq.

This ancient grain has been lauded for centuries, and the crop has adapted to be grown on every continent except Antarctica.

So our amber waves of grain are not native to the US soil, and were brought to North America by white colonists in the 18th century.

Many colonial farmers started planning it when they realized that wheat was a more sustainable and profitable crop than tobacco.

- So this is our combine.

It's a small scale combine, just for our plot work.

Five foot header, and you're gonna be catching the grain sample inside the combine.

- Okay.

That's a lot of pressure.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

Let's go in and meet our operator.

This is Susan.

- Hi.

- Hi, Susan.

- Nice to meet you.

- Do you know what I feel like?

I feel like I'm in Star Wars and I'm getting one of those, you know, - It's pretty high tech in there.

(sling shots music) - Just climb up here.

So you're gonna be in the jump seat.

- [Yia] I do feel like a fighter pilot.

It's the closest I feel to being, you know, being on Top Gun.

- [Operator] Coast for port eastern, 84, heavy five- (combine revs) - [James] Commercial combine that would be a 30 foot header to gather in the grain fast.

And then the grain would go into a big tank that can hold several hundred bushels.

Here, we're only collecting about a one to two pound sample, so we collect it in small bags.

(electric guitar music) - Susan, thank you so much for helping me fulfill a lifetime dream.

- [Susan] You're welcome.

(upbeat music) (horse neighs) - You've been doing this for a while and you're still very passionate about it.

What drives that passion for you?

- Wheat does have, have such a history.

It's very close to, to being a direct food.

So you, you know, you could grind this up and make bread with it.

It's foods that we love.

It's breads, it's cookies, cakes, bagels, pizza dough.

- Yeah.

- And there's also a part of, you know, feeding the world.

- So I take it you're not gluten free.

(Yia laughs) - I, I, I am not gluten free.

No, no, no restrictions at all.

- You are gluten friendly.

So wheat has a pretty awesome history.

But how exactly does it go from this to this?

(cheerful perky music) - You ever been to a mill before?

- I have not.

- All right.

Come on in.

- Meet Patrick Wylie.

He's the head miller and baker at Baker's Field Flour.

A micro mill where what's old is new again.

- So, welcome to Baker's Field.

- What do we have here?

- This is a stone mill.

This is what we use to mill all of our grain into flour.

So we buy our grain directly from farmers, and then we use these machines to mill it into flour for our bread, cookies, pastries.

Let's head over to our other mill where we show how the milling process works.

- Great.

(upbeat music) - So this stone is 1200 pounds- - Each.

- Yeah, and there's actually, yep, there's another one on top of it that's also 1200 pounds.

This is what we're gonna be milling.

- Oh, man.

- So we have, this is called Forefront wheat.

It's grown here in Minnesota, about three hours west of us.

- Okay, Patrick, what's the process of this?

- So first things first, we gotta get grain loaded into the hopper.

- Okay.

- So we're gonna go up the ladder and then we're gonna dump the grain in, and then we're gonna turn on all the things and make a bunch of noise.

- Let's do this.

- All right.

(heavy metal music) (lever clacks) (heavy metal music) - [Patrick] So it's a really simple machine, essentially like a giant blender, but for grain.

So the grain is loaded into the top of the hopper here.

It's dispensed into the middle of the stone, and then there's a stone that rotates, and there's a stone that's stationary.

And as they spin, it grinds it down into finer, finer particles until you end up with flour.

- [Yia] What's really cool is like that technology is thousands of years old, right?

- [Patrick] Hmm-mm.

- [Yia] Why stone mill?

- So stone milling is great.

It incorporates all the different parts of the grain into the final flour.

So we're getting all the nutrients, all the fiber, all the protein, all the vitamins and minerals is all intact.

- [Yia] A whole grain is the entire seed or kernel of the wheat plant, and is made of three edible parts.

The bran is the fiber rich outer skin and contains loads of antioxidants.

The germ, a great source of vitamin B, is the embryo for which new wheat can grow.

And the endosperm, the largest part of the kernel, provides starchy carbohydrates and even some protein goodness.

(melodious piano music) (upbeat music) - [Patrick] So this is whole grain flour.

- [Yia] Hmm- mm.

- So this has all of the parts of the berry in it.

- [Yia] Okay.

- [Patrick] And none of it's been sifted out.

- [Yia] Oh, you could feel it, like texture wise.

- [Patrick] Yeah.

You're feeling little bits of bran and germ that haven't been sifted out.

- [Yia] Germs are good for you.

- [Patrick] Yeah, yeah.

- [Yia] Yeah.

- [Patrick] This kind is for sure.

(Patrick & Chef Yia laugh) (melodious music) (flour mill whirs) - [Yia] How much flour are you guys, you know, pumping through, producing?

- So we mill about 1500 pounds of flour a day.

And industrial mill would be on orders of, you know, a hundred thousand pounds a day or more.

- Oh!

So quite a little more.

- Very, yeah, just a little bit, yeah.

Minneapolis is the milling capital of the country.

You know, it got its start with these big industrial mills that were operating many decades ago.

- [Yia] As the Industrial Revolution reshaped American life, the Midwest quickly became the center of the country's shipping routes via the Great Lakes, and a midpoint for the booming railway expansion, thanks to crop friendly, cool temperatures and the power of the Mississippi River.

By the 1880s, Minneapolis, Minnesota became known as 'The Flour Milling Capital Of The World'.

(firecrackers burst) Thanks to advanced milling technologies that created shelf stable grains, by 1900, Minnesota Mills were grinding out 14% of the nation's grain, nearly twice as much as second place New York.

At its height, Mill City, exported enough wheat to make 12 billion loaves of bread per day.

(firecrackers whoosh) - And since then it's kind of been a quiet milling town.

So, we thought, why not bring milling back to Minneapolis?

And we wanted to work with stone mills specifically for those flavor benefits.

- [Yia] So you guys have a bakery here also?

- [Patrick] We do.

It's right next door.

- [Yia] Oh!

- [Patrick] Let's check it out.

♪ New kids on the block ♪ ♪ And we locked in!

Bossin'!

♪ ♪ You know we go to work ♪ ♪ Twin, see clearer!

♪ ♪ Just like a mirror, ♪ the team got drive ♪ ♪ And we all can deliver!

♪ - [Yia] So Patrick, we're making table bread, right?

- [Patrick] Right.

Yep.

- [Yia] Because it goes on a table.

- It does go on a table, but that's, it's to be shared at the table.

- Oh!

- That's why it's called that.

- So what's the process?

How do we do this?

- So table is one of our sourdough loaves.

All of our loaves are sourdough.

So we're gonna be just going through the process of adding our water, our salt, our flour, and our sourdough starter.

And that's all that's in it.

From here, we're just gonna take our fingers and we're gonna break up that, that starter into little bits.

- [Yia] I feel like the claw in that game.

- [Patrick] Yeah.

(Patrick laughs) The claw!

- So Patrick, what, what is a starter?

- Essentially, it's just a mixture of flour and water, that has sat for a while and started to ferment, and then you consistently feed it over time to keep it alive.

You can see the water gets kind of cloudy.

- Yeah.

- And it's just all those bacteria and yeast are filling that water.

- [Yia] When you say feed it, what, what does that mean?

- So you feed it by adding, taking a portion of it and adding a little bit of flour and a little bit of water and just mixing it gently and that's it.

- Yeah.

- Bacteria in the yeast, they eat all the sugars that are in the flour and they grow and perpetuate, and then you can use it in breads.

- It's like a small child, you know.

- Kind of.

(Patrick & Yia laugh) So from here we're going to add all of our flours.

Some sifted flour, some whole grain bread flour.

And then we also have a little bit of whole grain rye.

- Now is there a certain technique on how to incorporate everything?

- Hands.

(Patrick laughs) Fold it in on itself.

Keep tucking that dry flour in there.

- [Yia] Yours looks so much better than mine.

(Patrick laughs) - So, Patrick, working with fresh flour like this, how is it different from working with like other conventional flours that we get?

- So one of the biggest differences is how it hydrates.

So this flour will absorb more water, but it will absorb it more slowly.

And also, it's gonna ferment a little bit faster.

Since it's a very fresh flour, the bacteria and yeast are really happy, they're really eating it up and growing fast.

So we just try to treat flour as a, just like you would a fresh produce.

You want to use it while it's fresh and it has a shelf life of about 30 days, but you can extend that shelf life by putting it in a cooler or a freezer or something like that.

- [Yia] What drives your passion for this?

- Well, I started as a home baker.

It was just a hobby of mine.

I was really passionate about bread and I wanted to learn more and more and more.

And before I worked here, I had no idea what flour really was.

So I just thought it was the white powder that you buy at the store.

But now I really have an understanding of where flour actually comes from.

And I've been exposed to all different kinds of flours, all different kinds of grains, and I've just learned a ton about flour and bread.

So from here, we're just waiting.

We gotta let it ferment.

- Oh.

- And then when it's done fermenting, we'll be ready to shape.

- I'm not a patient dude so- (Patrick laughs) - It's okay.

(plucky music) - [Yia] Ooh.

It's kind of fun.

- Yeah, it's, it's full of air right now.

It's, it's not as sticky as it was before when we were mixing it.

Alright, so from here we're going to pre-shape.

So essentially we're just gonna get it into a round, and then we're gonna let it rest.

(funky music) 45 minutes.

Everything's rested.

It's ready to be shaped again.

- Why is this so important for us to do that?

Two big rests like that.

Three hours and then 45 minutes.

- It just needs time.

It needs time to relax after you're done shaping it, all those gluten networks are all tightened up.

So we let it relax and then we can get it into the shape that we want.

- [Yia] Feel like table bread sounds a lot like me, you know?

Yeah, we just need, gimme time to- - [Patrick] We're, we're on table breads' time.

- Yeah.

Oh my gosh.

I'm gonna start using that in the kitchen.

(Patrick laughs) We're on Table Bread timing here, guys.

Okay, then we're, how, how do we bake this?

- So first, we're gonna put it into a proofing basket, and then we're gonna let it rise.

- Another rest?

- It's another rest.

Yep.

It's another- - I'm too impatient for this, dude.

That's why I don't bake bread.

- So we could have this ready in about two or three hours, or we could wait and do it overnight, but I think we'll just go the two or three hours.

- Okay, let's do that.

(upbeat music) (door creaks) (fire bellows) (upbeat music) (machine whirs) (steam hisses) (wooden spatula clatters) - [Yia] Ooh.

Whoa.

- Should we cut one of these open?

- Yeah, let's do it.

(bread crackles) - [Patrick] Hear that crust?

- [Yia] Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's what it's all about.

- Oh yeah.

That's fresh flour right there.

That's the aroma.

Cheers.

(upbeat music) - I mean, the first thing that hits me is that tang.

- [Patrick] Mm- hmm.

- And I love it.

So much flavor, you know.

All those little different flours you put in, you know, like the rye and you know, the malted.

I mean, you can taste all of that.

- You can actually see 'em too, if you look close to 'em, you can see little bits of bran and germ in there.

- To see that whole process, to be out literally on the field and then following it here, watching the mill process, there's so much care.

It's very simple.

I was always real nervous about making bread, (Patrick laughs) not the best at it.

I'm impatient.

I think that's why.

But thank you so much, man.

- Yeah, thanks for coming in.

- [Yia] There are over 30,000 varieties of wheat grown in the United States, leading to a wide range of uses.

From savory bread, pastas, and cereals to cookies, cakes and more.

(melodious music) - Hi, I'm Yia.

- Hi Yia, I'm Shawn.

- Nice to meet you, Shawn.

- Nice to meet you.

Come on in.

- Thanks.

- Meet Shawn McKenzie.

A career baker and James Beard Award finalist, who definitely knows her all-purpose from her whole wheat flour.

I've been learning so much about flour, going from the wheat to the milling process, how important is flour, especially in, you know, baking, doing pastries and different kinds of items you're making.

- Yeah, I think it's, it's pretty important.

When I first broke out into it, just thinking about where I started, it was like very concentrated on lamination.

And so I never really thought about the other like kind of flours.

- Could you explain to me what lamination means?

- It's taking dough with butter and just putting- - [Yia] That sounds delicious.

- [Shawn] Layers in there.

(Shawn laughs) - Literally, it's like layer dough- - Yeah.

- Layer butter.

Layer dough.

- Yeah.

- Layer butter.

- [Shawn] So for the classic croissants, all of the laminated pastries that I make, we use combo of high gluten flour and AP flour.

It kinda helps with like the stretch for when you're like rolling up croissants.

With like muffins and scones, we'll use AP flour or all-purpose flour.

For bread, I'll use high gluten with like rye or whole wheat just to kind of help with that texture, flavor.

Kinda adds that nutty taste to it.

And then for cookies, usually it's AP flour, really can kind of lend itself to having that chewy texture for cookies.

- I'm a cook and so I feel like sometimes our minds are so, you know.

- Yeah, very different.

- Pastry baking.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

We don't measure.

- Yeah.

- We use our hearts.

You know.

(Yia laughs) When I want a cake, I go to my girl Betty Crocker (Shawn laughs) and she's got it all packaged up for me.

- Defrost it.

Yeah.

- Oh, she tells me what to do on the back, you know?

- Yeah.

- And I just kind of, you know, put it in, one egg and maybe some milk.

And my girl Betty, (Shawn laughs) she takes care of me too, you know.

(funky music) Today we're making a tart, right?

- Yes.

Roasted banana tart.

So we're gonna start with the bananas.

We're gonna roast them.

While they're roasting, we'll will prep the chocolate streusel.

We'll be making the shell with a chocolate streusel.

- Streusel.

- Streusel.

- Oh, I always, I always thought it was strudel.

- People do get it mixed up, but a strudel is like when you do the like braiding and then you have the stuff in there and then you pick it up.

- Okay.

- And this is just like the crumble.

- [Yia] I've been saying it wrong.

So what kind of flour are we using today?

- We're using all-purpose flour today.

You can swap it out for gluten-free, buckwheat flour, spelt flour.

It's kind of one-to-one.

I don't necessarily need to measure this out, but I was going to, just to make sure.

I know that annoys you.

(Shawn laughs) - It doesn't annoy me.

It's just, takes so much longer, you know.

- I'm gonna do 311 grams sugar.

- So I feel like a chemist now.

- Oh!

- Oh!

(Yia groans) (blender whirs) How did you get into this?

- My father was a chef and he was always happy cooking.

Maybe around age 10, I thought I kind of wanna do that and anytime he did something, he would always bring me along and then I would just be like, okay, I'll do the cookies.

I was obsessed with chocolate chip cookies.

But yeah, I just looked up to him so much and I wanted to be, you know, as close as possible.

You know, he's a man from the south that didn't really like talk a lot about his upbringing, so it was kind of one of those things like to get to know him, you had to kind of like, take on fishing or take on cooking or baking and that was the way to like connect with him.

- Do I just go right in the bottom?

- [Shawn] Yeah, that, that's fine.

- Okay.

Do what you (indistinct).

- Well, let's check on 'em.

Yeah, why don't we pull it out?

- Whoa.

Whoa.

You literally roast the whole banana, huh?

- So what I'm checking on is it to be completely black.

- Honestly, like nobody ever thinks about it that way.

Yeah, like you, you can cook it in the peel.

- Yeah.

- Oh, I'm totally gonna steal that.

- While that's in the oven, we will be working on the custard.

There's a little bit of orange peel to allow the roasted bananas to kind of infuse that flavor.

So we're gonna do some sea salt and sugar.

- Is that by taste?

(Shawn laughs) - Any place he worked at, I was always there like helping him.

One day, I wanted to sleep in.

I didn't wanna go to work.

He could have just, you know, let it be, but he was just like, I actually, I really count on you and I actually need you to come in.

And it was kind of like, sorry.

It was kind of one of those things like, he never reached out like that, you know?

So I got up and I was like, okay, I'll go to work with you.

- For me, it was my mom had to start working second shift and my dad worked first shift and that was the only way the finance would work.

For about an hour, there's nobody gonna be home.

And he looked at my older brother and says, you're in charge, and this, and this is how you're gonna contribute to the family.

- Yeah.

- I, I need you to be an adult.

- Yeah.

- And I know that it's not fair to put this on you right now, but this is what we need to make this family unit work right now.

- Yeah.

- It was like that for a few years, you know?

- Yeah.

- And I totally get what you're saying.

- Thanks for sharing that.

That made me feel a lot better.

- Okay.

So what are we doing now?

- We're gonna bloom the gelatin.

- So blooming it basically is just re-hydrating it, right?

- [Shawn] Yes.

- [Yia] What does the gelatin do for the recipe?

- It sets it.

So like we're adding the bananas, the cream.

It's gonna make it really, the custard will be loose.

This will kind of help set it.

Also, we're using white chocolate to, to kind of get that texture as well.

- It just thickens it up.

- Yeah.

- It just makes it so that when you cut through it, it's not gonna be like, ooh.

- Yeah.

(button clicks) (fire crackles) - Is this you like your recipe?

Where does it come from?

- Yeah.

Well, my dad used to do a banana pudding almost every other week.

We didn't really have a lot of desserts in our household, so for us it was just like, yes, like did something right this week, you know, - Victory.

(Shawn laughs) - I took the recipe that my dad used to do and I paid homage to him in a way by utilizing a chocolate streusel that I've, you know, worked on over the years and roasting the bananas versus just, you know, making a banana pudding and just kind of created something a little different.

(hand mixer whirs) For me, it's just a connection to my past, to my father.

I do think that I'm here, you know, in part because of him and his work ethic.

So it is, you know, just my, you know, love to him.

(classical music) (blender whirs) We are gonna do 250 grams.

- [Yia] Yeah, you measure everything, dude.

- Can't help it, I guess, now that I think about it.

- Your flex.

Hold on.

It's 256 here.

- Oh, I'm so sorry.

- 251.

Dude, do, dude, if we're gonna do this, we're gonna do this, right.

Starting as a cook, when our star time's usually like noon or one, you know, you get to sleep in a little bit, but bakers and pastries, you guys are up early.

- [Shawn] Yeah.

- [Yia] Have you always been an early bird?

- It is a little difficult for me to wake up early, but I think you, you live with that.

Like I have to be there.

I, sometimes I feel like I don't even like truly sleep through the night if I know I have to be there at 2:00 AM.

So I'm gonna grab mascarpone.

- Mascarpone.

It's like, tasting delicious cloud.

(plastic crinkles) - The tart we made together.

And then I can let you do the honors, if you'd like to pour this in.

- [Yia] Yes, please.

(Shawn laughs) - And how long do you put it in the freezer for?

- Until it's set, which is probably at least two, two hours.

We want it to be nice and solid.

- See, I'm too impatient.

- Yeah, no.

(Shawn laughs) - We did all that.

Now we're gotta wait for a whole day.

What's up, dude?

(classical music) (plastic crinkles) - [Yia] Oh, you're gonna see how I decorate.

- [Shawn] What if you discover, all of a sudden, you have this hidden talent?

- [Yia] Oh, chef.

No, trust me, I have not discovered that.

I feel like we're also two kids that are like, I have an idea, Mom.

(Shawn laughs) - Look at what I can do.

- Yeah.

(melodious music) ♪ One, two, three, four ♪ (upbeat music) This looks delicious.

Should we go at it?

- Let's do it.

- What's your move?

Okay, so do you try to create like a, like a perfect bite?

- No.

- Oh, you just go.

- I go for it.

- Dang it.

I dr- (Shawn laughs) (upbeat music) - That citrus from that orange.

That's a game changer.

- [Shawn] Yeah, it really comes through.

- And people look at this and they're gonna be like, oh, it's gonna probably be over sweet.

You know?

Very, very sweet.

It's not, it's mild and it does remind me of, you know, banana pudding.

- Yeah.

- So much.

For you, even eating this right now, you know, you know, you think about, you know, those meals and those dinners that your father did.

Like what, what other things come out of you when you, you know, when you eat this dish?

- I just think about how much time and effort he would put into like cooking and baking for us at home.

- It's so cool to, to kind of see that, that we take like our family traditions and if we're just, I would say a little brave and open it, it becomes other family people's tradition too.

- Yeah, that's a good point.

- Yeah.

- You made it very easy to share, so I really appreciate that one.

- I also think too, it's just like, I think that's where we connect, you know, everything you said about your father, I'm like, oh, I totally get it.

- Yeah.

- You ever get sick of this or?

- What do you mean?

Eating?

- No, well, like, just like eating sweets and doing all this?

- No.

- Oh wow.

- Do you?

- No.

- There's a reason that wheat has been an integral part of food cultures, the world over for thousands of years.

Grain is a hearty crop that's adapted itself to nearly every corner of the planet.

And as the climate changes and our diets shift, there's no doubt wheat will continue to evolve right along with us.

Sometimes, the best way to move forward is to go back and take a little bite of history.

(upbeat music)