"What's the temperature in here?" asks Sam Fromartz, rolling up his sleeves. It's an unusual question for a first-time visitor to the Food Network Kitchen, but it makes sense coming from a breadmaker. For Fromartz, baking is about the environment, which it affects the ingredients, the rising time and the flavor. Every kitchen has its own micro-local terroir. Fortunately, you don't need to master these principles in order to make great bread, thanks to Fromartz's award-winning book In Search of the Perfect Loaf: A Home Baker's Odyssey. In it, he details the lessons gleaned from 20 years of breadmaking and visits with some of the great artisan bakers of Europe and America. A highlight is his stirato. Easy enough for beginners, the recipe dispenses with marathon rounds of kneading and lots of yeast, and instead relies on a long rising time and a few simple turns of the dough. The result is a baguette-like loaf with a chewy, slightly tangy interior and beautiful brown crust. Here's how he does it.