As a German, I've never felt so insulted in my life as while reading this chapter, and there's a lot I get to hear about my home country. Finally I understand why people waste time on stuff like "sensitivity reading" ...
The idea that a German baker would be impressed be the flavorless sawdust pressed into vague bread shapes over freshly baked(!) real bread defies any reasonable belief. It's like suggestion to an Italian that frozen pizza is just as good, or to a French that processed cheese is perfectly acceptable, or to an American that ... well, forget Americans, they are hopeless, but otherwise!
This must be the most german thing I've read here lol. (The thing with the cutting puzzled me too, though.)
To be fair, Japanese convenience products have a reputation for being rather high quality compared to us. But even so, people have no idea just how serious Germans are about certain foods. Bread, mustard, pickles, etc. Especially anything that's machine-made, partially or not, suffers severe scrutiny here, which applies to most modern bakeries as well. So I've no doubt that a medieval baker in their prime would've been able to turn even the lousiest flour into the stuff of Gods.
Rye is still rather common in all of northern Europe, by the by. I feel like people are really sleeping on it, it's great stuff.
