Jack Nicholson Loves This New York Bakery Bread So Much He Has It Brought To LA

Much of the filming for the 1987 film, "Ironweed," took place in and around Albany, New York, so it wasn't unusual for the movie's star, Jack Nicholson, to explore the area when he wasn't in front of the camera. At one point, the actor's personal driver, Paul DiCocco, took him to a bakery in nearby Schenectady, DiCocco's own hometown. The bakery was Perreca's, which opened in 1913, and Nicholson fell hard for the crusty Italian bread he ate there.

Perreca's co-owner, Maria Papa, told WMHT, "Jack was hooked immediately on the bread. His driver would buy the bread every day and bring it to the set." Papa also mentioned that, despite the amount of bread he ordered, Nicholson only personally showed up at the bakery a few times, instead asking friends to pick up some loaves for him while they were in town. Papa added, "We'll get friends of Jack Nicholson coming through Schenectady, on their way back to Los Angeles, to get bread so he can have it on the same day ... it's usually a neighbor or a friend. And they say they're told 'not to come back without the bread.'" We know one thing: Nicholson definitely doesn't make cheese sandwiches with his Perreca's bread; while filming "The Shining," he ate them for two weeks, even though he despised them.

Papa also recalled Nicholson's driver, DiCocco, telling her, "Jack guards that bread. He puts it in the freezer and guards it like nothing else. Even if important producers visit. He has said, 'I would rather give them money than the bread.'" Nicholson isn't the only famous fan of Perreca's; it's also been visited by Meryl Streep, Kathleen Turner, and David Letterman.

According to Perreca's, the bread that the family makes today is just like the bread that founders Salvatore and Carmella Perreca produced when they first came to America and opened their bakery. They took their recipes and methods from their home village in Nola, Italy, a small town on the outskirts of Naples, and reproduced them in New York. Loaves are baked in the original coal-fired brick oven and have a firm crust and nutty flavor. The ingredients are minimal: Just enriched spring flour, water, salt, and yeast. With a lack of preservatives, we can presume the bread won't keep long after it's baked, which is likely why Nicholson freezes his loaves the right way.

As for getting your hands on the bread good enough for an Oscar-winner, it may be difficult if you don't live close to Schenectady. According to a 2015 article from The Daily Gazette, Perreca's bakery was supposed to launch an online store, but as of this writing, it does not exist. Furthermore, the company commented on its own Facebook post that, indeed, they do not ship their breads. It's unknown if they make an exception for Jack. Of course, if you have friends like Nicholson's who travel to the area, you could always ask for their help. Just hope they don't eat the loaves before they make it to you.