“Cooking is like jazz because in cooking, you can improvise all you want. Whereas baking is classical music, you can’t deviate from the program,” says Jason Lalima, who has been making his father’s beloved olive bread at Madonia Brothers Bakery in the Bronx for decades. “There’s no reason to change perfection. This is my father’s legacy right here.”

Madonia Brothers Bakery is an old-school, family-run Italian bakery on Arthur Avenue in the Bronx, which is known as the borough’s Little