Bread, once upon a time – white, sliced, square, mass-produced, came out of a plastic packet or a loaf from the neighbourhood bakery.
Bread, today – mostly never sliced, artisan, out of a wrapping (sometimes plastic packaged, sometimes brown paper or foil) – baguette, savarin, Farmer’s loaf, foccaccia, brioche – wheat, brown, multigrain, cinnamon and walnut, choco-chip, olive, garlic…
Once frowned-upon, eating bread, today, is a convenience. Traditionally European fare, croissants and dinner rolls were the most ‘fancy’ and for variety there was garlic bread and stuffed breads. Given that once upon a time there was only Modern Bread, today Kochi is breaking bread and how.
“Regular breads are monotonous, you can’t do much with them. I like to try out new breads and try new combinations – combine with different curry or do it differently. I cut a baguette, fill it with sausages and a meal is ready,” says Asha Bonney, a ‘breadie’ who tries new bread places.
The Kochiite is well-travelled and has had exposure to other kinds of foods and that makes him open to new things, says Ayaz Salim of French Toast. “Exposure is the key here, familiarity with different breads makes people more open to trying these.” French Toast, which boasts more than a dozen kinds of breads, started with breads before they started on cakes. Staff there say that the breads fly off the shelves. “It was our main thing when we started out and today, in fact every month there is an increase in the sale of breads.”
Most of these enriched breads are not boring and are versatile enough to become anytime meals or snacks. Bread is easy. Some of the breads are better than cake and easy on the conscience. A slice of good walnut-cinnamon bread or a piece of onion rosemary foccaccia with a cuppa is as comfort as comfort food gets.
“There is a market for breads in the city,” says Lakshmi Sridhar, a ‘home baker’, all set to start her own bakery, ‘Baker’s Walk’, on the Kaloor-Kathrikadavu road. She plans to stock at least 12 types daily at the outlet, “out of the 40 varieties I know.” As part of experiments with bread-making, she realised that there was a market for breads. “I would bake bread and give them to friends and family and they loved them. They suggested that I ought to make breads,” she says. Her breads are artisan, which are essentially smaller quantities of bread, not mass produced.
Another ‘home baker’, Fort Kochi-based Sophie Delamare from France, bakes for friends. Her baking, she says, is an attempt to introduce locals to French bread. She has been baking bread for the last five years, “Initially I used to bake for the expats in Fort Kochi and later others, Indians, heard of me and came to me for bread.” She bakes baguettes, Farmhouse loaf, the typically French walnut and raisin bread and the Italian flatbread foccaccia.
Abad Hotels and Resorts saw the demand and their recently opened cake-shop Patisserie, stocks besides cakes, cookies and other confections, breads such as wheat, multigrain, garlic, chocolate, Spanish, baguette and French loaf. “We had breads at Canopy. Once we introduced wheat and multigrain, they were selling as much as the regular bread. There is definitely a demand, in fact wheat and multi-grain sell as much as white bread; baguettes and French loaf too have takers,” says Thomas Kurian, corporate manager F&B, Abad Hotels and Resorts.
Among the various kinds of breads, the popularity of wheat and multigrain can be attributed to awareness about maida’s ill effects and therefore white bread. Even the good old Modern Bread has extended its menu to include brown, multi-grain, oats and ragi, fruit among others and cafes and bakeries such as Bloomsbury in Lulu Mall and Bread World stock more options bread-wise (brown bread doesn’t count since it is almost as staple as white bread).
Despite the many kinds of breads in the market, the neighbourhood bakery continues its good old bread-baking and all the others too retain the white bread. Jyoti S. who says, “I don’t like the new breads. I tried a couple of varieties like brown bread and multigrain but I’d rather the normal, regular sliced, white bread.” Well, there is a bread for every body.
Before bread
Long before the other breads came to Kochi, the Dutch brought ‘bruder’ to Fort Kochi. A hybrid between a loaf of bread and plum cake, caramelised sugar, eggs, vanilla, kismis and flour go into the making of it. Like a loaf of bread, it is sliced and had with butter. Quality Bakers at Pattalam is probably one of the few bakeries in Fort Kochi which undertakes orders for bruder.
