When an artisan bakery like Surry Hills’ Bourke Street bakery can command such a loyal following you know there is something special about high quality bread and baked goods that has continued to defy anything the diet movement can throw at it.
When the bakery launched two years ago by chef turned bread maker Paul Allam (ex-Bird Cow Fish) and pastry guru David McGuinness (ex-Victoire bakery) turning out 50 loaves of its finely crafted sourdough bread — that’s up to around 400 to 500 a day. And the crowds continue to clamour for their croissants and danishes, and crème brulee and lemon tarts.
There’s a lot happening out there in the baking industry. With the ever increasing popularity of quality artisan products such as those prepared by Allam and McGuinness and by their bigger colleagues in the artisan bakery business like Sonoma and Brasserie Bread it is proving its resilience to survive the hurdles like the anti-carb trend that threatened to dampen its future.
Equipment manufacturers/suppliers and bakers report a buoyant market, particularly in the bread sector. Bread remains a staple food. Most families still enjoy their toast and sandwiches and the standardised sandwich loaf is, and will likely remain, a popular consumer item and the core business for the big plant bakeries.
But many of the larger baking operations—including some of the supermarket in store and the franchised bakery chains like Brumby’s and Baker’s Delight which are springing up in virtually every locality—are now also offering a whole range of baked products, including European-style breads and rolls. According to the experts, this has heralded in an increasing demand for hi-tech equipment that can guarantee slick production and the staff to operate it.
The Queensland-based bakery division of Global Food Equipment which supplies everything for large and small bakeries, from small tins and trays, through mixers, dividers, improvers and moulders, to large rack and deck ovens says that bakeries are looking for versatile hi-tech equipment that can increase production, ensure a consistent quality of different products and remove much of the baking process guesswork
GFE sales executive, Michael Wright, says that with high demand for good bakers creating a shortage of talent its miniature automated baking systems have become a way for smaller bakeries to create their own range of quality baked goods. “This has become very popular, particularly as good bakers are becoming increasingly hard to find due to the growth in the industry and the trend for young people to seek a job with less unfriendly work hours,” Wright says.
New South Wales-based Silverwater Bakery, which also supplies the equipment needed by bakers, tells the same story. Owner/director Stephen Robertson says that to meet demand for the new styles of bread many of the smaller bakeries are now producing traditional European-style breads and pastries.
“People’s taste has become more cosmopolitan,” says Robertson. “They want to try out the new products and when they find something they like, they tend to stick with it. Apart from the European-type bread products, South African and Egyptian-style breads seem to be very popular.
But the biggest trend has been towards sourdough breads, baked in an oven with a stone hearth, says Robertson. “Our deck ovens come with an optional stone base and we are finding that a growing number of our customers, particularly the smaller specialist bakeries, are taking up this option,” he says.
Robertson says there has been dramatic growth in the number of bakery cafes, like Bourke Street, which not only bake their own bread, pastries and other baked products, but serve meals and coffee.
“The operators find this an excellent way to maximise on profits and there is no shortage of customers for this type of business. We are also selling more and more equipment to the major restaurants and hotels which, increasingly, are producing their own fresh breads, rolls, pastries and other baked items to serve to the dining-out public as a point of difference. The chefs report that more and more of their customers have responded very favourably to the move towards quality and are prepared to pay for it.”
One of Australia’s acknowledged baking experts, Ashley Gurney, says the baking industry has seen dramatic changes over the past few years. Gurney, himself an award-winning baker for many years before taking on, firstly, the role of bakery production manager for a major foodservice company and later, the position of area manager for EOI (an arm of PeerlessFoods) has kept his finger on the baking industry pulse and is a sought-after keynote speaker at industry conferences and shows around the country.
Gurney says health issues such as obesity have had an impact on the baking business. The latest high profile issue has been the publicity around and growing awareness of trans fatty acids which are present in some pastry products.
“Certainly using pastry and/or other sweet products as a ‘staple’ food, as opposed to a now and again ‘indulgence’ food, does have health implications, Gurney says. “But much of the negative media publicity about TFAs and also preservatives is unfounded given normal eating habits. The indulgence factor of many lines produced by the bakery trade is no different than much of the processed food presented today’s normal society.
Gurney says white bread, hit hard by the healthy living trend, still had a place on the bakery shelf. “White bread seems to have earned the undeserved tag of being unhealthy but this couldn’t be further from the truth,” Gurney says.
“Certainly it can’t compete with wholemeal and wholegrain breads, but white bread, depending on what you put on it, remains a healthy option for the majority of the population—particularly in view of in the huge improvements made in nutritional aspects over the past few decades. Value-added is now the name of the game and many of the major bakeries are adding omega 3, fibre, soy and linseed and the like.”
Gurney says bakers generally are moving away from the use of TFAs and saturated fats for their baked product and the use of tallow-based shortenings have been replaced with vegetable options. However he doesn’t see much future for low fat products in bakery.
“Low fat products have been introduced but to date their success has been limited for one simple reason—fat tastes good. In other words, eaten in moderation under the ‘indulgence’ banner, bakery products are as they have always been—great tasting and nutritious. It is only when the indulgence factor is exceeded, that there are health risks.”
According to Gurney, there has also been a move towards eliminating additives which some health groups claim can pose allergic reactions but he suggests that this is more a marketing ploy to ease concerns of the consumer, rather than being based on factual evidence.
“Also, the current move back to artisan and traditional-style breads have reduced or removed the need of additives to improve shelf life and process control. Many bakers are relearning the ability to control the baking process through age-old processes that were practiced before the advent of modern technology.
Gurney says the future of Australian baking is looking a ‘little shaky’ because of the lack of good qualified tradespeople coming through the industry.
“There is a serious shortage of bakers in general and ‘good’ bakers in particular. One of the reasons is the deregulation of bread pricing which has contributed to a reduction in wages and the role of the baker in the workplace. This in turn has made many would-be bakers reconsider employment, particularly in view of the anti-social hours which are kept by many in the trade.
“The industry itself is partly to blame for the scarcity of good staff in that it has failed to uphold an overall standard of professional training— although fortunately there are still a few institutions which do provide an excellent level of training. Another reason for failing to hold ‘good’ employees in the trade is the lack of career path options. Australia has little to offer in terms of post-apprenticeship study towards ‘master baker’ or ‘baking technologist’, unlike some countries which excel in baking as a ‘professional trade’,” he explains.
Gurney adds that currently, the majority of Austalian bakers are trained under what is termed ‘instant dough making’—a process in which fermentation requirements are eliminated and replaced by ingredient intervention. He compares this to both the US and Europe which have in the main tended to remain with the more traditional fermentation process. Fortunately, he says, the trend towards traditional- and artisan-type breads, rolls, pastries and other bakery products will do much to fill in the training and career-path gaps as well as lead to a growth in delicious tasting, nutritional goodies.
Brett Noy, owner of the Brisbane-based artisan bakery, Creative Crusts, says he has no trouble finding and training ‘good’ baking professionals who are eager to learn the real art of baking. His business, apart from running three retail bakeries, supplies a number of fine-dining restaurants, hotels and cafes and he is in the process of expanding to other Queensland areas. Chefs want quality gourmet product to serve with their meals, rather than the mediocre offerings that used to be available, he says.
“There has been a wonderful resurgence in breads, rolls and other products, baked using a natural fermentation process. The new, or is it age-old, process which we call retro-innovative, has brought a whole new meaning to exciting flavour. We make everything from scratch—breads, rolls, pastries, fruit breads, cakes, cheesecakes and so on—rather than using the quicker ‘instant dough’ method or simply thawing out pre-mixed or par-baked products,” he says. “The result is that the sourdough breads and rolls have a wonderful internal structure and crust.”
Noy says that artisan bread making is a slow process but is well worth the time-consuming effort and extra expense incurred in using premium ingredients.
His bakery relies on wild yeast (Levain) brought in initially from San Francisco. This natural product is renowned for its health benefits. It has a low GI rating as the bacteria eats up sugars, it aids the human digestive process, is said to add to a sense of well-being and produces a high quality and flavoursome product that cannot be reproduced by other methods.
The wild yeast is ‘fed’ every day, mixed with fresh flour and fresh water, and left to ferment for 12 to 24 hours. The produced ‘poolish’ then becomes part of the final dough. Everything is hand mixed, only the best ingredients are used and the bread is of course hearth baked.
“We are serious too about quality ingredients. For instance, we only use olive oil in our products. It may be more expensive but it’s my firm belief that to keep our customers happy and satisfy their new-found expectations, we can’t compromise on quality in any way.
“The motto for most of the bakery trade seems to be ‘time equals money’. Our motto is a bit different. It is ‘time equals quality equals money’ and the focus of quality seems to have paid off. It’s great to see so many people now able to experience ‘new-old’ product and coming back to us for more. Artisan baking is more an art than a trade and there are so many customers out there who have become bread buffs.”
Michael Klausen, who runs Brasserie Bread—the artisan bread company that grew out of Sydney restaurateur Tony Pappas and Klausen’s desire for better bread to accompany the food they served in their restaurant —predicts the appreciation of the different styles of bread will increase along the lines of the appreciation of a cheese or wine.
At Brasserie’s recently launched cafe where the theatre of the baking process has been opened up to the public via glass windows, staff are trained to recommend the best breads to team with particular dishes.
Klausen says the increasing move to quality breads has come as people became educated in the various breads and how a true artisan loaf was made. “It had moved away from being just fashionable,” Klausen says. “Health is a part of it but its the taste and variety that they want as well.”
The next few years will be exciting ones for the trade, say bakers like Noy and Klausen. Artisan bakery is sure to become an even bigger driving force. But Noy advises chefs and their consumers to ask the right questions before opting for a product. Has this been baked using the authentic traditional methods?