Here in Milano it seems that you can’t organize a food event without organizing a ‘How to make your own bread’ workshop. Where is that hype coming from?
Bread making used to be done at home regularly. It doesn’t
even have to be that hard when you have a bread making machine. You just put in
the ingredients, insert the details in the program and wait for the delicious
smells filling your house. Isn’t that enough reason to wake up every morning?
But at easy as it seems, as little people do it at home. It
is so much easier and faster to take your wallet to the nearest baker shop and
choose the bread you feel like eating that moment. Bread which is almost as
fresh as the ones at your house and maybe even more delicious. At least as far
as a regular costumer could see.
The profession of baker might be in danger. It is hard work
with strange hours and the resulting income might not be in balance with what
you offer from your own and your family’s time. But isn’t that with all the artesian
jobs where - in the end – the love for
the job is bigger than the hate of the side-effects?
But if being a baker is still a hard job can be questioned.
Unfortunately it is really hard for a baker shop to survive in this society
where most people prefer to buy the cheapest products instead of the ones with
a good quality. Bakers have to deal with this too – besides the competition of
supermarkets and chains – and look for ways to keep their clients satisfied. Most
do that by going down in prices thereby choosing for flour of a inferior
quality or by buying their ready-to-finish dough which is delivered frozen to
their pre-heated ovens (read here
the explanation of an frozen dough company). Easy for them, sufficient for the
consumer.
Luckily there are still some bakers who love their job and
know the difference between a pre-fabricated-frozen pasta and the ones made in
their own workshop with a lot knowledge of the products and ingredients and the
way to treat them to create the best bread in town. Preferably made with so
called pasta madre (dough without
yeast) and well chosen ingredients.
When you think these bakers are fighting hard for their
clients you are wrong. It is exactly these artisans which encourage people to
make their own bread. Not because these bakers are too lazy to do it
themselves. I guess they just want their clients to see what it takes to make good
bread and how nice it is to eat the result of your own work. So look and sniff
around to find your own dedicated bakery and enjoy!
