GrainsWest Summer 2018

The Food Issue 2018 grainswest.com 29 Toronto in 1993, the company has grown to serve restaurants and grocers across North America. As once-small bakery operations such as COBS and ACE grow or are purchased by larger players, they preserve their neighbourhood-bakery cachet, keeping these stories intact and increasing their focus on artisanal breads. Vandepoel believes a bread resurgence is just now coalescing. “I believe bread is going to be back, but I don’t think it is back yet,” she said. “But we’re getting a revival in terms of appreciating breads,” she said. Packaged, sliced bread will remain an unshakable mainstay of kids’ school lunch kits while healthy signifiers are producing a halo effect around certain types of bread. “Consumers want healthy and tasty products,” she said. “Everything whole grain is considered tasty but also very healthy.” As well, younger consumers in particular have developed a fascination with the magic of sourdough bread, which is produced from dough starter containing both bacteria and yeast that act as leavening agents, and that must be carefully kept alive. The number of breads labelled as products of fermentation has risen dramatically. Puratos has gone as far as establishing a sourdough library in Saint-Vith, Belgium, that catalogues and maintains the world’s great sourdough starters. It now features one from Toronto’s Blackbird Baking Co. and will soon catalogue a second Canadian entry from the Yukon. Another factor in bread’s rise is the fact the gluten-free trend is losing steam. Vandepoel suggests it will remain a niche bread market and doesn’t expect further growth. “If you’re not a celiac, and you want to eat good bread, cake or cookies, then going gluten-free is going to be challenging in getting the same taste and texture.” Also limiting their sale, these products may feature higher levels of sugar and salt to mask these deficiencies. The baking industry will face a challenge in capitalizing on renewed consumer interest in bread. Skilled bakers are hard to find at a time when bakeries must be creative and flexible. Innovation is critical in producing limited-time special products that satisfy cravings for new tastes while maintaining a balance with the traditional breads that consumers always return to, said Vandepoel. BEYOND THE BAKERY Edmonton chef and food consultant Kaelin Whittaker leads bread courses as part of her business, The Ruby Apron. She has also launched Real Bread Alberta. Patterned on similar groups in the U.K. and Ireland, the organization promotes bread baking as a community-building activity. “The biggest goal is to connect people—the consumer, the baker, the farmer—and create a conversation around bread, and why we should be eating and baking bread. And to give people a platform where we can have that conversation,” said Whittaker. JK Bakery Cafe co-owner Angie Keller pulls warm loaves of German rye bread from the oven. She suggested sourdough breadmay provide urban bakers with business opportunities. Top left, these pans of Danish sourdough rye will require a fewmore minutes baking time.