The Food Issue
2015
grainswest.com
43
RAINS AND FLOURS MAY BE
common items in every grocery
store, but when it comes to
flagship products, bread carries the
banner for wheat. While growers
produce the grain, and millers transform
it from commodity to food product, it’s
the bakers who bring it all together into
a much-loved food staple.
Today, most Canadians pick up their
daily bread at grocery or convenience
stores, but smaller retail bakeries
continue to thrive by offering a
personalized experience and products
that promote a different kind of
relationship with the customer.
“We are the connection between the
farmers, the millers and the customers,”
said Aviv Fried, owner and baker at
Sidewalk Citizen Bakery in Calgary. “I think
people want to knowwhere ingredients
are coming from, how they are grown and
what exactly is in their food, and these
questions are coming to us.”
Since the doors to the artisan bakery
opened four years ago, Fried has
created sourdough baked goods from
locally sourced organic ingredients. He
works closely with suppliers ranging
from a small farmer who grows and
stone-grinds the
heritage wheat
variety Red
Fife, to organic
white flour from
a mill in nearby
Saskatchewan.
“I enjoy learning
more and digging
into what’s
happening in
milling to try to
find out why the
flour this week is
different from last week. We don’t always
get satisfying answers,” said Fried. “I
think there is still a bit of a disconnect
between the production and milling
process and the bakery.”
According to Paul Hetherington,
president and CEO of the Baking
Association of Canada, these challenges
are not new. “Historically, bakers
focused on meeting consumer demands
and needs, and
producers focused
on yield. As a
result, there is
a conflict with
regards to needs
and expectations,”
he said, noting
that information
available to
consumers through
social media is
closing the gap.
“The curtain
that producers have been behind for
many years is now being drawn back,
and now producer groups are being
drawn more into the kinds of consumer-
oriented discussion that we in the baking
community have been engaged with for
many years,” he added.
On-farm practices such as herbicide
use are always top of mind for farmers
and now, with much talk about food
safety, consumers are increasingly
interested as well. These factors tie in to
the biggest trend in food today—health
and wellness. What may begin with an
article on Facebook one day becomes
a question at point of sale the next, and
bakers are often the ones to respond for
the entire value chain.
Bon Ton Bakery has been an
Edmonton favourite since 1956. Hilton
and Michelle Dinner took over in 1998,
and maintain a reputation built on high-
quality European-style baked goods
and strong relationships.
“My motivation is to do things local,
healthy and current,” said Hilton Dinner.
“I need to offer people the option of
buying healthy or different. We were
the first bakery in Edmonton to take out
trans fat from our product—now I use
non-GMO canola oil and trans-fat-free
shortening.”
G
“I think people want to
know where ingredients
are coming from, how
they are grown and what
exactly is in their food,
and these questions are
coming to us.”
–Aviv Fried
Michelle (left) and Hilton (right) Dinner of Edmonton’s Bon Ton Bakery are committed to using
local, healthy ingredients in their baked goods. Photo: Bon Ton Bakery
