Posted by Matt on November 07, 1998 at 23:31:28:
In Reply to: Re: Are there any Bread Bakers here? posted by B. Young on November 07, 1998 at 18:44:13:
: Here's at least one bread baker: I'm a new visitor to the
: site myself, but I'd be surprised if there aren't others.
: What's on your mind, more specifically?
: The current issue of Pastry Art & Design (another pastry forum,
: for the most part) is a special "State of the Industry 1998"
: feature, and collects information about trends in artisanal
: bread baking. You might find it helpful or interesting.
I want to pick up a copy. Gerard also recommended it to me.
I've been here for almost 1 year and there have been very few posts
regarding bread. Whether it is for advice on handling sourdough
or just general questions or discussions on the subject.
Being a bread baker, I'm getting a little loney here in
a sea of pastry chef's :->
What I'm curious right now is have you seen any change on trends in your sales
on certain varities of breads. In the last two years we've gone
from making 12 different varieties to 19. The old traditional
Italian, French and Sourdough bread sales have held seady with
no growth and some of our other breads, basic contry frech
breads, sales have dropped. The specialty breads, like Jalepino
Cheddar and an 8-grain bread we have recently introduced have really
taken off. Personaly I think that we would be better servered by
making some of the breads seasonal and try to switch sales to the basic
breads. You see the problem with 19 doughs is that the mixer, on small
days has to do the jitterbug to get them mixed on time and still
stay on schedule. I still mix twice a week and I sypathize with them
Or I may be wrong and the specialty breads are the way to go all
year around.
Anyway, glad to see a bread baker here. We make many of our breads
from soudough cultures with no yeast added(thus the need for a good
schedule.)We wholesale about 80% so we do a med volumn as far as
SD bakeries go.
What's your're bakery like.
MAtt
PS I'm just an employee who really likes his job.