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baking news

According to a 2008 IBIS World report, the industry’s recent history suggests that small bread makers are most likely to prosper in the competitive environment by introducing sufficiently specialised products. So what’s so special about French breads and pastries?

Ubiquitous with French baking is the baguette, or ‘French stick’. The shape of the baguette allows the maximum amount of dough to be exposed directly to heat during the baking process, which produces a thick crust favoured by the French. French national law dictates that bread should contain only combinations of flour, yeast, salt and water, and bakeries producing bread onsite are allowed to use an official sticker stating they are an ‘artisan baker’.

While bread comprised the bulk of the French diet during the eighteenth century, by the twentieth per capita consumption had dropped off. According to Cornell professor Steven Kaplan in his book Good Bread Is Back: A Contemporary History of French Bread, this was largely due to social and economic modernisation and the availability of a wider choice of foods. Part of the problem was that bread did not taste as good as it used to. As Mr Kaplan writes, “Poorly trained and badly counselled, bakers languished in a sort of anomie, turning in desperation to millers, equipment salesmen and purveyors of improving additives in the hope of finding a way out.”

The same manufacturing processes which had usurped centuries-old artisanal bread making techniques in Australia during the ‘60s and ‘70s had a similar effect in France earlier that century. This combined with a shortage of grain and other food products during the World Wars forced bread makers to use different baking processes and lower their expectations for quality ingredients. Mr Kaplan describes how in a culture where bread is

sacrosanct, bad bread was more than a gastronomical disappointment; it was a threat to France’s sense of itself.

Traditionally made loaves, the much honoured authentic French bread, began to make a comeback as local tastes tired of what was being produced. By the mid-1990s, bread officially designated as “bread of the French tradition” – bread made without additives or freezing – was in demand throughout Paris. A significant figure at the time was Lionel Poilaine, a master baker whose passion and skills have had a lasting impression on the Australian baking community.

French baker Myriam Cordelier, of Sydney’s Victoire Bakery, says Poilane was the most inspiring baker she knew, and a major part of the industry.

“He gave the title of noblesse to the profession, when it’s done as he did it - he was a philosopher,” she told Lynelle Scott-Aitken of the Sydney Morning Herald in 2002 after Mr Poilane’s death in a plane crash. Poilane is described by Leavain’s Terry Wilson as a ‘baking rockstar’, and Mr Wilson says some of today’s best bakeries can trace their heritage from his tutelage, such as Half bakery in Repton and Homine in Katoomba. Working alongside French pastrycooks and bakers, he has developed thoughts on what a ‘French baking method’ actually means.

“If you have a baguette in Paris, it can be completely different from the breads produced in little provincial bakeries, which can be more rustic and natural looking. French baking has a tighter levain than Australia, they are a lot more particular about their cell structure, the product is more uniform and more refined,” Mr Wilson says.

Beyond the symbolic Parisian baguette, croquenbouche and croissant, Australians are discovering a wider range of breads and

pastries: opera cake, choux pastry, Paris-Brest, eclaire’s, vanilla fillings, and the hand-made, thick-crusted, oak-fired sourdough which has played such an important role in French history. Sydney-based business Bakers Maison distributes par baked bread, pastries and sweets in all states using authentic French recipes. Started by four Frenchmen, the company has proved successful in providing a quality product to businesses unable to produce a full range of breads due to lack of workers, space or machinery.

General manager Pascal Chaneliere says French products are typically crusty and highly aerated, and the use of a semi-automated production line with both machinery and tradespeople has allowed them to expand rapidly while maintaining quality.

“When you deal with a product that is alive, respecting the proving and baking times is critical. French people just enjoy food. Bread is everywhere in France, but people will travel a long distance just to find the right bread. We are extremely passionate about our food,” he says.

The use of high quality butter has been key for their pastries, providing a nice flakiness quality. In the 10 years Bakers Maison has operated, Mr Chaneliere has seen consumer demands move away from simple burger buns to artisan products.

“Bakeries should bring variety to consumers. Try new things, even though it may not work all the time. Companies need to act quickly, provide good customer service, as well as innovate,” Mr Chaneliere suggests.

There are many French bakers now living and working in Australia. Baking Business talks to Normandy born baker Denis Craquelin, as well as French business owners Jean Jacques LeFau and Lara Sample about the meaning of French baking and working in Australia.

By James Dillon

The last three years have seen French patisseries and bakeries flourish in Australia. In 2008 the bread manufacturing industry recorded a revenue increase of 4.5 per cent, with

increasing awareness of the links between certain foods and diseases resulting in an increase of high-fibre diets, wholemeal and mixed grain breads.

La Boulangerie en Australie

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La Boulangerie en Australie

Pascal Samson & ArnaudValade

Home province: Il de France

ChouquetteCustomers entering New Farm bakery and patisserie Choquette are met with a smile and friendly ‘bonjour’ while Café de la Paix, a song about a famous Paris café, plays in the background. On the shop counter are trays of pain au chocolat, flamande, chausson aux pommes, macaroons, tarte citron, amandine, and other European pastries, while the shelf behind the register is stocked with crusty artisan breads. For Australian-born owner Lara Sample, a simple French greeting and traditional product line give her store the special atmosphere many of her customers crave.

“Customers love it. They come in and just light up, and the French customers tell us it feels like home,” she says.

Working in Chouquette’s bakery are two French pastry chefs and a French baker. Pastry chef Pascal Samson can be found at the work bench folding almond rolls onto a tray ready to be baked. He’s happy to discuss his travels leading to Australia.

“I used to teach orphans in Vietnam and Cambodia how to bake. Vietnam has a strong French history, and unlike other Asian countries, they still eat a lot of bread there,” he says.

Before travelling to Vietnam and Cambodia with his wife, Mr Samson owned his own bakery in France. For Mr Samson, baking never has to be the same task every day.

“Each day the dough is different, you can always create and try something different. The French have always eaten a lot of bread, but in the 1980s and ‘90s it started to become very industrial, and people wanted traditional breads back,” he says.

On the other side of the bakery Arnaud Valade mixes mango puree over a stove top before pulling trays of chocolate almonds out of a deck oven. Specialising in chocolate, mousse and pastries, he worked as a cake and pastry decorator for 10 years in a luxury Canadian hotel before coming to Australia.

“I worked in France for three years, and the products and recipes are very different there to Australia. There we have apprenticeships that coincide with school, I think its better that was as you can learn more, fill more gaps in your knowledge,” he says.

While time consuming to find and hire, store owner Lara Sample made the decision to use French bakers and French service staff at Chouquette to compliment her business.

“I have contacts in France who help filter them through. People need to be careful to pick the right baker for their business. Our bread baker Sebastian uses a slow method with his bread, so it’s not so white, has a creamier crumb and is moist,” she says.

Miss Sample has a French mother, dual nationality, and speaks French fluently.

Having visited and schooled in France throughout her childhood, along with training at the national academy in Paris, Chouquette was born out of Lara’s frustration trying to find genuine French food in Queensland.

“I was looking and didn’t know where to go. I’m passionate about baking, which is why I did a short intensive course at the Institut National de Boulangerie Patisserie in Rouen, and walked across Paris visiting the best bakeries to see what they were like,” Lara says.

Miss Sample believes the market for specialised European product in Australia will continue to grow.

“There has been a change over the last two or three years where we are seeing many more French food businesses opening. A fashionable style you could say. In opening Chouquette I felt we would be filling a gap in the market” she says.

With more people travelling and learning about quality breads and pastries, Mrs Sample recommends using the best possible ingredients.

“Your business will stay strong if you provide good quality product,” she says.

Arnaud Valade Pascal Samson

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baking news

Peregian patisserie Le Bon Delice’s owner Jean Jacques has experienced the rigours of the Parisian apprentice system. At France’s national training academy for bakers and pastry cooks, the INBP, rules enforce a high standard of baking.

“Competition is so high in Paris. One mistake in one function, you don’t come back. They will take apprentices to the front window of the shop and tell them, ‘if you see something you wouldn’t eat, take it off’,” Jean Jacques says.

The standards used to cull apprentices are as equally strict for the shop owners who train them.

“If you use premix, you are not allowed to have an apprentice. If three apprentices fail exams, the restaurant cannot take any more apprentices. In France, everything has to be perfect for the customers. If it’s bad, it will come straight back, no one will want it,” Jean Jacques says.

The northwest France native first started training as a chef in 1987, but after six months he switched to pastries. As part of a French apprenticeship, he was rotated to some of the best hotels in Paris, every six months training and rotating, switching between school and commercial kitchens.

“Every kitchen has an executive pastry chef, sous chef, comnis chef, a person in charge of bon petites. Each department has a chef in charge of it - sponge, decoration, etc. There is a very high standard in France for food.”

Moving to Australia had always been a dream for Jean Jacques, and in his 16 years here he has worked at the Hyatt Coolum, Hilton Brisbane and Gold Coast Jupiter Casino. A year ago he opened Le Bon Delice, a small patisserie tucked away in picturesque Peregian Beach.

“I saw an opportunity in the Sunshine Coast – there were less big hotels, more opportunities for smaller places. Most cakes we make to order, fresh everyday. We refresh the store product two or three times a day, and try to have one or two new things every week,” he says.

Le Bon Delice’s new apprentice Jamie Ladewid enjoys working with pastries, and will benefit from Jean Jacques’s intent to train her at a variety of patisseries.

“Australia’s training system needs improvement. Being an apprentice at the same place for three years is too long, they would be doing the same thing over and over again. A two-year apprenticeship is enough. TAFE should also be a part of school. In France, you still do mathematics, French, English, while you do your training,” he says.

According to Jean Jacques, the trick to making a good croissant is to make sure the butter and dough are of the same consistency.

Jean JacquesLeFaou,

Home Province:Brittany

Le Bon Delice

The first thing Denis notices about Australian breads is the smell.

“The breads here have a twist of flavour. You can smell the leaven, taste it, it’s sweet, unlike French breads. The flavour is special, very strong and high quality, typical from here, you can’t find it anywhere else,” Denis says.

The strong, distinctive taste also makes for easier marital tracking.

“When I go home after working at a particular bakery the wife can tell where I have been,” Denis says laughing.

Originally from a small village in Normandy, Denis has worked the last 18 months at Sol Breads in Newstead, Brisbane. Producing organic products targeting a health conscious market, Denis has found the change from typically sweet French delicacies to the business’s purely natural products easy.

“I really love this bakery in particular. The owner has a very good sense of making products which are simple, but still high quality,” Denis says.

Quitting school at 14, he spent five years in an apprenticeship under his brother (now head pastry cook at the Las Vegas casino Venetia) learning both pastry and breads. His family enjoyed travelling, and he was influenced to visit other countries after completing his apprenticeship.

“You listen to people come back and tell stories, it starts to get in your blood,” Denis says.

In 1985 at age 23, he found himself in Paris looking for work. Times were economically tough with few jobs available, so he placed an advertisement in the newspaper, common for bakers to do at the time.

“I got a call from someone offering work in New Zealand. The first thing I did was look up where New Zealand was, I had no idea,” Denis says.

Moving to the other side of the world, he spent 17 years at a ‘typical’ French bakery. The business produced high quality product for a number of years, but as it began to expand, Denis found less enjoyment working there. Once frozen products started to emerge from the production line, he decided to make the move to Australia.

“Frozen can be good product, but not when produced at a big scale. You lose some of the quality – it can be prepared by people with no knowledge. You can keep high quality, but you’re not employing bakers any more, just machines,” Denis says.

Sol Breads creates a range of handcrafted breads made from certified organic stone ground flours and using only natural fermentation techniques. The bread range has a strong emphasis on wholefood ingredients, without the use of chemical or other additives and agents. With a large production facility and growing outlets, Denis enjoys working with a mix of bakers.

“All the bakers bring something to the bakery. We try to learn every day from each other,” Denis says.

Making breads without yeast can prove challenging, especially when the weather becomes a significant influence. Denis enjoys working with a range of breads, but one of his favorite is the Paine de Campagne, also one of the biggest sellers.

“It’s a very typical French country side bread. Naturally leaved, brown, quite full. It’s not very fine, more coarse.”

Sol Breads colleague Christian Baker says the business targets the current market trends of healthy eating.

“It’s noticeable here with our production, people are starting to understand the benefits of sourdough. A lot of people say they know how to make

Denis Craquelin, Home Province: Normandy

Sol Breads

proper sourdough, but it needs to be the fermentation that breaks the proteins down. People becoming health conscious is great for us. There’s always going to be a market for traditional white blocks however,” Christian says.

While Australia may not have centuries of bread making history, Denis has found many local qualities unique to his new home.

“To be a baker is a hard job, but you can work anywhere in the world. Australia has a great mix from all over the world: French, German, Turkish, and Italian. It’s good for all of us. Australians are very proud of what they are doing, hard workers, they are looking to make a good bread each day.”

Dennis Craquelin, Sol Breads

Rolling croissants