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Give us this day...
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... our Daily Bread, and plenty of it. The humble bread is no longer that
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Yummies in the making; customers drooling over the goodies at the Daily Bread oulet — Photos: V. Sreenivasa Murthy
FROM THE gooey, invalids' diet to a complete boulangerie, the humble bread has come a long way in Bangalore. But first, some confessions. I've always been a breadophile (if there's such a thing). Even in the days when it came only in three avatars (in case you belong to the new hip crowd and don't know, it was plain, milk, and tutti-fruity), I always liked my perfectly turned out slice. So much so that I was usually disappointed when my mother would sensibly turn down the doctor's suggestions to give me bread and milk when I was sick and feed me good old rotis.
Which, of course, technically, is also bread. But not so, in the average Indian's dictionary.
The Bangalorean, however, is a different matter. In a city where even your car cleaner carries a mobile phone, it is but natural that a boulangerie, probably the first of its kind in the country, gets cleaned out on the opening day. Validating Arjun Sekri, Bhushan Jalgaonkar, and Nilesh Karkhani's confidence that if there is a place to try out a new idea in food, Bangalore is it.
But then, the Bangalorean can also be most demanding. "People have been travelling abroad a lot these days, especially the IT crowd," points out Bhushan, an ex-Taj chef who's been all over the world, "and they know their minds." Which is why the Daily Bread (that is what their boulangerie, or bakery, is called) tries to be as true to the original as possible.
From the ovens lined with lava stone (to get an even heat and to lend a flavour different from the usual steel ones) to the flour mixes, the oils and the ingredients that make for the ciabattas, the foccaccias and the paninis, Daily Bread ensures that authenticity is maintained. "We do tweak things a bit to suit the Indian taste," admits Bhushan, but only just that much, because most of their clientele would want the real taste of the Bavarian dark rye bread or the blueberry brioche.
"We have had people walk in here with more knowledge about bread than one would imagine," says Bhushan, and so maintaining the quality and the variety is a challenge. There are already regulars walking in and asking for their usual that could range from the spinach loaf graham to the San Francisco sour dough.
Now, to disabuse you of some notions. The Daily Bread is a wholesale state-of-the-art boulangerie and not a retail outlet. The idea is to bake large quantities and sell wholesale to malls and other places. The little outlet in Koramangala is just to showcase their ware — to get the retail customer to taste things and encourage her to buy from one of the departmental stores in her locality.
"The key thing for us would be to maintain the variety," points out Arjun Sekri an ex-investment banker who brings all his financial savvy to the enterprise. "We already have 35 products from 12 kinds of flour. We eventually hope to have 250 items from 35 doughs," he says, adding, "There is no compromise at all on quality."
For Arjun, it was an opportunity waiting to be tapped. "The choice here has been pathetic," he says, mincing no words at all, "we want to bring genuine international quality here; the housewife in India should be able to source the same quality as the housewife in the U.S. or Europe." With technology transfer from a company in Hong Kong they're coy about naming, they are hoping to achieve not just that, but also take over the bakeries of large hotels. "Most hotels abroad outsource and we hope to bring about that change in India, as well," points out Arjun. "And since we have both the quality and the recipes, we see no reason why they wouldn't want to." The other market for them lies in the burgeoning cafes and coffee shops in Bangalore, who are already outsourcing their bread. Bangalore was just a safe starting point. The other metros are next on the cards. Mumbai is likely to be ready by February and eight other metros will follow in the next three years. And other products, too. Sandwiches are already available. Frozen foods are also in the offing. Soon, all you'll have to do is buy your favourite bread that has been frozen in a blast freezer and bung it in the oven at home to get freshly baked bread.
And, how could I forget? There are desserts that will make even the most stouthearted go weak in the knees. "We do not have the usual black forest and pineapple cheesecake," says Bhushan with impish delight. What they do have is an amazing range — from a delicious passion fruit white mousse to a passionate tiramisu and a sombre green tea cheesecake. After all, man can't live by bread alone.
KANCHAN KAUR
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Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
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Visakhapatnam
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