UBC July 2024 - Bakery

Welcome back to July's UBC. This month I'm going to be talking about cultural differences between Switzerland and the USA.

Today's topic is bread and bakeries. 

It's one of the things you keep hearing if Swiss people (and many other Western Europeans) who travel to, stay in or live in America: They keep telling you they miss "real bread". They get tired of sliced, fluffy white bread quickly, and I can't blame them. Having grown up in Europe, we consider this "toast bread". 

I came to love the Cheese Oregano bread at Subway and the Honey Wheat Bread at Outback Steakhouse. Guess what though, their sugar content basically makes a slice of bread a dessert!

What I didn't know though when I first spent some time in San Diego, was that small scale bakeries like we have and cherish in every town or village, no matter how small, don't exist either. 

Or I have never found any, even though I have been looking everywhere. 

That's where my next "problem" came in though. Where would one look for the bakery, say, in my home town in Switzerland? In the old town, in the vicinity of the church. There would typically be a fountain, some kind of ccbble stone piazza, a park bench, and a bunch of businesses, such as a butcher, a post office, a flower shop, a café and a restaurant. 

There are not many American cities that are "old enough" to have this kind of distinctive old town center, Boston comes to mind. Is it that the country never went through that distinctive small business stage we had in Europe? When our (great) grandparents went to the market, it was literally an open-air market where farmers offered their produce. Apart from this, every food group had their own specialzied shop: Dairy, fish, meat - and bread.

In the US, Kroger was founded in 1883, others like A&P, Piggly Wiggly and Safeway followed, laying the foundation for the modern grocery industry, introducing new retail concepts and expanding rapidly to serve a growing population.

Interestingly though, now, I found out that in the meantime, San Diego has two bakeries!!! One opened in 2018 (my last visit was in 2016, darn, I missed it) and the other one after the pandemic. 

Sadly in Switzerland the amount of bakeries is decreasing. Gas station convenience stores and wholesalers claiming a large percentage of  the market share are some of the reasons, finding new talent in an industry where working hours start at 1 a.m. adds to the challenge. 

One of Colin's hockey teammate's Mom is a a pastry chef, she has the same working hours like the bakers. She tries to go to bed early, which is hard if you have four children. 

When Russia attacked Ukraine and the Western nations imposed sanctions on Russia as a result, energy prices skyrocketed. Guess who, among others, was suffering as a result? The bakeries! In order to support the weakened economy, stimulus programs were launched, which led to an increased supply of money and thus inflation and, in turn, high prices, not least for rents and mortgages. And once again, bakeries were among those hit, paying rent 24/7 but only generating good turnover for a few hours a day.  

The prevalence of food allergies, especially coeliac disease, has increased in Western countries in recent decades.

In general, the carbohydrates contained in flour have also led to bread being avoided by some population groups. Once again, bad news for bakeries. 

There must be some bread lover left in this world? There are! And they've been baking their own bread, which has become increasingly popular, especially in 2020/21. However, I wonder how many of the sourdough fans are still doing it, now that life has gone back to "normal".

Going through my old posts (almost 10 years back for this one) I found instructions on how to make olden days cast iron pot bread. I was curious whether the pot made that much of a difference. See for yourself! Left: baked regularly on a try, and right, baked in a pot! so much crunchier!

At some point I also made bear bread, carrot bread (bread, not cake) and potato loaf bread. 

I find it fascinating how a little yeast, some time and an oven can transform a dough ball into something so yummy!

Do you like bread? Do you know of any bakeries in your area?