Small artisan bakery
Hi Freshloafers!
I'm seriously entertaining the idea of opening up my own bakery in Cyprus (think Mediterranean, but I am currently in Michigan) in the near future. I'll focus on limited production (250 loaves/day) of wild yeast breads and depending on how scheduling/demand works out, I am thinking of rotating in a pizza day/night. I have a lot of home baking experience, tried working at a seriously high-volume artisan bakery for a little while as well, and made pizzas at a very nice SF Bay Area restaurant, but other than that I don't really have any commercial experience. Once I move to Cyprus (hopefully soon), I will slowly start laying out a serious business plan, start slowly (maybe in a garage), and then move into my own space. We will see... I also yet to play around with flours from that region to produce the high quality products I am visioning...
In any case, I have a more or less good idea of the equipment needed to start this endevour, but the areas that I really need research on I guess are the temperature-controlled proofing cabinets/closets, mixers and bread ovens. No clue on proofing cabinets/closets... for the mixers, I really want to use a diving-arm mixer to imitate the gentle hand mixing... Regarding the ovens, I first wanted to go with an Alan Scott brick oven but then eliminated that idea thinking that I am not going to have a consistent/reliable source of wood in Cyprus. So, I am thinking electric/gas ovens... I have no experience using a commercial oven other than the Baker's Pride deck oven I used for making pizzas.
I'd appreciate any general feedback, but also specifically on the equipment I mentioned above. If you have knowledge of equipment available in Europe, that would even be better. Also, any suggestions on how I can get more experience on using commercial ovens/mixers? Classes or do I need to go to a local bakery? Or can I just figure out how to properly use an oven for example by talking to the experienced FreshLoaf folks or other bakers?
And finally, are there specific oven-types that I can both use to bake hearth breads and make pizzas?
Thanks much!
Hazim
For example, Back Home Bakery, in Kalispell, Montana runs a summer intern program. Here's link to their posting featuring their most recent intern. You can contact them about applying.
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/30141/codrutas-internship-back-home-bakery
Or, search for one in your area, and offer yourself in exchange for mentoring.
David G
I don't know about Greece but in Germany and France bakers protect their turf pretty vigorously and therefore opening a bakery is not that easy. Firstly you need to be or at least employ a Master Baker and then there are regulations controlling the hours that you are allowed to produce and various regulations that would seem totally to someone from North America. Now Greece may be much more lax but I would suggest researching what it takes to open a bakery. In Greece there use to be a lot of small time bribery and extortion by public officials, no idea if this is still the case.
Gerhard
Cyprus is a sovereign country, and not part of greece, btw. cultural influences are there, however. The author of this post may be referring to either Greek or turkish cultured part of Cyprus.
Wouldn't your primary focus in that area be Flat Bread?