The case for good bread.
If it pleases the court.
Our staff always grow to love our bread. They'll have their favourites, of course. Mini Ciabatta, toasted and topped with a fried egg and pol sambol for one. Ten Seed & Grain with butter (probably margarine, but with the same joy) for the other. One of our first assistants who left to work in the Middle East had a Frenchman's palate. Wholegrain sourdough a day old; much like Lionel Poilane recommended his 2kg wholegrain sourdough Miche. She'd prefer it toasted, then buttered. She even had her Brioche a day old just to build a little complexity.
In the conversations we have, especially early after they join us, I make a case for good bread. I explain that while we Lankans love our bread and it is ubiquitous, varied and till recently quite affordable, we still use it as a spoon or sponge to soak delicious curry and ferry it to our mouths. The bread plays an an supporting role, overshadowed by strong, flavours. It's how we've always done it. The bread doesn't matter much anymore. Our parents & grandparents may have been more discerning. I remember they had their favourite wood-fired bakeries.
Sometimes after a bake, I slice a bit of bread and we share it as a team with butter and salt. It is nothing short of magic to watch someone else experience what I am too at that moment: a saturation of perfect paired flavour. A fullness of what something so simple can be when it's good.
At those moments and others I explain how bread is eaten differently and how the economics of our plates aren't that different from the west. I explain that it's a trope that Westerners are eating expensive ham, bacon and cheese all the time. That a lunch often is some protein, maybe a few eggs, some salad, or sliced tomatoes with some olive oil and of course, good bread, like ours. That good bread gets to and must play a leading role on that plate. And when compared to Lankan meal with a minimum of three curries, all made with so much effort and cost, that the economics of our plates don't have to be structurally different. They still may be, of course, but they don't have to be. And that we make bread as good as we do because it has to step up to this role.
The mothers and wives on our teams 'get' it first. Their labour at 4AM is what makes those curries, after all. I've been told more than a few times by one of our assistants that she's gone home and felt too lazy to cook and she and her husband had our sourdough with butter and Marmite or jam.
Food always has been political. It divides us. It creates hierarchies: who cooks and who is cooked for. It's identity, it's culture and it can estrange us. While I can't change much of society itself, we have, and still have to find more ways of being a business that tries to be better. Some days that's us structuring ourselves to be less exploitative. Other days it is us munching on buttery bread together and understanding how the economics of our plates can be constructed around some good bread and simple ingredients. I hope we'll always make time for these conversations.
BREAD.lk is a specialist bakery making the best handmade Sourdough and Brioche in Sri Lanka. We make wholegrain, sprouted wheat and healthy seed and grain sourdough bread, rustic ciabatta as well as delicious Brioches and Babkas. We rely on a combination of wild yeast fermentation and traditional breadmaking techniques to get the best out of all-natural ingredients. We use no artificial additives or preservatives. Order your loaf at www.bread.lk . Pick it up from one of our collection points across Colombo or have it delivered to you overnight anywhere on the island.
