From sourdough and stone oven to modern bakery — the history of the baker's trade

Bread is one of humanity's oldest foods, and baking is an art that has been passed on for thousands of years. The baking trade — baking as a learned craft one can earn a living from — emerged where people gathered in cities and no longer baked all their bread at home. The trade's history is therefore also the history of the city, of the miller and the farmer, and how a simple mixture of flour, water and yeast became an entire industry.

§The first raised breads

In the earliest kitchens flat bread was baked on hot stones. At some point people discovered that dough that was allowed to sit began to bubble and rise by itself — what we today call sourdough. Wild yeast and lactic acid bacteria in the air and flour made bread lighter airier and more durable. That discovery is the foundation for almost all leavened bread we eat today.

§The city the miller and the guilds

When towns grew in the Middle Ages the baker became an independent occupation. The baker was dependent on the miller who milled the grain into flour and the farmer who grew the grain. In medieval and Renaissance cities bakers were often organized in guilds — associations that determined who could bake what quality bread should be and how one was trained from apprentice to journeyman to master. Bread price and weight were carefully regulated because bread was the most important everyday food.

§The pastry shop's fine pastries

While the baker baked daily bread, a finer trade grew up alongside: the pastry chef, who made cakes, desserts and sweet things. As sugar became more widespread and cheaper from the 1700s and 1800s, it became possible to make the fine cakes, marzipan work and creams we associate with a pastry chef today. Many of the classic French cakes and techniques — from shortcrust to chocolate tempering — come from this tradition.

§Mills, yeast and industrial ovens

In the 1800s and 1900s the bakery changed dramatically. Steam and electric machines took over the kneading work large ovens could bake much more at once and industrially produced yeast made leavening fast and predictable whereas before it relied on sourdough. Bread could now be produced on a large scale and it became cheaper and more uniform. At the same time the distinction arose between the craft bakery where the apprentice works with the dough and the large industrial bread factory.

§The Sourdough Wave and Modern Bakery

In recent decades craftsmanship and the old methods have come strongly back. Many consumers demand again long-fermented bread sourdough whole grain and quality ingredients instead of quick industrial bread. Modern bakery therefore combines the old craftsmanship with new knowledge about flour fermentation and flavour — and the baker is again become a specialist people want to drive to.

§The modern bakery and pastry trade

Today as a baker and pastry chef you are a skilled craftsperson who masters everything from rye bread and morning bread to layer cakes chocolate and French pastries. Hygiene allergen labelling and ingredient declaration have become legal requirements and sustainability and less food waste matter more. But the core is the same as the first stone oven: transforming good ingredients into something people look forward to eating.

“A good bread cannot be rushed — it must have time to become itself.”

— Baking Principle