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Au Bon Pain kitchen is maximising on the demand for new varieties of flavoured breads, bagels and sour dough breads.
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Guests today are well-travelled with tastebuds sensitive to authentic cusinies, which has led to the evolution of bakery products in the country discovers Sapna Kulshresta.

The bakery segment in Indian hotels has evolved over the last few years. Guest’s tastes have become more cosmopolitan leading to increase in popularity of bakery products along with improvement in product offering, and food safety.

Vikas Kumar, executive chef, Flurys Swiss Confectionery agrees “In the foodservice channel, quick casual dining is the up-and-coming trend; consumers too have become very savvy when it comes to dining experiences, and also the increasing availability of high class products in hotels and confectionaries has contributed to the rising popularity of bakery products in
Indian hospitality.”

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Bakery products can be extremely versatile as an ingredient and ethnic products are rapidly growing in popularity especially products with a deep historical context like the South African, Egyptian and Southeast Asian breads in addition to the European style bakery goods.

Other than baguettes and foccacia hotel bakeries are witnessing a huge demand for Arabic baked products such as manakish, fatayer and various flatbreads along with breads like ciabatta, pretzels, whole wheat bagels, sweet corn breads and pita which are not only different but also healthier.

Mukesh Singh Rawat, Bakery chef, The Claridges, Surajkund, Delhi, NCR adds “There is no end to the new trends in breads, for instance we have our own inventions such as Tulsi bread, mint and garlic bread; moreover we make breads as per guest requirements.

In pastries mango is roaring now-a-days, plus international fruits, such as passion fruit, is a trend”.

While earlier with a view to saving time, labour and other operational expenses many bakeries in hospitality segment used frozen products and premixes such as croissant laminates, cookie dough, bread dough etc, the trend is now moving towards going back to the old fashioned ways of baking without moulds, in open ovens especially in luxury hotels where there has been a resurgence in baking breads, rolls and other products using a natural fermentation process.

Also the age-old, process called retro-innovative, has brought a whole new meaning to exciting flavors where the expert bakers are making everything from scratch, breads, rolls, pastries, cakes, cheesecakes and so on rather than using the quicker ‘instant dough’ or pre-mixed or par-baked products.

Vikas Kumar presenting the pros and cons of the method says “The use of premixes is probably prevalent in extremely high turnover bakeries, though you won’t get an outstanding product but surely a good consistent one, but most chefs are very careful in using these. The drawback is the lack of authentic and rustic tastes and the advantages are of time saving and lesser skilled manpower.”

Also with the changing tastes of the consumer who are well travelled and want to try out new products, patisserie’s freshly baked breads and own range of signature baked goods are being promoted as the unique selling point of the hotel, moreover as compared to the frozen dough product that lacks freshness, a hand rolled croissant, breakfast pastry or breads offers more personalized feel to the guest.

Not to mention the dynamic sector of cakes and pastries considered luxury products of hotels is also undergoing innovations.