Making bread as we know it is one of the oldest crafts in the world dating back to the Egyptian times over 5000 years ago and even more basic forms of bread were recorded over 10,000 years ago (Botham’s Educational Pages).

The breaking of bread is symbolic in many religions of sharing, giving and welcoming people to come together. Bread is the staple food in countries all over the world. For thousands of years bakers and families have been making and creating their own bread. It is an art form taken seriously by many international chefs and passed down from one generation to another.

Raymond Blanc, a renowned French chef is passionate about making bread from the finest ingredients and in an artisan way reminiscent of times past. If you go to Raymond’s fabulous restaurant Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons near Oxford you will be offered a variety of bread, all home made and fermented over time. There are even breads made from ingredients other than wheat (rice, maize, buckwheat and chestnut flour) and gluten free too.

The smell of freshly baked bread is very tempting. Visit your local supermarket and smell from the bakery comes wafting across the store – but that maybe where the goodness ends!

Twelve million loaves of bread are sold in the UK every day with thousands of people suffering from gluten intolerances and digestive problems such as bloating, celiac disease, IBS, constipation to name a few. Part of the problem with our daily bread today is the number of additives in the bread as well as the small amount to time given to the fermentation process which ideally should take place over several hours to allow the ingredients to become more digestible. The necessity to produce millions of loaves per day does not allow this process to happen due to the time frame to produce one loaf after another over and over again. As worldwide populations grow so the need to provide more food puts increased pressure to process and manufacture food such as bread to the detriment of our health. (more…)