EDITORIAL
The key to bread Katz Bakery is a traditional bakery in the Stuttgart region, with around 1,000 people in all its subsidiaries. It specializes in spelt, which it also farms, and it bakes all of its products with fresh dough, every day. Katz uses wood-fired ovens for breads and rolls, and makes about 1,500 breads per hour. This bakery uses a special spelt sourdough, a 20-year-old strain started by the previous generation owner. The spelt sourdough is prepared by hand, true to their artisan baking tradition. “The key to bread is the time you put into it. Theoretically, you could make a bread in two hours; but, our sourdough is cured and rested,” Nickolas Katz, the fifth generation business owner, highlighted. One of the bakery’s specialties are oversized pretzels, which are used as a sandwich base. I visited his bakery in July, as part of the südback press tour. As most of the work is carried out at night, our group of journalists and fair organizers was welcomed in the production area in the afternoon. Katz also prepares cakes, confectioneries, and berliners in the cold season using thermo-oil ovens for the cakes.
Catalina Mihu, Editor-in-chief Your commments or suggestions are always appreciated: e-mail: mihu@foodmultimedia.de
Tradition does meet modern technology here, even though handcrafted products prevail: not long ago, the bakery renewed its bread ovens, with new equipment from MIWE. While there is plenty of space for day-to-day work, the ovens were simply too big to be brought in. They had to therefore be lowered in through the roof, after the old ones left via the same route. The roof was dismantled and has now been rebuilt to open when the need arises in the future. Katz was one of several bakeries to which Messe Stuttgart granted us access, in anticipation of the trade fair to be held in October. It aims to return as a ‘campfire’ for bakers to reunite around, as Marcus Höffer, marketing manager of the BÄKO organization, explained at the conference. Before then, another highly-anticipated event is taking place: IBIE returns in September, the Baking Expo, to which we are a Gold Media Partner. IBIE will gather in Las Vegas for the industry with all the innovations we have not been able to see in person for the past two years. A preview of the novelties that exhibitors are putting on display is in the pages of this magazine. One thing is certain: both of these exciting events are back with a complete range of solutions for their target audience, which are bound to provide an entire chain of keys to baking the best version of every kind of bread. The F2M team will travel to these must-attend events, and analyze the new solutions and innovations showcased there. See you in Las Vegas, and then in Stuttgart! Catalina Mihu
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