BOUTIQUE BREAD

BOUTIQUE BREAD

text Alexia Evripidou

photography Louca Studios

A feast for the eye and a treat for the palate; that is the mission of the Four Seasons’ new bakery – and it is accomplished three times a day, every day, in all shapes and forms.

Bread may be a mere composition of flour and water cultured with yeast, allowed to rise and baked in an oven. But its value in societies around the world is not to be underestimated. More than just food, this 30,000-year staple is a symbol of life. Fresh out of the oven, it ranks among the simplest yet most irresistible pleasures.

Stelios Tsiarkezos, the Four Seasons master baker, and his team produce an astounding quantity and variety of daily fresh breads including specialities from France, Italy, Germany and Greece.

So, much to the delight of refined palates, the Four Seasons’ new in-house bakery now prepares over 20 mouthwatering international and local bread recipes, baked crisp to the look and enticing to the scent, seven days a week. Food and Beverage Manager Yiannos Gregoriou says: “The Four Seasons is one of the few hotels in Cyprus with its very own fully kitted, high-tech bakery, and probably the only one with such a variety of baked goods leaving the ovens several times a day, to be served with breakfast, lunch and dinner in all our restaurants.”

The new bakery also supplies the Four Seasons’ associate hotel, the Amathus Beach, and will soon have an outlet in the new Colors Café opening in 2017.

REINFORCING A REPUTATION

Within the framework of the recent full-scale renovation, the Four Seasons saw an opportunity to upgrade its bread offerings, given that they are never absent from any table. In April 2016, with a 28-strong team, top-end equipment and a passion for dough, the new 400m 2 bakery fired up its ovens and the art of baking commenced. Yiannos explains: “Gastronomy is one of the pillars of our hotel; we make our own chocolates, pastries, cakes and ice-creams, so it was only natural to upgrade the quality and variety of our bread by serving freshly baked homemade products.”

The bakery is divided into two main parts: a team of eight chefs in the boulangerie section, and another 20 in the pastry kitchen, dedicated to sweet pastries, chocolates, ice cream, cakes and à la carte desserts. Executive Pastry Chef Demetris Hadjiyiannis, who is responsible for managing the daily operation in both, says with pride: “You can’t find so many types of bread or equally high quality in any other hotel in Cyprus; our bread is unique.”

THE ART OF BAKING

The new facility created the demand for the position of ‘master baker’. With 20 years of Four Seasons experience, Stelios Tsiarkezos was the man of the moment. To prime him for the bakery’s grand launch, Stelios was sent on a European training tour to explore and assimilate the secrets of bread making and baking across the Continent: crisp and fluffy French baguette; crusty German wholewheat bread and multi-grain loaves; Greek rings and rolls with olive oil and local herbs. And to make sure the pastry kitchen also stayed one step ahead of the rest, the whole pastry team participated in hands-on training by the renowned and award-winning Spanish pastry chef, Oriol Balaguer.

We prepare the dough and put it intothe proofer to help activate the yeast, so we’re ready to startbaking the next morning at 4am sharp.

Today, Stelios Tsiarkezos and his team are the magic hands working tirelessly behind the scenes. With so many varieties of bread to prepare, breakfast rituals begin with making, proofing and baking over 500 small rolls, 20 baguettes, 20 different types of breads, 300 croissants, donuts, Danish and other pastries – ultimately producing over 1000 different pieces for breakfast, every day. The process is repeated again for lunch, dinner and themed events. “Our day starts… on the previous day. We prepare the dough and put it into the proofer to help activate the yeast, so we’re ready to start baking the next morning at 4am sharp, and can serve the first freshly baked breakfast items by 7am,” says Stelios.

Classic focaccia parcels filled with aged parmesan, roasted baby cherry tomatoes and fresh basil. Brushed with olive oil, they are crunchy on the outside and moist in the middle.

LET’S TALK BREAD

The selection is vast: white crust, multi-seed, corn rolls and bread varieties, ciabatta, grissinis, regular loafs of white and wholewheat flour, German rye, German country style and nutty wholegrain loaves. Traditional olive and halloumi bread make an appearance on Greek nights. Then there are the classic focaccia parcels filled with aged parmesan, roasted baby cherry tomatoes and fresh basil, brushed with olive oil; crunchy on the outside and moist and scrumptious in the middle, they are quick to make and quicker to devour.

Look out for the original golden chia loaf; plump triangular crusty bread with rich grooves sprinkled loosely with semolina and sesame seeds. “The chia seeds are inside, and it’s packed with nutrients,” Stelios explains. The water bread too most certainly shouts ‘eat me’. It’s a loose round, golden brown and rustic looking loaf covered in beautiful geographical terrain-like swirls. The temptation to tear it, slather it with fresh butter and sprinkle with sea salt is irresistible. The equal quantity of water and flour makes it a very light bread; airy inside and perfectly crispy outside – tastiest when eaten straight away, and especially when dipped in virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Then there’s the oat bread, one of Stelios’s personal favourites; a cubed light brown bread scattered with oats and marked with an X. “Oat bread is very filling; it’s moist and dense, and is mainly served at breakfast. Athletes in particular value the fibre, complex carbohydrates and protein contained in oats,” explains Stelios.

Some bread is quick to proof and bake, while other kinds – like the Greek Gartheli – need time, dedication and love. The deliciously heavy, long fermentation sourdough bread takes at least 24 hours to ferment and overall two days to make. And of course, one can never forget the sacred French baguette, in wholewheat, multi-seed and crunchy white variations.

Next time you visit any Four Seasons buffet, take a moment to feast your eyes on the bread display that is flour art at its best. Note the appetizing beauty of swirls and twists, dustings and seeded toppings on crisp whites, yellows and rustic browns, all accompanied by the singular aroma of freshly baked bread. It’s that unique and favourite smell that says ‘home, sweet home’, and in this case adds ‘welcome to the Four Seasons’.