Comfort Food from the Oven

Bread is a staple food in many European countries. Although its traditional variety makes it a very important cultural good, it was subject to the mechanisms of industrialisation over past decades and Europe’s bakers lost a large part of their market to supermarkets and discounters. At the same time, an increasingly mobile society demanded both more and more hand-held snacks and take-aways on the one hand and cosy locations where they could feel at home on the other. Thanks to their baking expertise, bakers can satisfy both needs by adopting a more foodservice-oriented position and profile. Accordingly, bakery cafés rank among the rising gastronomic stars of the last decade. Part 2 of our pan-European survey.