Bake Your Bread And Eat It, Too

Chef Konstantino Blokbergen shares why you should return to traditional methods of bread baking, and tips on making real bread at home.

- Eliza Hamizah

The big difference between artisanal bread – or real bread, as Konstantino Blokbergen calls it – and the ones you find at the supermarket, is time. The Greek-born chef and owner of Firebake – Woodfired Bakehouse & Restaurant is reconnecting with traditional methods of bread-baking, which involves only the four essential ingredients (flour, water, salt and yeast) and a full and natural fermentation process that takes at least 24 hours.

Konstantino says commercial bread uses over 20 ingredients, including baker’s yeast, which accelerates the bread-making process to only two or three hours. This means the previously delayed natural fermentation will now occur inside your stomach, which may cause bloatedness and discomfort.

The passionate chef has two wood-fired brick ovens in his restaurant, and bakes sourdough bread, the type of bread that has gone through naturally occurring fermentation, daily. Not only is it more flavourful and easier on the stomach, sourdough bread is made using techniques that can be replicated at home, too.