The ancient Greeks baked it, the Chinese steamed it and Calcuttans loved it. The city has always had a passionate love affair with the baked staple. Not only now, when shelves at trendy eateries are bursting with aromatic loaves of potato rosemary bread or fruit zopf or focaccia or French baguette or the salsa picante. The city has grown up along with its bread. The story of bread is the story of the city’s cosmopolitan past and its current globalised palate.

“No other place in India loves its bread as much as Calcutta does, not even Goa,” claims Niranjan Murthy, chef and chief operating officer of Kookie Jar. Support arrives from chef Sayak Chakroborty of the Park Hotels Calcutta: “Our international guests often tell me they think the breads in Calcutta and Goa are the best in the country.”

It all began with the Portuguese in both Goa and Bengal, in the sixteenth century. “The loaf of bread came with the Portuguese, Dutch and the French. To be specific, it was the gift of the Portuguese,” says food critic and enthusiast Rajen Bali.

The Portuguese term for bread is pao, from which the Bengali babu got his pauruti, says Bali. Some believe the term derives from the fact that dough is kneaded by feet (pa). “The word comes from the Portuguese pao or the north Indian pao, a term for a quarter of a pound,” says chef Sayak. “Since bread was available in quarters of a pound, it became popular as pao-roti.”

When bread first came to the city from bakeries dotting the small settlements along the Hooghly — Bandel, Chinsurah, Chandernagore and Serampore — it was more or less restricted to domestic consumption within the European communities.

Then began its journey to the andarmahal, where it now reigns supreme.

The first instance of organised bread-making in Calcutta was at the Great Eastern Hotel by David Wilson, an Englishman who initially ran a confectionery near Cossitola, now Bentinck Street. In 1840 Wilson opened the Auckland Hotel, which went on to become the Great Eastern Hotel. He started baking breads that became an instant hit with the guests.

Even then, bread was an elite European affair, not meant for the Bengali bhadrolok. It was popularised after an Italian took it up.

Federico Peliti, an Italian, came to India in 1868 as a caterer to the Viceroy, the Earl of Mayo. He opened a hotel in Calcutta — the Peliti’s restaurant.

During the 1890s, the Peliti’s became a Mecca of eating. Bread was an important part of the menu.

Peliti’s assistant Angelo Firpo opened Firpo’s on Chowringhee that later became a landmark on the city’s culinary map. So phenomenal was Firpo’s popularity that during the late Sixties, a Calcuttan of a certain class was expected to do certain things — visit the Victoria Memorial grounds with a loved one and collect leftover bread from the Firpo’s at night.

The story of bread in Calcutta would be incomplete without the Jewish contribution. Nahoum’s confectionery, founded in 1902, which moved to its present location in the New Market in 1916, holds a special place in the city. “It is the oldest running bakery in town,” says Bali.

Flurys was launched in 1927 and introduced Swiss breads and delicacies. Then there was Greek bread that usually came in thick chunks and had to be dipped in soup or had with cheese. Greek breads were made by George Papadolous at Attikon Bakery on Free School Street. It was operational till the 80s.

German bread, especially of Wyse & Co, was a competitor to Nahoum’s. Another competitor was the MX D’Gama or Maxo’s, as it was popularly known.

The Chinese community came with their bao. It’s a bread that is steamed, instead of baked. It is made from flour and stuffed with pork or chicken keema and can be had fresh at Tiretta Bazar at the crack of dawn on weekends

At these institutional bakeries, the fineness of the bread was more important than variety.

The British church introduced bread to the neo-converts. As a spiritual symbol, bread has accompanied religious festivals and rites: the Lord’s Prayer asks for “our daily bread”. As Europeans were opening up eateries across town in the 19th century and catering mainly to the Anglo-Indian community that needed their bread at every meal, the Nawab’s men did the rest.

Many Muslim bawarchis (chefs), who had seen a downslide in their trade as the glory of the nawabs faded, came to Calcutta and took their popular woodfire bread to households.

“That’s how the Bengali babu learnt eating his bread and offered a large market for the regular loaf. Bengalis also loved to travel and sample various types of food. They increasingly were keen to try new varieties of bread,” says Murthy of Kookie Jar.

After a point there was no stopping the bread from invading the Bengali kitchen. By 1923, the year Abol Tabol was published, Sukumar Ray had already written: “Kintu shobar chaite bhalo/pauruti aar jhola gur (But the best dish of them all/ Is bread and flowing jaggery)”.

Now there is a new feast. Bread-making is not restricted to a handful of bakeries across the city; the search for variety and increasing demand for different foods have led to the entry of multiple players. The humble pauruti has come a long way in the city — from deem toasts, grilled sandwiches and the Bengalis’ favourite butter-cheeni toasts to exotic varieties like the pretzel, pumpernickel or a baguette, to name a few.

“Christmas breads do not mean just hot-cross buns or fruit loaves anymore. Now, the city can choose from its panforte, pandolce, pandoro, panpepato, panettone or pangiallo (Italian breads with different flavours) to begin with,” chuckles chef Sayak.

“The price of breads at Flurys varies from Rs 25 for our basic white bread to up to Rs 95 for our speciality fruit zopf (typically served for Sunday breakfasts) or Russian Pumpernickel (a dark, moist and chewy bread),” says Flurys executive chef Vikas.

At Spencer’s Patisserie, on offer are cheese and garlic bread, farmer’s bread, potato rosemary, fruit zopf, focaccia, French baguette and salsa picante. Kookie Jar specialises in over 10 varieties of bread including milk, multi-grained, spicy-masala, cheese, sun-dried tomato, spinach and ricotta, and garlic bread.

Besides the regular bread, Deli of The Conclave and the two Afraa Delis — in City Centre Salt Lake and New Town — offer focaccia, bagel, baguettte, sesame semolina, ciabatta, sour dough, fougasse, challa, poppy seed bloomer and Irish soda breads.

The younger generation seems to prefer a low-calorie, fibre-rich, fancy diet. Keeping their taste in mind, the city bakeries are working on varieties like the brown and multi-grain breads that are now available at the grocer’s next door.

Bread has also moved on from the hand-made variety. Now an entire range of equipment — rotary bread oven, walk-in proofer, dough kneader, planetary mixer, spiral mixer, automatic cookie machine and others — are at service for mass production. Some of the local bread companies that have stood the test of time and still produce good breads are Anchor, Prince and Modern bakeries.

Some bakeries stick to their traditional hand-to-mouth method. One such is that of the Saldanha’s. Eighty years old, the little bakery at 19 Nawab Abdul Rehman Street off Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Road is run by Denzil and Mona Saldanha and their daughter Deborah.

The place exudes an old-world charm as one finds the way through a narrow alley. A large iron gate leads you to the base factory. Every loaf is handmade here and has no added chemicals. They perish after two days. The bread baking starts at five in the evening. The family wakes up at 5.30am for the slicing and packaging.

“Our breads go to a fixed clientele. In the last five years I have seen even the poor switching over to bread from their traditional sattu and muri meals. Easy availability and affordability are the game-changers,” says Denzil.

Bread has come a long way in the city. But the definition of the best bread remains unchanged. Spongy, warm and melt-in-the mouth. It doesn’t crumble; neither does it turn into hard cardboard when toasted. The aroma makes you contemplative. “That’s what a piece of loaf means to me,” says Bali.

Infinite variety

Bagel

Challa

Ciabatta

Fougasse

Irish soda

Poppy seed bloomer

Pretzel

Russian Pumpernickel

Ricotta

Sesame semolina