Starting an entrepreneurship that bets for offering breads and sweets has part of its guaranteed future in Cuba, where it is needed and desired. Much more if the quality of the products is the biggest concern of its managers.
He Havana breadnewly opened in the capital Vedado, it is a business with a novel offer that includes hard bark bread as one of its main products, prepared in favor of the best nutrition of its consumers.
It is not a family inheritance business, as has happened in this office of bakers; It can be said that chance decided the fate of this “bakery”, which will be much more than that.
Laura María Meguis Orue, her main partner, lives more than 30 years ago outside Cuba, but never lost her roots. “In the end we have made a family. I always say that I don’t want a business with workers; I want people who integrate, people who hurt what hurts me. That if a bread goes wrong, everyone responds, even if there is a boss. ”
“With the purpose of creating a unique entrepreneurship, we started calling everyone and located two great bakers who have helped us a lot.”
Horn and flour
Josep Antoni Ribas is one of the most important bakers in Spain. Since 1978 he works in the PAN area; He studied engineering, but combined both professions because his father had already ventured to deal with ovens and flours. Of Spanish but internationalized origin thanks to the PAN, currently lives in Costa Rica and its fundamental destiny is Central America, where it offers conferences and consultancies. Soon he will open his academy in Panama to train bakers around the world. But first he has focused his energies on the Havana bread.
“It is not my first time in Cuba, but professionally; I came to work, ”says Antoni Ribas while explaining how the business will be.
“Three bakers make the elaborations with the recipes that are already predefined. Initial we focus on small pieces to taste and check that the recipes were well applied or if you had to put more salt or give them more or less time in the oven. Those days were very learning. ”
Antoni brought all the technology in Barcelona. They are the same machines with which it has operated for more than three decades and that are now assembled in Cuba.
Moisture on the island, so typical of its climate, has not made it impossible for recipes and waiting times Air conditioning, which facilitates the extraction of the humidity of the flour with excellent conservation.
“We are going to apply the same methods that we apply there [en España]with bread with long fermentation, without any additive. Everything is natural bread with mother dough, flour, water, salt and very small amount of yeast; We work with ten times lower than normal dose, so we have more pronounced bread flavors, because yeast usually kills bread taste. ”
But like any great project, there are always details to ensure, so that they do not become problems. “Containers do not have an exact arrival date. Although it is planned for one day, it can be delayed and that influences the production chain. That is why we have guaranteed a Stock that allows us to replace that delay. ”
Mother mass
“The flours are a little diminished when fermenting and that is due to the fortification itself. We use Spanish flours that do not have any type of additive inside, therefore we are taking out the authentic wheat flavor. We want bread to know bread; For that we bring flours of the greatest flour in Spain and its quality is optimal and recognized worldwide, we use top quality raw materials, it is a process that needs to be the best, ”says Antoni Ribas.
The mother dough is a crop of bacteria that is created. There are several methods, but the most traditional is based on apples. They are cut and allowed to ferment in water, after five days, fermented water is the one used to make the first knead, using the same amount of water as flour.
Antoni Ribas explains the process of doing the mother dough as a teacher in a chemistry class, but with more passion.
The teacher baker has told the same process to each of the bakery workers, not only to those who will elaborate the bread, also to those who store the flour, to which they will sell, to those of marketing, to himself, for himself, for Never forget that mother mass bread is the best in the world.
All workers of Havana bread They know what they will sell, they know that this “new product” helps digestion and strengthening intestinal flora, they also know how It is an artisanal bread!
“We know that, in addition to making good bread, we must encourage the culture of customer consumption, so that they know what they are buying,” says Antoni Ribas, convinced that the genetic and cultural burden of consuming bread will be on his side.
The perfect gear
In addition to making bread, young people who have integrated into Havana bread They learned about nutrition, about the history of each bread, how the flours are made.
“The brioche dough is not a mass of common bread, it is to make sweet breads, with an enriched dough that carries more eggs, more sugar and other ingredients that provide more in nutritional terms, and give greater softness. It is more artisanal in the elaboration process, ”says Enrique, one of the assistants he has learned with the bakery teachers on training days, prior to the opening to the public.
Teamwork in a bakery is fundamental. Assistants play an essential role to lighten workloads, so it is important that they know the specificities of each process.
Enrique is very clear: “My work consists above all to help prepare the masses, to maintain cleaning, to have the ingredients ready for each recipe, to ensure that nothing is missing.”
But it’s not just about bread. The sweets are the other attraction, so they have had to look for staff with experience in this area.
Lázaro Didier has always been Dulcero. “Before I worked with the State and then in particular sweets, but now this is another level. The difference is notable, first in the conditions with which you work, with a widely and perfectly clean elaboration area, with all the instruments you need to work, with the raw materials you dreamed, and that translates into the good results of The final elaboration. I only saw these things in videos; Now I can do them myself. And if you also have a teacher in front, you can learn better. ”
All the recipes that are offering are new, prepared by the teachers bakers in Spain.
“Discipline is fundamental in an entrepreneurship like this,” says Lázaro – and, unfortunately, we come with bad vices from other sectors. In Cuba, a lot has worked for the need. We must guarantee the day to day, then sometimes common sense or belonging is lost when something is from the State, which as it has few resources is how it comes out, but here it is not so ”.
A unique bread
Antoni Ribas did not only arrive in Havana. Josep Pascual, World PAN ambassador, has shared the experience of the opening of Havana bread.
“The team we have worked with is quite motivated because after each work we tried everything that has been done during the day. This is a high -level bread, not only in Cuba, but anywhere in the world. Everyone is amazed when they notice those different flavors that do not need extra additions to know well. ”
Both bakers have done their job well: “It has not been difficult to teach again. The team was completely open to learn, in addition to knowing me on social networks. They were waiting and wishing to monopolize that knowledge, change the ways with which they worked before and incorporate new routines, ”says Pascual.
“In each part of the world the recipes reinvent. In none it is the same, so study the culinary customs of each territory, to somehow understand how they eat bread, what time and with what is accompanied. Then you have to modify the recipes to meet the needs and expectations of each territory, but without losing the nutritional guarantee or aesthetics. I already knew Cuba, that’s why it was much easier for me to adapt to Cubans, in addition to fascinating the culture of this country. ”
The ones who knew the most
Laura knew that sharing the experience with Josep Antoni and Josep Pascual would give added value to her business.
“When we thought about opening a bakery, we were clear that we had to ally those who knew the most. Here we begin to consider something unique, not only in how bread is done, but also in quality, because it happens in many countries that when there are crises, prices rise and low quality. That is a mistake, ”says the owner.
“My idea is to make a quality and relatively economic bread; But I can’t give the work either because the raw material, all, is brought from Spain, to salt, and that costs a lot. I know that this bread goes to people with a high purchasing level; That is why we have a cheaper line, to reach everyone. ”
Laura has not only thought about offering bread to all pockets, but is helping with food to SAF (family care system) adjacent to its establishment. “After many procedures, they have authorized me and we are collaborating with what we produce, for the moment. We are giving our bread several times a week. We also collaborate with food on special occasions. ”
“Now in Cuba there are many MSMEs I think that if we all put a grain of sand, we can help a lot. It is true that companies have to be profitable, which is to earn money that were created, but there must be a social contribution. If your environment is fine, you are fine. At this moment you have to be a single country. But for that the government has to trust small and medium enterprises, because SMEs anywhere in the world are those that carry the weight of the economy. We need to support us more. ”
The favorite bread
Havana bread It will be another venture with many challenges ahead in today’s Cuba. Maintaining the value for money will be one of them. It all depends on the will and initiatives of his team, led by a woman and with the advice of great bakery masters in the world.
“I like all breads,” Josep Pascual says. You have to try them to surprise or disappoint. I always recommend Galician bread, it is the one that would eat every day, but it is for me because in my culture you eat with certain foods that are newspapers, but for a Colombian or a German will surely be another. Each culture has its favorite bread. But among all those is the Havana breadwhich will be the best in the world. ”
Where: Calle Calzada # 709 between Paseo and A. Vedado. Revolution Square. Havana
Schedules: Every day from 8:00 am – 8:00 pm
Contacts: 78308970 / +53 63114568
