Gadsby's Bakery says bravo to Puratos and Viva Italia!
Gadsby's Bakery has hailed Puratos and its Viva Italia recipes a resounding success, having given the family-run craft baker the inspiration to create one of the most varied bread baskets outside of Lombard.
"At Gadsby's, we believe in giving the customer exactly what they want," says managing director Terry Gadsby, "so when we were recently approached with an enquiry for ciabatta, we were only too pleased to say yes. Having worked with Puratos for many years, we were aware of its Easy Ciabatta mix, and once they told us about their Viva Italia concept, we couldn't wait to give it a try!"
Developed by Puratos in response to the rising popularity of all foods Mediterranean, Viva Italia shows bakers how just one product - its Easy Ciabatta mix - can be used to create over forty authentic Italian breads, including ciabatta, ritorto, focaccia, lardo and focaccine.
"Our customer was looking to enhance its wholesale sandwich offering, so ciabatta's trademark light crust, open moist crumb and sophisticated aromatic flavour made it the perfect choice," recalls Terry. "Their requirement called for large volumes, therefore we were immediately attracted by how quick and simple Easy Ciabatta was to prep, which meant we could keep bench time to an absolute minimum.
"Obviously all bakers are different and have their own unique way of doing things. At Gadsby's, we feel sponge and dough methods deliver the best flavour; but this mix was so easy to use, I'm sure any style will deliver the same quality we've achieved with every batch."
Besides enabling Gadsby's to meet this particular customer's need, the company has also used Viva Italia to extend its speciality breads range, which it sells to local wholesalers, shops and small supermarkets.
"By trying out some of the Viva Italia recipes, we've not only won new business, we've also had great fun too," says Terry. "Puratos has developed a great Viva Italia CD-ROM which features recipes and videos that show how to prepare and finish each of the 40 or so products. So far, we've tried about seven different types of bread, plus we've also started to experiment and create our own unique ciabatta recipes, using fresh herbs, rosemary and raisins, red onion and sun-dried tomatoes.
"Viva Italia has given us lots of ideas, which have helped us to keep our product range constantly ticking over. We try something new every two or three weeks, and are now approaching our customers with new products for them to try, rather than just responding to their requests. That's something they seem to appreciate, given the pressure they're under to always deliver new and exciting high quality foods."