HISTORY of BAKING

Introduction…

Baking is a cooking method using dry

heat (Merriam-Webster,2013).

 This method could be applied to

cooking different kinds of food
products.
 refers to the process of cooking
breads, cakes and pastries.
 Baking evolved from man’s
innovation in the preparation
and cooking of grains.
 When the grains are pounded and
ground, flour is produced.
 Baking bread could have begun when
man learned to pound or mash grains
and with the addition of water to
make a paste.
 When this paste is spread on a hot
stone near a fire, flatbread is
produced.
MANSONRY OVEN
HISTORY
The Ancient Egyptians baked bread using
yeast, which they had previously been using
to brew beer. Bread baking began in Ancient
Greece around 600 BC, leading to the
invention of enclosed ovens.
"Ovens and worktables
have been discovered in
archaeological digs from
Turkey (Hacilar) to Palestine
(Jericho) and these date
from about 5600 BCE.“
Baking flourished in
the Roman Empire. In
about 300 BC, the pastry
cook became an occupation
for Romans (known as the
pastillarium).
 This became a respected profession
because pastries were considered
decadent, and Romans loved festivity and
celebration.
Thus, pastries were often cooked
especially for large banquets, and any
pastry cook who could invent new types of
tasty treats was highly prized. Around 1 AD,
there were more than three hundred
pastry chefs in Rome, and Cato wrote about
how they created all sorts of diverse foods,
and flourished because of those foods.  
 Cato speaks of an enormous number of
breads; included amongst these are the;

• Libum (sacrificial cakes made with flour)

• Placenta (groats and cress)
• Spira (our modern day flour pretzels)
• Scibilata (tortes)
• Savaillum (sweet cake), and
• Globus apherica (fritters).
The Romans baked bread in an oven with its
own chimney, and had mills to grind grain
into flour. A bakers' guild was established in
168BC in Rome.
 Eventually, the Roman art of baking became
known throughout Europe, and eventually spread
to the eastern parts of Asia.
From the 19th century, alternative leavening
agents became more common, such as baking
soda. Bakers often baked goods at home and
then sold them in the streets.
This scene was so common that Rembrandt,
among others, painted a pastry chef selling
pancakes in the streets of Germany, with children
clamoring for a sample.
 In London, pastry chefs sold their goods
from handcarts. This developed into a system
of delivery of baked goods to households, and
demand increased greatly as a result.
In Paris, the first open-air café of baked
goods was developed, and baking became an
established art throughout the entire world.
THE PROFESSINAL PASTRY CHEF
 KNOWLEDGE
Pastry chefs and bakers must be able to
identify, purchase, utilize and prepare a wide
variety of foods. They should be able to train
and supervise a safe skilled and efficient staff.
To do this successfully, pastry chef and bakers
must posses a body of knowledge,
understand and apply certain scientific
business principles.
 SKILL
Culinary schooling alone does not make a
student a pastry chef or baker. Nothing but
practical, hands-on experience will provide even
the most academically gifted student with the
skills needed to produce, consistently and
efficiently, quality foods or to organize, train,
motivate and supervise a staff.
 TASTE
No matter how knowledgeable or skilled
the baker or pastry chef, he or she must be
able to produce foods that taste great, or the
consumer will not return. A professional
baker or pastry chef can do so only with
confidence about his or her own sense of
taste.
 JUDGEMENT
Creating a pastry menu, determining how
much of what item to order, deciding whether
and how to combine ingredients and approving
finished items for service are all matters of
judgment. Real experience is often accompanied
by failure. Do not be upset or surprised when a
dish does not turn out as expected. One can
learn from mistakes as well as from successes.
This will help develop judgment.
 DEDICATION
The work is often physically taxing; the hours,
often in the early morning, are usually long and
pace is frequently hectic. Despite these
pressures, the professional is expected to
efficiently produce consistently fine products
that are properly prepared and presented. To do
so requires pastry chef or bakers who are
dedicated to the job.
 PRIDE
Professional bakers and pastry chefs share a
sense of pride in doing their jobs well. Pride
should also extend to personal appearance and
behavior in and around the kitchen. The
professional should be well groomed and in
uniform when working.