The bakery is getting hotter
Posted: 2/01/2010 11:06:01 a.m.
The bakery here at Zarbo’s is doing great and the team lead by Olaf Blanke produced some exceptional baking in terms of setting the standards of being the best artisan bakery in NZ with its unique range of hand crafted artisan breads and pastries. The range is not huge but the day in day out quality is second to none and one that I can honestly say is up there with the best in the world (as we speak I am in Denmark after spending 4 days in snowy Paris checking the quality and eating my way around some of the best bakeries in Paris with Jason my son).
During the first weeks of December I was back in NZ to film the new reality TV series called “NZ Hottest Home Baker” which is due to air early February 2010 on TV3. So watch this space and tune in to watch 8 wonderful home bakers compete to win the title NZ Hottest Home Baker.
It was fun and my role, along with Pauline Nunns of Wellington was to judge their creations and to eliminate someone each night…. Was I the hard mean judge or the nice one??? Well put it this way… ‘I have high standards and sometimes they met them and sometimes they didn’t!’ So tune into to TV3 to watch and learn the secrets behind what makes NZ Hottest Home Baker.
Baker & Spice in Shanghai is due to open this weekend (3rd Jan 2010). This is the best bakery in Shanghai and has been a combination of 1.5 years in the process and combining the very best of Global Baking and bakery design. Imagine walking into a Giorgio Armani bakery? Well then that’s what we have created in terms of design, the artisan breads, cakes and pastries sit upon a coffee coloured marble display counter which is the same marble that covers the walls and floor of the retail shop, all whist viewing the bakers at work through the smoky glass window that showcases a very modern well equipped bakery. In the coming months I am sure it will be featured as one of the best bakeries in the world to visit whilst in Shanghai. We even have our own wine label and produce our own jams and chutneys. You can sit down at the large antic Chinese communal table and have a bakery snack with your freshly made coffee.
Amongst all of this I have signed a contract to put a micro bakery in the one of the world’s leading food stores, DEAN & DELUCA in Kuwait. This is a first for Middle Eastern baking and first for DEAN & DELUCA in terms of putting a instore bakery within their store.
And for those Zarbo’s fans Mark and myself have just signed a book contract with our publisher Random House to deliver the very best of Global Baker Dean Brettschneider Bakery and Zarbos Deli & Café cooking and baking. It will be called ‘the cook & the baker” another exciting book that firmly puts baking in the food world and it will be an exciting range of new and innovated recipes and photographs. Aaron Mclean will be on hand to capture the recipes and also both Mark and myself at work in the kitchen and bakery, and what’s even more fun is that we will be shooting the photos right in the café at Zarbo’s so everyone can see the book in process. Look out for it in October 2010.
Well – that’s the end of 2009 and the beginning of 2010….. and I promise to keep you all fully updated of the latest activities of Global Baker Dean Brettschneider. Have a great start to 2010 and happy baking.
Dean
PS – I will be back in Auckland from the 23rd Jan until the 8th Feb to work on some new products and the team, so do pop into Zarbos and see if you can catch me.