In the 1940s, young Army recruits volunteered to knead the dough at this bakery because they wanted to build upper body strength. They were paid for their services with a loaf of bread.

The Excelsior Bakery in Bengaluru’s bustling Shivajinagar Market is not difficult to find: I just let the smell of freshly-baked bread lead me.

The family-run bakery began as an Indo-British partnership between Sahadevan, a local baker, and a British Lady Emery, in 1930. The establishment is currently run by Saipreeth, Sahadevan’s great-grandson and his father, Muralidharan.

For residents of the cantonment, Excelsior is the go-to place for milk bread, cakes and goodies such as ribbon cakes, cummtee cakes, kal kals, milk cakes, rose cookies, fresh cream cakes, masala biscuits, pastries, puffs and rolls.

“My great-grandfather was a confectioner, who began working at Honour Bakery, that was run by an Englishman in the 1920s. When that shut down, he set up Excelsior along with Lady Emery,” says Saipreeth.

Early birds

“Our bread and cakes were in huge demand. When the store opened at six in the morning, there would be a crowd waiting for a fresh loaf. We had to hand out tokens and only the first 100 customers got the bread! It was not uncommon for people to travel from the other side of town for our cake and a fresh loaf of bread. Even today, we have a huge demand for our plum cakes during Christmas. Our coconut barfi is also a huge hit, and there is also a demand for our day-old bread, since that works better for making sandwiches. I know a lot of people whose staple breakfast fare is our milk bread,” says Muralidharan.

Of course, Excelsior no longer has Army volunteers and now their kitchen is upgraded and less labour-intensive. There have been a few tweaks here and there, but the recipes have essentially remained the same for more than 80 years. Some of its staff have been with them for two generations. They say this has helped in maintaining quality.

The mornings are the busiest for them. The head baker arrives at six and the baking begins in right earnest, says Saipreeth.

“We deliver our products to many colleges and schools. Since we do not use any preservatives, most of our products do not have a very long shelf life, so we strictly follow a routine every day.”

In this weekly column, we take a peek at some of the country’s most iconic restaurants

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Life & Style> Food / by Nikhil Varma / May 03rd, 2018