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Demand for Trained Bakers is on the Rise
Baking in America
World History of Baking
The Emerging Role of the Baker
Becoming a successful Baker
The Four Cardinal Rules of Baking

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According to the Occupational Outlook Handbook for 2004-2005
Approximately 173,000 workers were employed as bakers.
The report also indicates a rise by the year 2010
Professional bakers work in the following venues; a. wholesale and retail bakeries b. catering companies c. supermarkets d. restaurants e. hotels and resorts f. cafeterias g. factories

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It All Started with Bread
Bread was the simple act of crushing wheat, adding water, and left unattended in which bacteria in the form of natural yeast became present. Then it baked on a hot rock to solidify.
Bread came with each civilization.
The fermentation of yeast was the start of biotechnology.
The first gears or wheels were probably used to create the first flour mills.
The art of mechanics came from the need for bread.
Grasses such as wheat, rye, rice, barley, oats and later corn were cultivated as a bountiful food source.
Eastern civilizations cultivated rice.
The Western world grew the grains of wheat, rye and corn.

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Grains were first crushed by hand with a pestle and mortar.
The Egyptians used a simple grinding stone called a quern.
All breads were unleavened at first.
Grains were produced along the Nile River.
They also harvested barley, corn, flax and dourah (a form of millet).
Growing grains spread to the Balkans, through Europe and eventually to Britain.
Egypt developed bread baking and brewing beer which introduced wild yeast. Leavened breads were formed.
Egyptians invented the closed oven.
Bread was used instead of money and the workers who built the pyramids were paid in bread.

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Yeast wheat bread became popular in Rome.
A circular quern was developed. This was a circular stone that turned on a fixed stone.
In Rome the 1st baker’s guild was formed.
Romans developed the 1st mechanical mixer that used horse power.
Rome made a law that all bread should be given to all males for free.
Grains were now being dried and stored for long periods of time.

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Saxons and Danes settled in Britain and introduced rye.
Persians invented the windmill which improved the quern so it could use heavier stones.
Baker’s guilds were now regulating the cost and size of the bread baked
Bread was now becoming a status symbol in Britain. The rich ate white bread, the merchants ate wheat and the poor ate bran.
In Popeii, there were community baker’s ovens.

 King John introduced laws governing the price and profit that could be made on selling bread.
 The 1st bread subsidy was given out. It was 12 pennies for 8 bushels of wheat to be formed into bread.
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Sieves were made from Chinese silk to produce finer white flour.
70% of the bread eaten was white.
Baking tins were now being used to make bread which allowed it to be sliced and toasted.
The sandwich was invented.
The Industrial Revolution began.
Baking in America began.
In 1850 2.027 bakeries were established throughout the U.S.
By 1850 there were two mixing methods for bread making. They were straight and sponge dough methods.

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1868 Charles Fleischmann marketed compressed yeast.
The indirect oven was established which removed the direct fire and placed it behind or below the oven.
1893 the Simon and Weil Company of Cincinnati, Ohio built the 1st gas fired oven.
A reel oven was developed in 1896 by AJ Fish & Company
1876 Hunter and Sifter Company introduced the first mechanical mixer.
1895 the 1st dough divider was designed by the company known as
Duchess Tool Company.
1900 improvements to transportation introduced refrigeration which altered the American diet.
Fleischmann's Yeast

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1904 the Alosp bleaching process was discovered which whiten the flour in less time.
1906 the Food and Drug Act was developed to protect the flour from adulteration.
In the 1900’s the FDA introduced “Wheatless Days” which were
Mondays and Wednesdays in order to promote fruits and vegetables.
1901 B.H. Kroger was the founder of the Kroger Grocery and Baking
Company introduced the 1 st baking chain store. He had 14 bakeries that sold to 42 retail stores using a double deck drawplate stack oven.

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1939 enriched flour was introduced by adding vitamins and iron to flour.
1940 women were offered jobs in bakeries instead of staying home and home delivery of bread began.
1943 during WWII, The War Food Order #1 provided the mandatory enrichment of all white bread.
The American Baking Institute of Chicago transformed their campus into a training facility for the US Army and Marines Bakery Field
Officers in support of the WW II.

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Bakeries engaged in home deliveries.
Bakeries went from semi to full automation in the early 1950’s.
1963 film wrapping machines were introduced.
1968 wholesale baking increased in size and profits while the multiunit bakeries sales increased, the profits did not.
1970 saw an increase in supplies especially sugar which jumped price by
500% to $71.95 per 100 #s.
In the early1990’s Artisan bread gained popularity which was a move back to the traditional methods of bread baking.
In the late 1990’s everything was highly automated and the use of enzymes and dough conditioners helped extend the shelf life of the product.
2004 robotic systems were used for storage, retrieval, and makeup systems.