Acrobatic baker risks being cooked

A TRADITIONAL BAKERY IN TBILISI

Acrobatics of a traditional Georgian master baker.

If you have ever tasted a really fresh loaf of the Georgian break known as "Shoti", the one which is shaped like a kind of fish and which tastes heavenly when really fresh, you might like to acknowledge the courage of the bakers who work all night to deliver this delicious commodity. The traditional baker's procedure involvers the bread maker diving head first into the clay "Torné" to stick the bread to the oven's hot wall.

I watched in admiration as 32 year old master baker Gia showed me how it is done at his bakery BUZALADZE on DOLIDZE street in Tbilisi. First the dough is mixed and kneaded by hand by younger brother Gela, 21, in a giant bucket. Next the fish shaped lumps are patted into shape and left on a table to rise. Meanwhile on the floor at the back of the shop, the circular brick-built oven has been heating up. When it is time to start, Gia gives himself a good rinse of water over his head and dons a curious white cap, like a Dutch milk maid's bonnet. Then the two-man team swings into action: the lumps of dough are stretched out one by one into fish shapes on a special canvas-covered holder. Holding this board, Gia leans right into the oven and smacks the dough onto the white hot bricks. The procedure gets harder and harder as her sticks the bread deep inside the own. At the end, only the space right at the bottom, near the flames, is free. He dives right inside, feet sticking out above. Baking only takes five minutes or so. A lid is put on the "Torné" and Gia, pouring with sweat and red as a tomato, goes to rinse his head at the washbasin. Five minutes later the bread is ready: Gela prizes them off the interior of the oven using two long poles. They are placed on a wooden shelf until they cool down enough to be sold to the customers waiting outside. A loaf costs 50 Tetri.

The shop is owned by the young brothers' uncle and Gia has been a master baker for six years. Incredibly, works starts at 3 am and the shop closes around 10 pm."Don't you get tired?" I asked somewhat naively."You get used to it. I sleep about five hours a night but I am also able to take a nap during the day" he replied. At this point he shows me a mattress on the floor under the dough shaping table. "That's where I can get some shut-eye"."Why don't you invite me to England or France, we'll open a Georgian bakery there?" he suggests. The question of safety at work regulations in western European countries would appear to rule this out, at least for the technique I observed at the BUZALADZE bakery. However I am told that Georgian businessmen have opened such bakeries in at least one German city and at Kiev, Ukraine. However they are apparently using standard electric horizontal ovens. The taste is surely not as good. Gia and Gela bake over 1200 loaves a day their traditional way and the result is unsurpassed anywhere in the world. "Miirtvit Kartuli Puri!"