The seductive scent of fresh bread

The guests lie in their Swiss stone pine beds and are already looking forward to the delicious breakfast buffet and the large selection of fresh rolls and croissants i. At the same time the lights go on on the ground floor. Francesco and Paulo put on their baker's clothes and wash their hands. Paulo, the head baker, throws take a look at the baking sheet: 19 wholegrain breads, 15 fitness breads, 7 Albris breads and many more breads. In addition 212 croissants, 78 water bread rolls, 49 Weggli… tonight they bake a total of 335 loaves of bread in 39 types. There are also 896 pieces of small baked goods. No big deal for the experienced baker. In the high season they bake four times as much and there are five in the bakery.

In a good seven hours, the fresh breads will spread their seductive scent at the breakfast buffet and in the in-house bakery shop. But not only there. Because the Kochendörfer bakery delivers around 90 percent of its baked goods to others: to hotels in Pontresina and Samedan, to shops such as the dairy and «Paun e Chaschöl », to partner companies such as Hauser and Gianottis. There are a total of around 35 customers. Selling bread to hotels is not a new business field, but the origin of the family business. Fritz Kochendörfer, the great-grandfather of Stephanie and Claudio, started out as a hotel baker, started his own business and supplied Soon numerous hotels. Later a guesthouse and a Tea-Room were added.

Today, the fine world of culinary delights in Kochendörfer's includes a fine restaurant, a three-star hotel and a bakery. "Nevertheless, bread delivery to other hotels and partners is and will remain central," says Managing Director Claudio Kochendörfer.

The two bakers have already formed the first loaves of bread. Francesco takes the next pile of dough, the size of a medicine ball, from the stirring kettle and puts the lid on the portioning machine., two lever handles and 16 even squares of dough emerge. He tosses it unerringly over to Paulo, who forms loaves of bread out of it in a flash: round, long, thick, crescent-shaped, those with holes and even in the shape of an ibex horn.

The basis for the 39 different types of bread are four basic doughs: one each for wholegrain bread, semi-white bread, light special bread and dark special bread. The bakers already mixed these doughs in the evening between 18.30 and 19.30 in a chrome steel kettle the size of a church bell. : 17,974 grams of water, 26,961 grams of white flour, 629 grams of table salt, 216 grams of fresh baker's yeast and 180 grams of wheat gluten. “A computer program calculates this recipe, which is accurate to the gram, based on the bread orders received. Our partners can submit them directly online or by fax,” explains Claudio Kochendörfer.