chocolate & bread…not just any bread, but Iggy’s Bread of the World

February 22, 2008

When you decide to go on your first company field trip, don’t go to Iggy’s. Don’t go to Iggy’s because it will blow your mind, and no other field trip will compare. There was laughing, there were uncensored hugs, but mostly wide eyes, warm bellies and sheer amazement. I mean, we knew Iggy’s bread was good, great, the best around, but had no idea that a tour of their factory would be more inspiring than a fresh Francese with butter.

Alex knew Pedja from his year at the Craigie Street Bistro, when he really started to come down with foodie-ism. Pedja spends enough time at Craigie Street that Iggy himself called it “Pedga’s cafeteria.” Pedga being the good guy that he is offered to give us a personalized tour of the Iggy’s factory, which is in North Cambridge in the old King Arthur Flour building. So the whole crew - Alex, Mike, Sarah, Tasha & Kellie headed there for an Iggy’s bakery field trip.

Pedja in front of the Flour silos. Photo credit Tasha Boltukhova

This is what we saw: 4 silos of flour, each holding 50,000 lb of the white stuff. Large bowls of living, breathing, beautiful dough. All organic ingredients, save the flour, which has tripled in price as it is (wake up people! the low cost days of food are OVER! and that is okay, because you actually put it in your body, unlike gas, which well…..you don’t want to put that in your body, or spray it all over a rental car, because you so rarely fill a gas tank that you forgot how to and embarrass yourself in front of a colleague.) We saw loaves and loaves of hand shaped bread proofing before they found their way to the oven.

Bakers putting bread in huge oven. Photo credit Tasha Boltukhova

Freshly baked bread cooling & crackling on racks. Photo credit Tasha Boltukhova

Despite the factory’s fancy machines, Iggy’s is still very much an artisan baker. Pedja explained that they’ve automated where doing it by hand has little value, doesn’t affect the quality of the bread & is not fun for his bakers!

We ended our tour, as all tours should end, behind the counter of the bakery store. Pedja’s proceeded to clear trays of pizza and sandwiches to serve us lunch. As if that was not generous (& completely unexpected) enough, he refused our insistence to buy bread and filled up five huge bags of anything and everything that is Iggy’s, pullman loaves, croissants, bagels, baguettes. I actually did not know it was possible to make a three foot long loaf of bread until we headed home with two of them!

It was unanimously, hands down, incredible. The Taza team was returned to the factory in a carb coma, but nonetheless completely inspired and excited to see how a little bakery could grow and make so much goodness.

Before I knew I loved Iggy’s because it takes butter like no other, but now buying a loaf of Iggy’s will surely give me the warm and fuzzies.