Foodists

Hot Bread

Imagine you are working away in your office on a cold January morning and in walks a nice lady loaded with warm fresh bread for you to eat, no strings attached. Yes, this really happened to us. Now, just because you give us a little free bread is no guarantee that we’ll like it, or write about it, but in this case it was really great bread. Come to think of it, I don’t know many people save the few Atkins hold-outs that don’t like damn near any fresh, just out of the oven baked goods.

700 Degrees is the brainchild of Chef Romy Prasad, late of Cin Cin and more recently helming his own highly regarded restaurant Savory Coast.

So, back to the bread. It’s good. Really good. Currently available in three flavours: Sun Dried Tomato & Reggiano; Rosemary; and Roassted Garlic & Chive, I’d have to say the latter was my favourite simply because the strong flavour held up beautifully against olive oil and basalmic dipping. That’s not to say the other flavours weren’t great, they were indeed, and the more subtle flavours came through wonderfully, especially when eaten plain, with a little butter or just olive oil. Since the breads are denser and flatter than a “loaf”, slices are narrow and you won’t likely be using them to make sandwiches (although we did experiment with stone ground mustard, smoked applewood cheddar and assorted charcouterie). This bread is best eaten simply.

There’s a story behind all this. When Romy opened his retaurant there was no room for a bread oven, but there was a firewood oven. So they started with an old focaccia recipe and spent three months perfecting it so they could serve it to patrons. The name 700 Degrees comes from the starting temperature of the oven. As the temperature falls there is a window of opportunity within which about 80 loaves can be baked. This makes for some limited supply with only one oven, but they can crank out enough loaves to retail at local Capers locations.

Since we’re designers we can’t ignore the fact the the label and logo leaves much to be desired, but big props to Romy and his team for perfecting a clear bag made out of – get this – 100 percent recycled biodegradable wood fibre.

We’re looking forward to seeing where Romy goes with this, and sampling even more. Perhaps we’ll stroll down to the restaurant and see how well it accompanies his cuisine.