One woman’s quest to bring top quality traditional European bread to as many people as possible has resulted in a new artisan bread shop at Coast Plaza in Whangaparaoa. Bread and Butter is Isabel Pasch’s third Auckland shop and it sells a wide range of organic sourdough loaves, together with hand-made pastries, cakes, slices and savouries, plus takeaway coffee and cold drinks.
The former microbiologist and science journalist moved from Germany to New Zealand in 2010 and was unimpressed with most of the bread she found here. She knew how important good nutrition – and good bread – was for gut health, so after training with an organic baker in Germany, she opened her first Auckland bakery.
She says she wants people to realise how much better bread can be.
“We want good bread to become normal, not just something elitist, and for people to stop eating the factory stuff, because it’s really bad for you,” she says. “Bread is such an ancient food, so wonderful, so simple, and so direct – we buy flour from the farmer, it goes to the miller and comes to us. That’s it.”
Isabel decided to open in Whangaparaoa as she saw a gap in the market here.
“Where we are in Grey Lynn and Ponsonby there are quite a few good bakeries now, but on the outer rims of Auckland there’s often just nothing. People are a lot more discerning now, they know about good bread, but often just can’t get it.”
And while Bread & Butter loaves cost more than the average sliced loaf, it goes a lot further.
“Yes, it’s more expensive, because it’s hand-made, unlike factory bread where no human hand ever touches it,” Isabel says. “There’s a huge difference in processes and ingredients. Also, when you eat a sourdough you need only one or two slices, not three or four.”
