Antonio Otero is Galician and arrived in Lanzarote two years ago after a family decision, and he has been making bread in Lanzarote for a year and a half at De Leña Panadería, a bakery located in Tinajo. His passion for making Galician bread comes from his family, so much so that he has been selling it all over Spain for years.
In an interview with the radio program Más de Uno Gourmet, from Radio Lanzarote-Onda Cero, she shares how she set up her business on the island and the products she offers in her workshop.
- How do you get to Lanzarote and decide to make bread?
Making bread is a family thing, I've been doing it and selling it for many years. We used to sell Galician bread all over Spain, and due to a family decision, I had to come to Lanzarote and continue doing what we know how to do, bread.
- How did the idea of founding a bakery on the island come about?
We were clear, we have to do what we know, although we had to adapt it a bit to the needs of the island because, despite being in the same country, it changes a lot compared to Galicia. We chose Lanzarote because it has a special charm and we already knew it previously, so when we made the decision to change, we did it here. We are delighted, it is the best thing that can happen to anyone in life.
Regarding the bread, we always make it with sourdough and a wood-fired oven because in Galicia there is more firewood than here, but this oven appeared in Tinajo and well, we took a chance.
- They use a sourdough starter that they have been feeding for many years...
I think we've had this sourdough starter for 47 years. The first time, we came by boat and brought it in a small cooler, and we had to convince the boat workers to keep it in the freezer.
When it comes to making traditional bread, we understand that sourdough is essential; it's what was used in the old days before yeasts were made.
* **What kind of bread format do they make?**
We make the classic 600-gram loaf that we supply to supermarkets and customers, while the other one, the one-kilogram loaf, we make more for the hospitality industry.
We also make a chocolate bread that we started making two months ago, and raisin bread, which is very popular. The dough we use to make all our breads is always the same. We also make Galician-style empanadas, and we make them to order.
- When making bread, humidity is very important...
Yes, humidity is a fundamental part. If the bread has it, it means it is more porous and flavorful. What indicates that it is sourdough is that the bread always returns to its original shape.
Our bread is dense, it's flour and water, there's no more to it. It only has a tiny bit of yeast to speed up the fermentation because we don't make it from one day to the next, but in seven hours.
- Where can you buy this bread?
On our social media you can find all the points of sale we have on the island. Right now, we have more demand from some places that we will start managing.
I can only thank people for the success it's having, and people are calling to buy our bread. Not even in our wildest dreams did we think we were going to have this reception on the island.
- They are also opening the field to hospitality...
Yes, in fact, we already have hospitality establishments that use our bread. The good thing we have is that our customers are very loyal to the product, they like it because it is a fresh product and has nothing to do with frozen bread.
In our case, we don't make small bread rolls because we make all the loaves by hand. At the markets, I always tell our customers that if they find two identical loaves, we'll give them all the bread we have for free. The problem with making the product by hand is the time and the staff, it's very expensive, so we opt for a larger format. If a customer wants, we can give it to them sliced.