Many of you may be familiar with landmark restaurants in New York City such as Ocean Grill, Blue Fin, Blue Water Grill and Ruby Foo’s. What you may not know is that this diverse group of restaurants, along with about 7 others, are all owned and managed by the BR Guest restaurant group headquartered in the City. And what I am positive you don’t know is that this group takes its bread so seriously that it has its own commissary bakery just across the Queens Borough Bridge in Long Island City Queens. Ali Pandy is the Executive Bread Baker and the guy in charge of not only running the commissary but coming up with new ways to integrate bread into the menus of all these restaurants.




Ali is originally from Kenya where he got is training and experience working in some of the grand hotels located in the capital. He came to the US 15 years ago and shortly began working in one of the original BR Guest Restaurants: Park Avenue (which has now become Barca 18). He worked in a cramped area making bread and deserts in the kitchen during the day. By 1998 the production was such that it could no longer be managed from such a small space and the Commissary was opened in Long Island City.



The BR Guest restaurants owe their success in part to the high quality of foods each chef offers nightly to his or her customers (however, the style of their interiors cannot be overlooked, literally). One of the reasons the LIC Commissary was started in 1998 was to further integrate high quality table bread into the dining experience. At all of the BR Guest restaurants bread is considered essential to the menu. Ali is charged with offering breads to the chefs that will compliment the start of the meal with a well suited bread basket, and also bread that can be incorporated throughout the service.



This level of commitment to bread as an integral part of the overall dinning experience forces Ali to think like a chef. His aim is to create bread to compliment the meals his customer/chefs are serving. In addition to table bread that is offered at the beginning of the meal many of Ali’s breads appear throughout the restaurant. For example, bread sticks are placed at the bar, a savory lemon and pepper brioche is sliced and used for a smoked fish appetizer, and a dark bread with dried fruits is sliced and served on a cheese plate.



One would wonder if offering great bread (for free) at a meal wasn’t counter to a restaurant’s business goals of selling as much food as possible. Weren’t they afraid their guests might fill up on bread and end up ordering less? Ali says that BR Guest has actually found that as bread consumption increases so do dessert orders. Perhaps this indicates that what the customer ultimately values and appreciates is a dining experience in which no element is spared, where one is tied to the next.



The LIC Commissary faces all of the challenges associated with running a full scale wholesale bakery including shelf life issues (where do you fit a baguette mix into an already full production schedule knowing that it will go stale within a few hours), and how to maximize product diversity (use a limited number of doughs to produce a wide array of unique breads). Ali and his bakers are able to produce between 30-40 unique types of bread each day (including 3000-4000 ciabatta rolls). This diversity of products allows their customers many options for incorporating bread into their menus.



One of the breads that Ali and his bakers have been making for the restaurants is a multi-grain loaf and roll (same dough different shaping). This bread is very popular at each of the restaurants at which it is served. It is so popular that when Ali tries to replace it with a new bread the customers demand its return. Also, with the current focus on incorporating more whole grains into our diets, this bread is viewed as not only a great compliment to the start of the meal but is healthy as well. The flavor is complex owing to the use of two preferments: a starter and sponge, (which also gives the loaf a longer shelf life allowing the bread to taste fresh through the end of the service) and the loaf is light because he uses a substantial portion of bread flour and a high hydration.



To make the LIC Commissary multi-grain bread the sponge is prepared the day before the mix by incorporating all of the sponge ingredients in the mixer (please see accompanying formula) and placing into a bin for the overnight. The starter used in the sponge is a typical liquid (110% hydration) white starter. Also, the day before, the grain soaker is prepared. The grains can be varied to suit your taste but Ali uses black and white sesame seeds, millet, rye berries, cracked wheat, coarse cornmeal, and flax seeds. They are blended together and mixed with hot water and allowed to soak overnight.



The next day all of the ingredients are added to the mixer bowl, including the soaked grains, the sponge, and the additional starter and mixed. The percentage of bread flour used allows for good dough development and strength.



The dough is cut out of the bowl and placed in bins. The dough is given 2 to 2 1/2 hours of floor time and then folded. After an additional 2 to 2 1/2 hours fermentation the dough is divided. For rolls they are scaled at 2oz and for the loaves they are scaled at 22 oz. After shaping they are placed in the proofer and, when ready, the loaves are baked at 500F for 40-45 minutes. Ali and his bakers bake this bread until it is quite dark which I think perfectly compliments the taste of the grains and provides a nice visual counterpoint in the bread baskets where they are often paired with Ali’s signature ciabatta rolls.



Ali and his bakery demonstrate the inherent value in an open relationship between the wholesale baker and the restaurateur. Educating your restaurant customers starts with showing them how important bread can be to the success of their menu and that bread can compliment and enhance the overall dining experience. This in turn means more customers to the restaurant and more orders for bread to your bakery.