“Know which side your bread is buttered on”, a “baker’s dozen”, “the best thing since sliced bread”. Being one of the oldest foods around, it’s easy to see how there are so many bread-related phrases, and why it crops up in numerous aspects of our lives. Man cannot live by bread alone but it’s fair to say that we sure do like to talk about it. None more than Massimo Corinaldesi, co-owner of Compagnia del Pane, and manager of their Prati store.
“The beauty of this work is that here we make a transformation with the products. So you take flour and you turn out bread. When you eat something here, you will come and say ‘that’s good!’” Corinaldesi asserts.
Walk through the doors at this bakery and you’ll find more than just a huge variety of breads to choose from. Arrive in the morning for a coffee and croissant with the locals, not forgetting to leave with a made-to-order sandwich for lunch. Later in the day, choose from freshly prepared vegetables and salads to accompany a selection of Italian meats and cheeses.
The Corinaldesi family has been baking bread for over 80 years since the business started in 1929. During that time, kneading duties have passed from grandparents, to children, and now to grandchildren. As part of the third generation of the family with his hands in the dough, Massimo Corinaldesi oversees the Prati store whilst siblings Barbara and Roberto manage the ovens in Portuense.
“Once upon a time, you ate bread because you were hungry, today you eat bread for the taste, just a little bread on the side of your meal.”
Corinaldesi sees the difference between his grandparent’s time running the bakery when there were four or five types of bread on sale, and now when there are sixty or seventy.
“Before, in Italy, we consumed on average around 200g of bread a day. Today, an Italian doesn’t consume more than 50g a day. So the way we make bread has changed. Now we have to use one small dough for this type of bread, one dough for that type of bread.”
At Compagnia del Pane you can choose from typical Roman white breads like pizza bianca or rosetta (a crusty and chunky roll used for sandwiches), to more complex breads made with wheat, rye, and other grains. If you don’t know your spelt from your soy; or if like me you’d never heard of the Enkir grain; there are informative displays that decorate the store.
Corinaldesi believes the selection of top quality raw ingredients transformed with skill and passion is at the heart of his bakery. “We use stone-ground flour, all from certified and tested mills in Italy. We use natural yeasts for example. This place is the best because of our passion; we plan everything and check all the details. Because details make perfection and perfection is not a detail.”
It may sound like a corny slogan, or an expression you might hear in a jargon-filled business meeting, but Corinaldesi uses this phrase to demonstrate how much effort the team puts into their work. At Compagnia del Pane the combination of flour, water, and yeast are treated with reverence in order to create something special.
Coming from a family who has made their business from flour and water must have had a positive effect on Corinaldesi. He dreams of one day opening a branch of Compagnia del Pane in New York.
“We went to New York around seven years ago because a friend of mine opened a restaurant there. I dream of opening a bakery too, but it is not a simple thing. You need specialized people, and to take those people to America is not easy. Or if we brought Americans here for training, it would take six months to one year. In that time someone could steal our idea!”
Considering Compagnia del Pane has been 80 years in the making, I doubt it would be an easy thing to steal or replicate. One thing’s for certain, however, Corinaldesi has grand plans to continue the work of his family in the future.
