Entering a “pretty” bakery is no longer a guarantee of quality: a Michelin-starred chef identified five warning signs that, she says, help distinguish a good artisanal counter from a place where the price may not correspond to the product, and one of them is unexpected: already wrapped bread.
The reflection was shared in a piece on the Spanish portal HuffPost that contains recommendations given by Camari Mick, executive pastry chef at The Musket Room restaurant and partner at Raf’s, speaking to Business Insider.
The logic is simple: as the average consumer does not enter the kitchen, they have to “read” signs on the counter, in the window and in the environment, especially when talking about bakeries and pastry shops that position themselves as “premium”.
The classic gives it all away: look at the croissants
The first test goes through the basics. The chef recommends observing a simple croissant and evaluating the lamination (the layers): it may be more aligned or more rustic, but when it is too thick, irregular or “without definition”, it is a bad sign.
The color also counts: a croissant that is too pale tends to raise doubts about flavor and baking, and may indicate a lack of care in the process.
It’s not “snobbery”: it’s practical reading. If the house fails in the simplest aspects, the risk of failing in the rest increases, and a high price is no longer synonymous with quality.
Bread already wrapped? Be wary (especially in “luxury” stores)
One of the most repeated warnings is bread that is already packaged, whether in plastic or paper. The explanation is technical: bread wrapped while still warm “cooks” itself with steam, losing its crunchiness and becoming more moist.
This does not mean that all packaging is bad, there are cases where it is necessary for transport, but as a counter sign, the idea is: a good bakery sells fresh “breathing” bread, not closed bread from the start.
For the consumer, the detail is easy to apply: if everything is packaged as if it were an off-the-shelf product, the house may be favoring convenience over freshness.
There are products that lose quality within minutes when left in the display case, especially those that mix a crunchy exterior with a moist filling. The recommendation is to be suspicious when these sweets have already been assembled and displayed for a long time.
The rule of thumb is simple: if a sweet “lives” on its texture (crispy, crunchy, puffy), but has been sealed with creams and fillings for hours, it is likely to reach the customer soft and soggy.
Therefore, when the product requires assembly at the moment, ordering to order can be what separates “expensive” from “good”.
Very different photos? There may be a lack of consistency
Before entering the bakery, the chef says she uses social media to see if the same product appears similar in several customer photos. When each image shows a very different result, it could be a sign of irregular production.
It is not an exact science, there is light, filters and angles, but it works like a thermometer: consistency is one of the pillars of a good pastry, especially when it charges a “signature price”.
In practical terms, just look for the place and compare 10 photographs of the same item (croissant, bread, star cake): if it looks like “something different” each day, it’s a warning.
Cleanliness: what the public sees usually reflects the rest
The last sign is one of the most obvious, and one of the most ignored. Flies in the window, signs of infestation or visible lack of hygiene are an immediate “no”, because what is visible tends to be the best possible scenario.
According to , the Michelin-awarded chef’s logic is straightforward: if the bakery’s service space seems neglected, it’s hard to believe that the production area is exemplary.
In the end, these five tips do not replace taste, but they help to avoid paying “as if it were artisanal” for a product that, after all, may have been packaged too soon, poorly executed or poorly stored.
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