SATURDAY, MAY 04, 2024
Myola joanes
BENAULIM: Francisca Dias, affectionately known as ‘Ritin’, began her journey in the bread baking business alongside her late husband, Jose Correia, at the age of 27. Now, at 79 years old, she still stands at the helm of Correia Bakery, waking up at 4 am daily to run a quality check on her baked goods, and later, at breakfast-time, greeting customers with a smile and a joke, as she hands them fresh, hot pao.
With no prior knowledge of the bread-making process, Ritin initially found herself thrust into the trade by her husband’s career decision. “I did not like it, but what to do? Since I chose a husband who was already into the trade, like it or not, I had to do it,” she chuckles, reminiscing about her early days in the business.
Starting from humble beginnings in a rented hut, Ritin and her family pooled their savings, sweat, and sacrifices to establish Correia Bakery in 1978. “We started the bakery 18 years before we purchased this place, and with no means to hire workers or buy machinery, it was all hands on deck – Ritin, her husband and their six children would do all the kneading, rolling, baking and delivery. Her son Anthony Correia fell in love with baking and went on to become a pastry chef, and now churns out delectable goodies for guests on a cruise ship.
“We only got the dough-mixer a decade later - now no labourer wants to work in a bakery unless we have the machinery,” Ritin remarked. “We faced a lot of problems when we bought the mixer as there was no proper access road at that time - six people had to carry it here,” she reminisces fondly.
For 45 years, they have been solely dedicated to baking varieties of pao (bread), including poie and poxshe (oval shaped bread with a slit in the centre), catering to their loyal customer base in Benaulim and beyond. “We formerly used to make ‘Katre pav’ (a rectangular dough with two slits on either side, which forms a butterfly shape when baked) which we have now stopped as people prefer the other pao
variants,” says Candy Correia, Ritin’s daughter-in-law, who assists
Francisca and oversees the finances of the enterprise. The bakery also caters to shops in Margao and hotels nearby.
Despite the challenges posed by modernization and the COVID-19 pandemic, Ritin remains steadfast in her commitment to traditional breadmaking. She laments the difficulty in finding workers willing to learn the craft in an era dominated by machinery-based bakeries.
Yet, her bakery continues to thrive, with the support of her loyal carb-loving customers.
As she reflects on her journey, Ritin says she is grateful for the opportunity to preserve tradition and serve her community through the simple joy of freshly-baked bread.
The tedious process of baking bread starts at 7 pm, with the kneading of flour into dough. It is left to proof until 11 pm, after which the dough is put into different ‘formas’ (baking trays). The folded dough is proofed for another two hours, during which the firewood is brought in to fire up the bakery’s old-school oven. Then proofed balls of dough then go into the blazing-hot oven. “The temperature of the firewood cannot be controlled, so the bread sometimes bakes quicker, and sometimes slower - so it must be kept under constant watch,” explains Ritin. Her three employees work throughout the night baking the bread, and after Ritin’s quality check and approval at 4 am, two ‘poders’ (bakers) begin their rounds on cycles, delivering bread across Benaulim at 5.30 am
