Most of us are used to picking up loaves of bread or pastries for a quick bite of something to eat but a bakery with a difference is adding a dash of style to the staple food.
Demand for bakery products in Taipei has grown in the last 10 years, with at least one family-run bakery shop in most neighborhoods selling mayonnaise-filled sticky bread.
Increasing numbers of food enterprises have flocked to Taiwan, offering either genuine or quasi-European and Japanese-style creations to the starch?loving public. BreadTalk, the international bakery chain from Sing-apore, is the latest foreign addition to this already saturated market.
"BreadTalk has positioned itself as a trend-setting international brand from the very beginning. We don't just sell bread, but promote a new concept of bread shopping in our bakery boutiques," said the managing director of BreadTalk Group, George Quek (郭明忠).
Clearly, BreadTalk is selling a lifestyle as much as it does bread. Originally located at the high-class neighborhood of Renai Road, BreakTalk had a grand re-opening earlier this month and found a new home in the hypermarket chain Carrefour in Dazhi district (大直).
Located near the Miramar Entertainment Park (美麗華百樂園), the small but ambitious establishment has already drawn plenty of attention. Standing outside its spotless French windows, one can see a spacious white
interior and a well-arranged kitchen on the side. Inside, the store is structured with wooden pillars, pure white walls and tile floor. There is a scent of freshly baked bread.
With the help of its minimalist modern design, BreakTalk reeks of the aesthetics of elegance and refinement. And please note, the men working in the see-through kitchen in white aprons are not merely chefs, but "bread designers" who have their own distinctive and creative visions of the food they create.
Established in 2000, the bakery chain has enjoyed rapid growth and opened up 69 branches in Singapore, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Kuwait and most recently Taiwan.
BreadTalk sells more than 250 kinds of bread and pastry, with an introduction of 10 new lines or items every six months. The enterprise has its own development and research department to work on new flavors and marketable concepts for the products.
Chefs and consultants in each country are sent to other regions for training and exchanges of skills and ideas are held on a yearly basis.
To further weaken its adversaries and impress the general public, BreadTalk lists on its Web site an array of awards for design and bread-making it has won.
As a veteran businessman in the food industry, Quek has years of experience in Taiwan and knows well the ever-changing tastes of the local market.
"The bakery business is very competitive in Taiwan," he said, "so we spent six months making evaluations of the local market. We have made minor changes on prices and have developed new lines of bread specially catering to local tastes.
"We start from a very solid ground, that is, mastering skills in bread making. And from there, we spice it up with creativity and style. We want to make going to bakery store a fun thing to do. That is why we let consumers see the complete creation of our bread and give an interesting story or concept behind each item."
The name BreadTalk comes from the idea that food has a life of its own and you can read about how each pastry item got its name and why it was so called. "A-bian" and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Bacon" are examples of the store's efforts to adapt to a local environment with the names of pastries.
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