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Discovering at John Baker how the best chocolate croissant in Zurich is made

My personal highlight: Watching John Baker’s staff at Stadelhofen producing my favorite chocolate croissant from scratch – all hand made and with pure love

This Zurich Foodblog story has been initiated due to my curiosity of wanting to know where products in town originate from. One morning I was having breakfast at my favorite spot Cafe Grande at Limmatquai and I saw this delicious croissant. From the outside you don’t see what expects you inside this soft and tasty pastry. A core of best Swiss Chocolate wrapped of different layers of chocolate. A real breakfast dream for me. I needed to know, who is the inventor of this delicacy! This brought me all the way to Zurich Stadelhofen, where John Baker Ltd. has its bakery shop.

Who is John Baker?

A staff of dedicated people that believe in old traditions and genuine hand made bread. They knead and shape the bread with a contagious passion and an unbeatable tempo! Jimmy and Yves are the managers of the shops. Jens Jung alias Jimmy comes from a baker’s family (Bakery Jung). He has an immense knowledge on how to make quality bread and it seems that he perfectly transferred all of this knowledge to his staff.  At Stadelhofen you get most different sorts of bread, croissants and sweet and salty baked goods as sandwiches. Another John Baker shop is at Helvetiaplatz. Here you find delicious pastries and cakes and a coffee shop to enjoy the food.

How does John Baker make the difference?

On one hand the company stands for fair paid employees and suppliers. They make no compromises when it comes to quality. The suppliers of their ingredients are all regional mostly following Demeter quality.

What means Demeter quality? It’s a production in biodynamic agriculture. This method of farming is the most sustainable of all agricultural cultivation methods. It is based on the knowledge that soil, plants, animals and humans interact in an agricultural cycle.

John Baker gets produced his own bio flour. Good quality has its price, that is why maybe paying 2.50 CHF for a croissant seems high, but I promise, the taste is worth every cent and it is following the most sustainable cycle available.
The lever (pre-dough) is set traditionally the day before and ensures a particularly pronounced, mild aroma and a good freshness in the bread. Breads at John Baker do not contain additives.

What I love is the variegated bread range. Bread with dried fruits (an unicum in whole Zurich of its kind), seasonal breads for example with speck (November special) and various whole grain, black or white breads.

Very innovative is the open working space where while buying your bakery you can see the staff acting in the bakery. Enjoy a delicious takeaway coffee from Stoll with your bread!

John delivers bread, too. If you are interested in a catering or office order, give them a call at 044 281 92 92 or drop them an john@johnbaker.ch

Last but not least: Thank you to all the John Baker staff for your amazing products. Thank you Jens, Florian, Diego and Patricia for making this happen and sharing your time with me.

SPECIAL: John Baker surprise for my community!

Christmas is coming so I think it is a lovely time to gift my community. I have a surprise for you. John Baker is holding different baking classes for bread baking, making ginger bread or christmas cookies. You can win one entrance for a class of your choice (Value 100 CHF) taking place from 25.11 -16.12.17.

What do you have to do?

  • Follow me on Instagram
  • Answer the following question: Which is my favorite John Baker product:
    A) Chocolate croissant
    B) Fruit bread
    C) Brownie

Send an email: marina@lovefoodish.com with the correct answer and your coordinates by November 26, 2017.

No cash disbursement and/or an replacement of the prizes is possible, recourse to the courts is not permitted. . The winner will be notified personally. GOOD LUCK!
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