It doesn’t take long, living in Spain, to realise that bread has a special relevance here: el pan no se tira, for example.

Even though this sentiment, which comes from the hunger years of the 1940’s, is dying out, bread is more than just simple ‘bread.’ Many people are incapable of enjoying a sit-down meal if there is no bread on the table, no matter what the main course is.

So for God’s sake, don’t invite Spanish friends around for lunch without making sure there is una barra de pan, (como Diós manda) in a basket on the table.

Even though supermarket bakeries are slowly killing off the local baker and the quality of your average loaf is going down hill – within 12 hours it’s like rubber – Spaniards want the bread that they remember from when they were kids.

So is it any wonder that artisan bread, made with good-old-fashioned ingredients in the right proportions in the dough, is becoming ever more popular? That’s why the semi-finals of the II Ruta Española del Buen Pan was held in Motril, where the best breads in the country vied with each other.

Organised by the Panátics, Panorama Panadero and Pan de Calidad, the event attracted 50-odd bakers from all over Andalucía, with the Mayor Flor Almón present and salivating.

She explained that the idea for the event came about when Panadería Federico Jiménez bakers was inaugurated last November. They had begun a baking course for Christmas goodies when somebody had the brainwave of setting up the Artisan bread competition.

That same month the I Ruta Española del Buen Pan was organised with 83 local bakeries participating. During the next six months 400 bakeries were approached for the semi-finals (there are six semi-finals to be able to get in all the bakeries on a national level).

These first semi-finals were held in Motril but the next one was held in Bilbao on the 19th with the other taking place in July in Santiago de Compostela and Madrid, then in Barcelona followed by Valencia in September.

Anyway, the article is getting far too long, So we’ll leave it here.

(News: Motril, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)