Baking With Love
On Tuesday, the group spent a couple of hours outside of the city on our first shoot, documenting how traditional Cypriot bread is made. I was selected as the on-camera “talent” with Nick and so I got to spend my time asking a little old lady about the bread-baking process and how it ties in to the meze.
I learned a lot and even got to get my hands dirty, but apparently I’m not particularly good at kneading dough as she made sure to not use my loaf. She was fun to talk to, even though we had to speak through Constantia, our translator; the lady was talkative and eager to share her craft.
The most interesting part for me was whenever she spoke of her family. She learned to bake from her mother, and makes a 200-euro-a-week living selling bread. However, neither of her children seem to want to take over her family business, which she was a bit bitter about. Her daughter, she said, knew how to bake but had her own job. Her son was more interested, but his wife didn’t approve. This lack of family interest is a break in Cypriot tradition. This isn’t much of a contrast in American culture. I feel like if your parents own their own business, it’s expected that one child will take over.
I felt kind of inept as a female in the sense that she explained how every Cypriot woman knows how to bake her own bread, even if they don’t do it commercially. I’ve never baked a loaf of bread in my life, and that was pretty evident. But I certainly enjoy eating it! She also mentioned that in order to bake correctly, you must put love into the bread. Her assistant, a young Chinese woman, apparently doesn’t do that particularly well–but she is learning.
Unfortunately most of the footage we took is not usable…something about lighting causing waves on screen, so they’re going to have to reshoot with different talent in order to get genuine reactions. I’m pretty bummed but hopefully this just means next time I’m on camera I’ll know more of what to expect.
We saw the bread baker again on Wednesday at the market in the main part of the city. She was very excited to see us and just as willing to chat. I think the bread seller across from her was kind of upset because we bought a lot of bread from her and no one else.