Sweet success for Northern Irish sourdough baker

Zac's Bakehouse, the Northern Irish specialist sourdough bakery, has won its first foodservice business in the Republic of Ireland for a range of crusty hand baked loaves as well as focaccia and ciabatta breads.

The artisan business, based near Ballyclare in county Antrim, has recently begun supplying its handcrafted sourdough breads to hotels in the greater Dublin area as a result of an agreement with BD Foods, a distributor with an extensive network of clients throughout the Republic.

Zac's Bakehouse was established by experienced chef Ricky Hay, a former head chef at Deane's, the upmarket Belfast restaurant, in 2012 to produce a range of sourdough loaves and breads using only organic stone-ground flour without any preservatives or additives for wholesale.

Hay also uses rye for brown sourdough. Herbs and other ingredients are sourced from his own garden for his flavoured breads. Fresh buttermilk is sourced from award winning Abernethy Butter, a local business producing handcrafted butter.

The breads are supplied fresh by the craft baker to BD Foods at its headquarters in Dungannon, county Tyrone which then freezes the sourdough loaves for distribution to clients in the Republic.

Hay says the launch of the Zac's Bakehouse is the outcome of a longstanding interest in artisan breads particularly long fermentation sourdoughs. "I baked breads in every restaurant where I worked but gradually decided to focus on sourdoughs because of their quite different flavours and texture. It's bread that has to be chewed and this adds to the overall enjoyment.

"I also decided to set up the artisan bakery because of the growing interest in home-baked breads. We've a tremendous heritage in Northern Ireland of artisan bakeries producing breads, including white and brown sodas, not readily found in many parts of Britain. I noticed that very few bakeries specialised in sourdough and decided to set up Zac's to develop this significant gap in the market.

"Sourdough bread has also been shown to be healthier especially for those with a gluten intolerance. The lactic acid can reduce spikes in blood sugar as well as making vitamins and minerals easier to digest."

Hay opted to focus on wholesale to allow him to concentrate on baking the breads rather than being drawn into sales. "It made business sense to me to use my established business contacts with restaurants and hotels to get the business up and running and then to look for distribution and marketing partners like BD Foods in the Republic and Get Fresh in Northern Ireland."