Mehl & Zucker makes everything from scratch
“SO who are Mehl & Zucker?” I ask.
If he wanted to laugh in my face, he kept it rather well. With the patience and precision of a baker, Antonius Flaggl deadpans: “It’s German for flour and sugar.”
I take a second look at the signage and then the click. Of course. “Ah, very close to the Cebuano word for it: asukar,” I add quickly, trying to save face.
Although there was no need for it, Toni was all to eager to share his considerable knowledge about bread.
“My parents had a bakery, so I grew up around it,” says the strapping Austrian, who is Chef Baker and Product Development Manager of Mehl & Zucker, an artisan bakery tucked in a cozy corner of Streetscape, right beside the gym at the far end of the complex.
“The first thing I did when I came in was to [edit] the bread into four basic ones…one for every taste…and then a variety of rolls, bread sticks…even macarons.”
Even streamlined, the bakery carries over one hundred products, all baked daily. “We do not use premixes, so everything is made from all natural ingredients.” This means they are best enjoyed fresh, the way traditional European bakeries intended them to be.
Even the desserts are all natural, made from scratch every single day.
THE DESSERT SELECTION
is varied and, like everything else here, made from natural ingredients. The red velvet and an
almond mousse are my standouts. Ok, so is the classic Opera cake!
“This looks exactly like any bakery in Europe,” Toni says of the interiors.
They seat 20 comfortably inside, and feature a couch and an elevated long table in their al fresco area, which is full today, on a rainy Sunday afternoon. There are cups of coffee, copious amounts of conversation, a few cheesecakes being shared, and two pieces of their chocolate croissants (I daresay, the best I have tasted), whose recipe is from one of the best bakeries in the world.
Our own conversation drifts to home and how I have two (France Bartolata, who invited me to try this new bakery is also from UP Los Baños, and a fellow UPLB Genetics Society member), why bread is a part of Filipino culture but is considered a snack, and how a perfect croissant rises to only a certain level.
By now, I pray, Toni has forgotten my silly query. Even if the answer is right there in front of us, emblazoned on my cup of vanilla latte.
(Find Mehl & Zucker on Facebook: mehlandzuckerofficial)