Raymond and Tony Moré
Bake Tampa's Premier Cuban Bread By Nancy Ross Ryan
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La Segunda is Second to None
Raymond and Tony Moré Bake Tampa's Premier Cuban Bread By Nancy Ross Ryan |
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La Segunda ("The Second") Central Bakery rose from the ashes of La Primera ("The First"), a bakery that opened in 1915 in a two-story frame building that burned down decades ago. Today, this second-to-none bakery run by third generation cousins and partners in Tampa, Fla., has a thriving retail bakery business. It produces 5,000 loaves each day of one of the country's most unique breads. Seven days a week, hurricane or shine, Raymond and Tony Moré produce 36-inch-long Cuban bread ($1.25 a loaf). The crust is crisp and golden, but thin as an eggshell, with a beautiful split, or bloom, right down the middle. The interior is tender, not chewy. "There's nothing really like it around," says Raymond. "Even though a few other bakeries make what they call Cuban bread," adds Tony. This particular bread was first baked by their grandfather, Juan Moré (the Bakery's founder who migrated from Cuba after the Spanish-American War). The formula is believed to have come from a particular town in Cuba, and its quite unlike anything around. It is a huge draw in the retail bakery. Customers often drive for miles to buy it by the armload, deftly maneuvering the three-foot loaves across the parking lot and into their cars. And it goes out the side door by the truckload to most of the restaurants in nearby Ybor City and to grocery stores in surrounding areas. Although not made from a starter, Cuban bread is perhaps more labor-intensive and idiosyncratic than sourdough bread. After mixing-and the bakers do add a piece of dough from the previous day's batch-the dough is scaled into 18-oz. Pieces, rested, then shaped into balls. The dough balls are put into a huge steam chamber at 185°F for 5 to 25 minutes (or not at all). "It all depends on the temperature and the humidity in the air," says Raymond. After proofing -with or without steam- the dough is shaped by hand and rolled into 36-inch-long loaves. Washed palmetto fronds are laid down the middle. The loaves are then turned palmetto-side down and placed onto racks in the steam chamber for five to 25 minutes. After the second proofing, the loaves are wheeled into the baking room, the oven doors are opened, and a bank of fans blow hot air from the ovens over the loaves to dry the surface. Then they are loaded, palmetto-side up, into revolving deck ovens specially built for La Segunda where they bake at about 420°F for 40 to 45 minutes. During baking the moisture in the palmetto fronds causes the crust to split and the bread to bloom beautifully down the center. For non-Latin customers, the now-dry and brown palm fronds are brushed away before packaging. For Latin customers they are left on, a sign of authentic craftsmanship. For Cuban bread, the Morés use only Cargill's Progressive Baker Spring Hearth Flour. "Cuban bread requires a good, high protein flour, and we have to buy the flour that works for us. Spring Hearth is the flour that comes closest to our specifications," says Raymond. The retail bakery in front, specializing in 125 different kinds of pastries, is open seven days a week. It's a particularly profitable part of the business, "Low volume, high profit, compared to bread alone, which is high volume, low profit," says Tony. What's ahead for Cuban bread? The More's are right in the middle of producing a half loaf that can be pre-baked, frozen and shipped anywhere.
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La Segunda is Second to None
