SFBI or similar program in mainland or HK

[muyongshi]

I'm looking to send some staff in July to get further training in bread making. So I am looking for something similar to what the San Fran Baking Institute runs.

Any leads? Mainland preferred but Hk works too. Definitely needs to be professional level specializing in European/Western quality breads. These guys are way past level of home baker.

Thanks!

[onebir]

There seem to be quite a lot of bakery franchises in China now... If they actually bake good enough bread, wonder if you could get your staff some training at one of those, via some kind of deal with a franchisee? If they're in a different city or market segment (restaurant vs cafe vs full on bakery) they might not see you as direct competition.

[muyongshi]

There seem to be quite a lot of bakery franchises in China now... If they actually bake good enough bread, wonder if you could get your staff some training at one of those, via some kind of deal with a franchisee? If they're in a different city or market segment (restaurant vs cafe vs full on bakery) they might not see you as direct competition.

Inland there seems to be none. I know of one bakery in CD that I might consider doing it at, but generally the Sichuan market is kind of hostile.

This will be my plan if I can't find something closer to SFBI or ABI.

[onebir]

Interesting - loads in Changsha when I was there. A distant province means even less likely to be viewed as competition. Maybe we should nominate 'our bakers'!

[muyongshi]

Interesting - loads in Changsha when I was there. A distant province means even less likely to be viewed as competition. Maybe we should nominate 'our bakers'!

I'd be up for that!

[muyongshi]

Some things I'm finding in my searches are:

Everything seems to be tied to cakes, coffee and pastries.

HK-baker.com and yukuaicake.com are two sites that looked promising but wound up not being as bread oriented.

[muyongshi]

Or things like hung-kee.com which are decidedly Chinese in the breads they teach.

I did find shanghaiyoungbakers.com which looks promising!

[onebir]

I think that's a tendency, but some are less pastry oriented ("Bread Talk"?). Also some foreign-run restaurants have good bread (I remember Salvador's in KM). Also some Chinese non-franchises; a random bakery near me in Changsha did good wholemeal loaves (sadly wouldn't be able to find it now).

[muyongshi]

Bread talk is much more Chinese bread than western, at least in Sichuan.

There is a newer one called Broad which does a great cross between western and Chinese but sadly they are one of our major competitions.