Sustain / Real Bread Campaign / Articles
A bread like no other!
Sourdough baker Lucie Hiver is founder of Nuro Elemental Cuisine microbakery in Mexico City.
Hi! I am a 40-year-old French woman, daughter of Aramaic parents from the region historically known as Mesopotamia, and mother of two Mexican children.
I’ve always had a great love for creating and baking, perhaps because I was born and raised in France, where I could smell freshly-baked bread twice a week. It wasn't until 2019, though, that I started reading literature about this art and discovered the magic of sourdough. At that moment, my artisanal, organic bakery project was born in the kitchen of my house. It is driven by my insatiable search for the best Mexican ingredients to promote local producers and limit food miles.
Elemental
With a professional background far removed from kitchens (I was a financial consultant for companies on the stock market), it took until early 2023 to decide upon changing direction and formally enter the world of traditional baking. After the success of catering for several events and wine tastings, thousands of tests with my family and friends, and seeing the constant growth of returning customers, I launched my microbakery, Nuro Elemental Cuisine. In my native language of Aramaic, ܢܘܪܐ (nuro) means fire. Together with air and water, it is the key element that transforms wheat from the earth into bread.
Nuro bread is the real thing. Filtered water, organic Mexican wheat flour, a pinch of (non-iodized) sea salt, and technique, which involves an 18-hour fermentation process. That's it. As well as being free of commercial yeast, my bread contains no artificial preservatives or other additives. For my other baked products I use free range eggs, farm butter and organic honey.
I am passionate about the art and science of baking. I believe in authenticity, the honesty of the ingredients and baking processes I use, nutritional benefits of sourdough fermentation, the Slow Food movement, good eating, and the connection between the quality of the food I prepare for my customers and their mental wellbeing.
Nuevo pan histórico
The concept of a sourdough bakery is relatively recent in Mexico. Though there are endemic Mexican wheat varieties, and wheat flour is sometimes used for tortillas and other baking (mainly in the north of the country) Mexican culinary traditions are deeply rooted in maize. This is exemplified by the saying “sin maíz no hay país”, which means without maize there is no country. Even in Mexico City, bakeries selling bread made from just organic wheat flour, water and salt are very rare. It’s been challenging to find some key ingredients. My excellent flour supplier is the only reliable source of organic flour in the country.
It’s also hard to win people over. The ultra-processed loaf industry is very powerful here and people of all social classes buy white sliced from a well-known national brand, which is busy going global. In the health-conscious market, many people equate bread with bad diet and simply don’t eat it. They are of course right in one sense: I also believe that industrial products are bad for you, but this makes it doubly challenging to convince people that Real Bread can actually be good for them.
Pan global
Today I am part of an international community of enthusiasts who exchange tips, scientific and other academic studies on sourdough, and are trying to convince more people about the importance of making good food choices. Together with my organic flour supplier, I am also part of a working group seeking to make people aware of the negative impact of most modern, industrial baking on our health, mind and the environment. To find more information on these topics, I invite everyone to take a look at the work of organisations including the Real Bread Campaign and The Sourdough Library.
My mother and grandmother had taught me from childhood how to bake bread using commercial yeast. Today I am very proud to be able to share with them, who have given me so much, how to return to the origin of their cuisine through sourdough.
Originally published in True Loaf magazine issue 58, April 2024.
See also
Published Tuesday 23 July 2024
Real Bread Campaign: The Real Bread Campaign finds and shares ways to make bread better for us, better for our communities and better for the planet. Whether your interest is local food, community-focussed small enterprises, honest labelling, therapeutic baking, or simply tasty toast, everyone is invited to become a Campaign supporter.
