In the 1990s Gail Mejia brought the best bakers in town together to bake for London’s top chefs and restaurants as part of their wholesale business, The Bread Factory. In 2005, the Bread Factory opened the first GAIL’s bakery in London’s Hampstead High Street to bring its chef-quality craft baking and craft principles to a wider audience. Over the past twenty years they have grown and expanded outside of London to locations from Oxford to Manchester to recently Bristol. They bake fresh, handmade bread, pastries and cakes every day, served with carefully-sourced house blend speciality coffee. They take great pleasure in using the best ingredients they can find for food and drink, using seasonal ingredients from suppliers they trust. They believe in the power of community, in helping those around them and living as sustainably as possible. They insist on the finest ingredients, supporting small businesses wherever they can, and though they’re always innovating, their baking is based on time-honoured techniques and their decades-old starters. Their passion for sharing exceptional food in their neighbourhoods takes them around the world to meet some of the most fascinating and revolutionary food makers out there. Together they share a love of good food and a commitment to making it better for everyone. Caring for where their food comes from, for who has made it, who will eat it and for the impact it has on the world. Their buyers are looking to see branded products which could be sold within their pantry, both chilled and ambient. Suppliers must have BRC, SALSA or any equivalent accrediatation, and products must have a clean ingredient deck, but primarily they want to meet incredible producers who have a great story.
The Pitching Zone at the Bread & Jam Festival is powered by Nielsen IQ (NIQ).