Belgian excellence: Yves Guns, Good bread is life

Belgian excellence: Yves Guns, Good bread is life
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Since 1992, Yves Guns has cultivated his passion for good bread in his three bakeries and his production is today particularly prized by many starred restaurants.

It was not fermented dough that made him dream, but the profession of airline pilot! At 22, Yves Guns works in a bakery to pay for his schooling and flight hours. And yet, if he will finally manage to take off, it is not in 747, but with his bread, which has now become a reference in terms of good taste.

“When I had to make a choice, my first instinct when opening my business was to head for pastry. I wanted to be on top, with Wittamer as my model. Baking bread then seemed to me like a secondary activity, which I had delegated to a baker on the eve of boarding school. When he left, I found myself making my own bread. Very bad, some say. This stung me to the quick and forced me to review my fundamentals. »

Yves Guns does not do things by halves: he takes up this new challenge, reads, is passionate about and learns about this emblematic French art in the hope of surpassing the masters. In 2000, he launched his first bakery in Sterrebeek (166 chée de Mechelen) dedicated to sourdough bread, which immediately aroused the enthusiasm of several starred restaurateurs. “Alas, I found myself paralyzed by two years of uninterrupted work in front of my shop. Suddenly, to save my staff (Editor's note: today, around thirty full-time workers), I opened a second bakery in Kortenberg (305 chée de Louvain) before being led to inaugurate a third in Bertem (93 Tervuursesteenweg). »

At 51, Yves Guns now finds himself at the head of a company whose turnover is around three million euros, with a miraculous offer of forty varieties of bread each time from different doughs and fermentations. , four kinds of our famous pistols and as many crunchy baguettes as you wish. Without forgetting the melting sandwiches, and even two types of hamburgers having nothing in common with what one swallows in the fast-foods.

Excellence belge : Yves Guns, Le bon pain c’est la vie

But what is the secret of a good bread, which has both aroma, flavor and crunch? “Bread is like wine, a living product. The secret lies in the fermentation and the choice of raw materials. “In this case ancient wheat, a population of cereals growing in Belgium and spearheaded by a group of farmers from Nivelles, Fnietter. "Very attentive to the authenticity of their products, they have turned their back on the hybrid cereals, so widespread, to focus exclusively on the old varieties that are part of our heritage, with in the end a whole range of specific flours and therefore tastes. different. »

Most Belgian bakers use express yeast fermentation. However, this step can also give the bread a great aromatic diversity. Yves Guns reminds us that it is the time we devote to it that makes all the difference: a minimum of 24 hours, or even double or triple in the case of cold fermentation. "It's a question of oxygenation and, here too, of alchemy, although other parameters also come into play, such as the level of hydration of the dough, the quality of the stone oven or the type of grid used. All these elements exert their share of influence on the final result. »

And remember that a good baker observes his bread and adjusts all the parameters, which sometimes turns out to be tricky: these can vary significantly, if only depending on the harvest.

“What is magnificent in bread, enthuses the fifty-year-old who will celebrate his thirty years more in the oven than at the mill next year, is the fact of being constantly in the most vigilant observation. To the touch, there is a tangible link between me and the dough. It's life itself that we have at our fingertips. When you make your leaven, it's a whole energy that you give to the bread”.

With the Covid crisis, Yves Guns has not spared a deep questioning. Rather than expand further and further increase the number of its stores, it prefers to increase the quality of service in its three stores and focus more than ever on the pleasure of my customers. Isn't bread ultimately also a matter of sharing?

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