Master baker, owner of the Francesco Arena Focacceria Bakery in Messina
Being an ambassador for Italian bread in the world, with the variety of its types, the quality of its raw materials, flavours, aromas, and nutritional properties… is a bit’ like good-naturedly colonizing the globe with a prime product of the table.
When I googled “Master baker Francesco Arena” to prepare this interview, I was swept away by several articles reporting on the awards, prizes, and titles he has received throughout his thirty-year professional career. Third generation of bakers, the first oven was founded in Messina by his grandmother Teresa in 1939, Francesco began working as a self-taught in the family bakery “the call of flour was too strong“. He soon realizes that he lacks the tools to evolve his work and therefore signs up for the Modern Bakery Professional Program in CAST. Master Piergiorgio Giorilli will teach him new ways and techniques to make bread, the same master that will admit him in the south section of the prestigious Richemont Club Italia years later. From then on, the bakery production is revolutionized, also thanks to the development of new technologies and to the rediscovery of the ancient Sicilian grains to enhance the isle biodiversity. From then on, he starts winning awards and prices: Best baker in Sicily, Ambassadeur du Pain, Made in Italy Ambassador and Taste Ambassador, 3 breads and 2 pizza wheels in Red Shrimp Guides, seventh in 2023 top 50 Italian Street Food and member of the Slow Food Cooks’ Alliance… when he’s not busy as an ambassador of Italian culinary culture around the world, Francesco works in formation of industries and hotel management schools because “Nothing is ever taken for granted. You always have to be thirsty for knowledge.” And if he says so, believe it!
INTERVIEW
With a bakery that has been passed down for generations, becoming a baker was a forced choice or the culmination of a passion?
I inherited my love for bakery from my father, and my grandmother Teresa before him. Growing up among flours, yeast and the smell of bread baking in the oven, made me appreciate the deepest value of this ancient and noble art. But I didn’t just guard this legacy, I also wanted to contribute to the family history of bakers for generations with study and innovation.
Which changes did you make in your bakery to modernize it, technologically, and increase managerially productive? How does the baking process evolve using innovative technologies?
With respect to my family history and wanting to maintain the warm and cozy atmosphere typical of the “bottega”, I revolutionized the activity in management terms. Today my bakery is a modern company, that uses evolved technologies to control production with constant results, like the cold technology thanks to which we manage fermentations and leavening to make a more aromatic, digestible and better product. A quality that affects the price but pays off with the result. An extra note: when I built my work team I had to bet on young people, whose training I personally deal with, with a female predominance, a way to recognize the “matriarchal” legacy of this trade in my family.
Thanks to the quality of your work you are Ambassador of the Italian bakery in the world. What does it mean to represent Italy trough a universal product such as bread?
I’m sincerely proud to represent the Italian art of artisanal baking. It’s a responsibility I take seriously, even if it takes a lot of effort. it gives me the opportunity to tell the value contained in each form of bread, the work behind the scenes, in the laboratory, but also the support we give to graniculture, favouring flours of local grains obtained by ethical and sustainable working methods.
Bread has a strongly symbolic value of peace, sharing and communion. How do you understand your work as a master baker also in an ethical way?
Bread is not only the culinary product, it’s strongly related to Italian culture, besides symbolizing nourishment, family and sharing. Just as the bakery is not just a bread resale, it’s a place of meeting and conviviality. In this context, the master baker does not make bread to only satisfy himself, but must care about his clientele, understand their needs, and respond with products dedicated to their different nutritional needs. It’s also responsible for telling the story of the raw materials values he uses and the techniques he employs to offer nutritious and genuine bread.
What are your memories of the training period in CAST?
Training in CAST has been precious for my professional and personal growth. During that period, I had the opportunity to meet many esteemed professionals and colleagues with which a stable and lasting network of relationships was built. Enough that we are still in contact 10 years later to confront, give us professional advice or even just to say hi.
Plans for the future?
By nature, and also by profession I am constantly “ferment”, I always have new projects in the drawer that are just waiting for the right moment to be realized. I certainly want to continue my commitment to dissemination as an Ambassador of Italian baking in the world. In this respect, I also have plans for an increasingly structured training activity for professionals, and amateur for children and young people. As for my business, however, I dream of expanding the borders to bring my doughs well beyond the Strait of Messina.
