City’s century-old bakery gears up for Christmas

With Christmas celebrations a few days away, bakeries all over the city are piled up with rich plum cakes and Xmas gifts.

However, this is one particular bakery in north Chennai that has got a loyal patronage for well over a century!

One cannot miss the aroma of the freshly baked breads of Smith Field Bakery while passing through Perambur Barracks road.

This shop is known for its heavenly cakes and breads for a century now. Founded by Ponnusamy Naicker in the 1885, the shop was named after the famed ICS Commissioner of Madras Conran Smith.

The 132- year-old bakery stands proudly as the oldest of its kind in Chennai, which has still maintained their standards with patrons coming from nook and corner to take a bite of their traditionally baked cakes and other delicacies. The popularity is such that one has to wait hours on a Sunday morning to get hold of a single loaf of bread! “We have not changed our methods of baking. The ingredients and the secret recipe has been the same for over a century and that is how we manage to deliver the same taste till today. We are still running strong despite many of our competitors had to close down, when Madras went on to become Chennai,” says Venkatesh Shanker, a fourth generation baker.

“My father has been buying bread from this shop for more than 40 years. It became a significant part of my life and now I walk down every week to buy fresh bread and plum cakes, jambun and handmade fruit biscuits,” says Velmuruga (23), who has been an ardent supporter of Smith’s. Tea cakes and Walnut cakes have been the popular for more than a century.

The recent addition to the menu are rich plum cake and nut cake, which have already been pre-booked for weeks. “People who moved abroad leave with a pack of bread loaves and plum cakes from our shop,” boasts Venkatesh.

A subtle note on their tinned packs tells the customer to consume their products within a day, due to lack of preservative and additives. “Since all the workers are above their 60’s, they squirm at the sight of preservatives. We continue our baking with freshest possible resource everyday,” adds Venkatesh.

The whole bakery becomes chaotic during Christmas and New Year with people cramming into the small counter demanding breads and cakes. When we ask them about their plans for this season, Venkatesh says with smile, “ Due to high demand and less labor, we upgraded the baking process to electric oven. But for this season, I have planned to introduce the wooden fire oven to bake our products to deliver our best to the customers.