There’s a certain mystique attached to bread. As a child, I was taught to pick up dropped bread and kiss it. I always thought this was just a Christian custom, it isn’t.

In April 2018 Arsenal midfielder Mesut Özil was preparing to take a corner when a fan of Atletico Madrid threw a piece of bread at the Muslim footballer. Özil picked it up, kissed it, touched his forehead with it as a sign of respect then placed it by the barrier.

In Judaism, the Birkat Hamazon is recited after a meal that includes bread.

Bread plays an important role in all monotheistic religions. It is first mentioned in the Bible as early as Genesis: “With sweat on your brow shall you eat your bread”.

Prehistoric man made a gruel from water and crushed grains, later cooking it on hot stones – the forerunner of today’s chapati. Around 30,000 years ago this paste began to be baked, but it is the Egyptians who are credited with baking leavened dough into bread in around 1000BC.

Fast forward 3,000 years to a bakery in the village of Kerċem. In the 28 years since it was established, it has become Gozo’s premier industrial bakery and among the top three biggest in the country. David’s Bakery was set up by David Mercieca, then 26, and his wife Lina in 1992.  After working for a while with his uncles, the young Mercieca borrowed money from his father-in-law to buy a “mixer and a small oven” and branched out on his own (well, along with his wife).

The couple set up shop in a garage and used 25 kilos of flour a day or, rather, a night making “about 200 buns and loaves” that were sold locally.

The bakery is more akin to a factory, employing over 75 people

“People liked the products,” says company spokesman Manuel Mercieca – eldest son of David and Lina – “and encouraged my parents to expand their range of breads”.

They also widened their market, selling not only in Kerċem but in other towns and villages throughout Gozo as well.

David’s ħobż Malti contains 65 per cent less salt

At the turn of the century, the Merciecas diversified from simply baking bread and began producing other flour-based goodies, such as pastries and later frozen items – like pastizzi and ravioli.

The types of bread produced were also diversified, apart from the staple and traditional crusty Maltese loaf and its derivatives, the ftira and bezzun for instance – “it’s the same dough, just different shapes” – to sliced loaves, buns and rolls.

Over time daily flour usage rose to “50 kilos, then 100, 200 and now we use seven tonnes a day. That’s not only on bread but includes pastries and our frozen range,” explains Mercieca.

Seven years ago, the company expanded its Kerċem premises and invested €2.5 million in new machinery. Today the bakery is more akin to a factory, employing more than 75 people.

With society meanwhile becoming more health conscious, the Merciecas have had to evolve. “We follow market demands,” says Manuel, “for example, people now want less salt and low cholesterol items, and we have to cater to that”. Their Maltese loaf’s salt content has been reduced by 65 per cent.

To mark its 20th anniversary, the bakery introduced a wholemeal loaf along with another six varieties of sliced bread including multigrain, wholemeal and multiseed – “these are all free of soya, lactose and genetically modified organisms [GMOs]”. And last October it introduced a turmeric loaf, “after 14 months of studies and trials”; the curcumin in turmeric is said to do wonderful things to the body, such as “lowering the risk of heart disease, boosting brain health and preventing arthritic pains”.

Meantime, David’s Bakery’s ħobż Malti is “sacrosanct. We will never stop making it, we’re so proud of it,” beams David. He says they are one of the few bakeries that “still make ‘pure’ Maltese bread with mother dough”. This means a pre-ferment – usually a mixture of wheat flour, water and yeast – is used. 

The traditional ħobż Malti is off-white because “it does not have butter or margarine and contains no fats”. The super white, sliced loaves not only contain sugar and fats but may also be made with bleached flour or include a colourant.

Bread production at David’s Bakery begins at around 8.30pm and takes about seven hours, says Manuel Mercieca, with deliveries starting at around 4am.

Nowadays the bakery’s market includes both islands. Besides having its own branded outlets in major supermarkets, it also supplies other retail chains with their own labelled bread.

Aside from bread, David’s also produce pastries – under the direction of youngest son Mark – and a smorgasbord  of frozen items, some of which were exported to the UK.

“We began exporting to Britain about 10 years ago, mostly to Maltese who owned shops or distributed our products to others,” explains Manuel Mercieca.

“We exported frozen bread, pastizzi, pastries and ravioli,” but that stopped a few months ago.

“Our philosophy is simple”, says David Mercieca, “produce good quality products that the market wants to buy”. And with the variety they offer, the market likes what they bake.