[eng] Follador Bakery. Between craftsmanship and entrepreneurship

Antonio Follador, owner of Forno Follador, is a third-generation baker: together with his team of young collaborators, he has renovated the family business thanks to the use of organic flours, modern technologies and an entrepreneurial vision open to innovation.
Artisan tradition and technological research, high quality and large numbers: Forno Follador puts together all these ingredients to offer - to individuals and the hospitality industry - products with an intense, genuine and sustainable taste able to satisfy the palate and the soul, all made with sourdough starter and flours that originate from 100% Italian organic wheat. 
Forno Follador offers a large assortment of products, available in its own stores in Pordenone (La Bottega, Il Posto and Lo Spaccio) and on the online shop that covers the whole of the national territory.
In addition to bread, its offer consists of pizzas, focaccias, breadsticks, rusks, bun, breakfast pastries and large leavened products, all made according to a variety of shapes, cuts and fillings.

THE HISTORY OF THE BAKERY
Forno Follador is a family story, which began in 1968 in Prata di Pordenone when Lino Follador and his wife Angela inaugurated a small-town bakery. Their production is of excellent quality and intended for the local market, the raw materials are carefully selected and come from trusted suppliers; the two owners cultivate a family relationship with clients especially on the occasion of home deliveries: this is the atmosphere in which their son, Antonio, grows up.
It was in 1999 that Antonio Follador, after his studies and other professional experiences, began to independently manage the historic family bakery: today he is a baker who has been able to innovate an ancient craft thanks to the liveliness of a modern entrepreneur, through the research of ingredients and processing techniques and, finally, the use of modern technologies. The team of his young collaborators is moved by passion, experience and insight.
Thanks to his intuition, the bakery expanded in 2007: Antonio Follador starts the bar and gastronomy services at La Bottega, located in Prata di Pordenone; in 2015, in Pordenone, he inaugurates a second bistro-place, Il Posto, while two years later an important dream becomes reality and the new 1,200sqm laboratory is born, including inside it a third store of fresh bread, pizza alla pala and stuffed focaccia, fresh and dry pastries and leavened products, Lo Spaccio. Here, from the large counter, a large window allows you to observe the workers' activity live.
Today Antonio Follador is a point of reference for the masters of bakery and continues to search for the best technological solutions to meet the needs of the hospitality industry and his clients, also reached thanks to the online shop, with deliveries throughout the national territory.

Antonio Follador, between passion and experience
Born in 1968, Antonio's year of birth is the same as that of Forno Follador. He began working in the family bakery in 1989, after completing his studies in accounting, then dedicating himself for over ten years to training and specialisation in the field of bakery and pastry; among his many experiences, he also attends the Etoile Academy. 1999 is an important year: Antonio becomes the owner of Forno Follador and join the Richemont Club Italia, an international organisation that supports the activity of its members, all certified masters in the bakery and pastry sector; thanks to this association, he often travels to Europe studying the secrets of the trade between courses, internships, visits to companies and public meetings. Starting in 1999, for ten years, Antonio actively collaborates with FIPPA, the Italian Federation of Bakers, Pastry Chefs and similar professions, becoming its President for the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region. From 2006 to 2012, his personal and professional growth path continues, focusing attention on the study of human resource management.
Today he is a member of the Academy of the Masters of Sourdough Starter and Italian Panettone.

PRODUCTION
The lab: an innovative artisan workshop
The lab, which has been located in Pordenone since 2017, covers an area of 1,200 square metres and is equipped with state-of-the-art equipment: mixers, blast chillers and increasingly high-performance ovens.
Here, every day, Antonio Follador supports the team, made up of 26 employees, in order to transform raw materials into good and genuine baked goods. Modern technologies, latest generation ovens, cold chain, training and continuous updating allow to combine life times and working times. No production shortcuts, but full respect for the natural production times and traditional processes, such as the use of sourdough, a live yeast that introduces biodiversity into the loaf, making it more digestible and longer preservable enhancing the character of the different variety of wheat.

Living, wholemeal and organic flours
For three generations Forno Follador has been inspired by the concept of quality; quality that lies in the selection of simple, natural and living ingredients. Zero additives, zero preservative substances, no synthetic aromas: the Forno Follador catalogue is inspired by transparency in the selection of raw materials and in their processing.
Today Antonio Follador works mainly using type 1 and 2 and sometimes stone-ground flours. They all originate from 100% Italian organic wheat and come from Friuli-Venezia-Giulia, Trentino-Alto-Adige, Veneto, Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany, Puglia and Sicily. This choice allowed Forno Follador to obtain, in 2016, organic certification which today guarantees 80% of production: the goal is to reach 100% and to extend it to pizza, focaccia and pastries as well. Follador's commitment to quality and environmental protection also plans the replacement of all the packaging with biodegradable and sustainable materials in the next steps, for a good and ethical product.

Each dough has its own yeast
Craftsmanship, understood as fidelity to bread-making techniques and traditional recipes, is one of the fundamental values of Forno Follador and is revealed, above all, in the centrality of fermentation through the sourdough starter that Antonio Follador uses for most products, with the exception of some preparations for which he prefers to use the biga technique. 
The sourdough starter in its liquid form, is kept alive and active in a fermenter; the biga, on the other hand, is to be considered as a pre-dough, prepared daily to be used in the following day's work. The choice between the two techniques is made on the basis of the alveolar distribution and texture the product must obtain. Whether sourdough starter or biga, the dough is broken, rounded with the help of a machine and then entrusted to the manual skills of the bakers who will start the product for the subsequent leavening steps, the dividing phase, the rest phase, and, finally, the baking in the oven.
Each recipe has its peculiarities and also its secrets.

PRODUCTS
The large-format loaves
They come from the use of sourdough starter and traditionally or stone-ground flours from the best Italian mills. The balance between craftsmanship techniques and living ingredients gives the bread unique organoleptic characteristics that evolve over time and give the product great versatility of use and a shelf life of several days in the pantry.

Bakery products
The "madre" line under the Follador brand is represented by bakery and pastry products, intended to the three stores for the counter sale, on-site consumption and take-away.
Forno Follador, on the counter, offers a large assortment, which goes beyond bread: pizzas, focaccia, breadsticks, rusks, breakfast pastries and large leavened products, all made according to a variety of shapes, cuts and fillings. All products are free of additives, preservatives, stabilizers and artificial flavours.

Breakfast
Among the proposals of the breakfast line, in addition to fragrant products such as rusks made in traditional and creative flavours, bun and pan quadro, cornetto, made with a mixed leavening of sourdough and brewer's yeast, maritozzo, a baked product that replaces the krapfen characterised by a shape similar to this typical dessert of Lazio, perfect to be filled with spreadable creams or to be served with ice cream, and bauletto, an oven leavened product from the family of the large leavened products available all the year, stand out.

Focaccia and pizza alla pala
Ideal for lunch and aperitif time, Forno Follador produces many types of focaccia, dough of which is mainly prepared with the biga technique and is based on wholemeal flour and extra virgin olive oil. Left to rise in two stages, it is hand-stretched into a small baking tray, a process that gives it a perfect friability.
Also very popular is the pizza alla pala, a "Roman" pizza base, made with 100% organic flours of soft wheat, spelt, Senatore Cappelli durum wheat, rye, rice, oats and Tritordeum, with cold-pressed organic extra virgin olive oil and Piran salt.

Super leavened products: panettone and colomba
“My work in the preparation of great leavened products develops with great observance of tradition. I am a lover of panettone but in the last times, I am falling in love with pandoro, a real puzzle for who makes leavened products. A recent market research has shown that, during Christmas 2020, the sale of artisanal panettone has exceeded that of the same industrial product: this has happened thanks to the ability of master pastry chefs who have been able to create according to the most diverse recipes and thus enhance the sweet of the Holidays", says Antonio Follador.
Forno Follador offers a wide variety of panettone, pandoro and colomba, made according to the traditional recipe, researching the best raw materials and carefully selecting suppliers. The dough is made with sourdough starter, sugar, dairy butter, eggs from free-range hens and is enriched with candied fruit and quality ingredients, each time different, all born from the creativity of Antonio Follador.

FOOD SERVICE
The “gelo” and ATP lines
Thanks to the intuitions and the driving force towards innovation, Forno Follador develops, in addition to daily fresh products, the Food Service line, with a long shelf life, to offer professionals in the hospitality industry the opportunity to serve a quality bread basket or artfully stuffed sandwiches. These products under the Follador brand are all free of additives, preservatives, stabilizers and artificial flavours.

The lines intended to hospitality industry are the following ones:
- the "gelo" line, consisting of breads, loaves, bases for pizza alla pala and focaccia, special breads for hamburgers and hot dogs, sandwich bread, brought almost to the end of cooking and immediately frozen, to be easily regenerated at the time of use;
- the ATP line (bakery products packaged according to packaging techniques in a protective atmosphere) is dedicated both to hospitality industry and the e-commerce selling. These products are semi-cooked and packaged, can be regenerated in a few minutes at the time of serving, in order to guarantee maximum freshness, quality and food safety every day.

Consultancy and products designed for the Hospitality industry sector
Antonio Follador also offers 360 ° consultancy to professionals in the hospitality industry sector, ranging from the conception of new products to assisting the professional in defining the concept.
The goal is to support any type of business, from the small bar to the hotel, and to develop a sustainable business, which on the one hand offers quality products capable of responding to daily needs and on the other hand allows the enterprise to have a production based on a supply chain of Italian flours, and with zero waste.

THE DUE PANI AWARD
The Due Pani Award from the Gambero Rosso Guide Pane & Panettieri d’Italia 2022
"Experienced baker and skilful selector of raw materials, Antonio Follador leads with great commitment this which is one of the most interesting places of bread in the region. Here bread is for sale, a well-structured bar service can be enjoyed, and you can stop for a delicious meal or an aperitif. But everything that starts with yeast deserves a special mention. The bread that ends up on the counter are large in size, fragrant, cooked properly ".
These are the reasons expressed by Gambero Rosso which rewards Forno Follador with the Due Pani award of the Pane & Panettieri d'Italia 2022 Guide, a recognition that since its first edition rewards the quality, dedication and research that has always distinguished craftsmanship by Antonio Follador and his team of young bakers.