Thomas Grasberger and his wife Michelle combed the Mediterranean looking for the ideal location to open a traditional bakery and patisserie, and Thomas has gone full circle from carrying out his apprenticeship in one of Vienna’s most famous and oldest patisseries down a little side street in the Austrian capital, to running his own boutique bakeshop down a small side street in the capital of Mallorca in the Santa Catalina area, with his main bakery in an old brewery in Santa Maria.
Thomas began learning his trade at the age of 15 at the highly prestigious K. u. K. Hofzuckerbackerei Demel confiserie which opened in 1786.
“They baked the old traditional way and that is where I learnt that the two key secrets to good bread are passion and patience, and that is how I have baked bread ever since and that is why we are the only people making hand made, traditional bread here in Palma.”
He has worked in many corners of the world and has baked quite a few things in the process: In the USA he worked for a dairy company, in Vietnam, Dubai, Egypt and Singapore he made people happy with his bread. Then he and his Lebanese wife Michelle moved to Mallorca - the Balearic island was chosen over England because of the sun.
“We first started with the bakery in Can Pastilla in 2016, opened the shop in 2017, which is run by my wife Michelle, without her it would not have happened and enjoy the huge success it does, many people simply interact with her. Then in 2018 we moved the main operation out to Santa Maria and I have to admit that business is better we could have ever imagined."
“We have the retail side catering for the yachts, hotels, restaurants and cafés and then the boutique.
And, two years ago, we decided to concentrate more on our sourdough bread and use eco and bio ingredients."
“The flour now comes from Spain, France and Germany and these special flours not only enable us to produce a much cleaner and healthier range of breads, the taste is even better. The process is very much the same. There are three key ingredients to bread, salt, water and flour but what also makes our bread unique is that we ferment the dough for up to 24 hours or more before baking and then letting it breath and our customers love it. “And, using varieties of spelled flour enhances the flavour and digestibility."
“We still produce a small selection of sweets and pastries with no sugar, the French, for example, just love our croissants, plus we make brownies, carrot cake, raison cakes, banana bread and a few breads which are Gluten-free or made from Buckwheat, but our main focus for the past two years now has been on baking top quality bread.
“No more cakes, no more cream,” he added. “And it’s clean and honest, we do everything we can not to confuse the customer, we don’t pretend to be something else and I think that is one of the secrets to our success."
“We are approachable and available. We take orders, be they private or retail and always do our very best to please the customer, many of which I am pleased to say are regulars and repeat clients which is always very rewarding,” said Thomas, who is also a qualified chef and hotel manager who has worked all over the world.
Contact details
Calle de Annibal 24, Santa Catalina, 07013 Palma
Email: thomas@thomasbakeshop.com
Telephone +34 685 263 198
WhatsApp +34 678 646 699