(Jewish Group) How a non-Jewish Swiss baker's challah wowed the internet
Challah baker Katharina Arrigoni lives in a town in northern Switzerland with 3,000 residents, none of whom — including Arrigoni – are Jewish. Entirely self-taught, Arrigoni has never tasted a challah other than her own creations. Yet thanks to the power of the internet and Instagram, Arrigoni has become an international challah-shaping sensation.
Arrigoni is the founder of Besondersgut (German for “especially good”), a bakery and baking school located about 15 miles from Zurich. She started baking six years ago when she was 42 years old following a terrible traffic accident. In need of distraction, Arrigoni says she spent “days and nights in [sic] American bread baking forums.” She soon began publishing recipes and photographing what she baked. Bread classes taught by Arrigoni followed, as did her first book, “Swiss Bread,” in 2017.
Zopf, a braided loaf that looks just like challah, is a popular Swiss bread. Arrigoni grew up eating it, and her mother taught her how to bake it. While the recipe is similar to that of challah — except that zopf is made with milk rather than water, and butter instead of oil — Arrigoni only came across challah three years ago, on the internet. She was, “immediately excited” by the bread, enthralled by their beauty and the community of worldwide challah bakers who connected over it. She began to follow challah bakers on Instagram from Israel, England and the United States.
“When I started baking challahs, I quickly ended up with Uri Scheft [founder of Lehamim Bakery in Israel and Breads Bakery in New York],” Arrigoni said. “He inspired me to get creative and try new techniques.”
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