How a Czech baker in Liberec sells all his bread in a day

Robert Boroš, a chef with experience at some of the best restaurants in Czechia and New Zealand, has opened a small bakery called Roti Sourdough Bakery in the centre of Liberec — and now people queue up outside it. In just a few hours of work he bakes more than a hundred sourdough loaves and sells every last one the same day.

The bakery is open just two days a week and takes up literally a few square metres, but it has already built up a loyal following. Boroš kneads the dough, bakes and sells the bread entirely on his own, while production takes place in the village of Kryštofovo Údolí, around twelve kilometres from Liberec.

His weekday schedule is planned down to the minute: on Sunday he goes to the bakery to weigh out ingredients and prepare the starters, on Monday he kneads the dough for proofing, on Tuesday he bakes the first batch, on Wednesday he bakes again so there's fresh bread ready by Friday. The bakery is open from ten to three, and the stock often runs out before closing time. “There have been days when by noon I had no loaves left. I don't want to put customers off, but I simply can't manage more than that — and I don't want to sacrifice quality,” Boroš explains.

He had dreamed of a career in the kitchen since childhood: at the age of six, watching his great-grandmother make tomato sauce, he told her he would be a chef one day. From the age of thirteen he was washing dishes in restaurants, and by fifteen he was already cooking simple dishes. After culinary school and a business management diploma, he gained experience in various establishments — in Dresden, at a restaurant with its own farm in Jitrava, and under well-known Czech chefs, including Oldřich Sahajdák of La Degustation Bohême Bourgeoise.

Looking to develop further, Boroš moved to New Zealand, where he spent six years, including stints at the Michelin-starred restaurant Rātā in Queenstown and at Amisfield Winery. There he learned to work with unique local ingredients — including seafood he had never encountered before.

Today he applies all of that experience to his own small venture — honest sourdough, Czech wheat and the bread that now has people queuing up in Liberec.