Sort-of Secret: Panificio Bruno, an Italian home bakery turning out just 20 loaves of focaccia a week
Part of our series spotlighting the city’s edible hidden gems
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The sort-of secret: Panificio Bruno, a home bakery that specializes in focaccia Barese You may have heard of it if: You caught Katia Bruno’s initial round of drops during the pandemic But you probably haven’t tried it because: She makes only 20 loaves a week
The first time Katia Bruno tried selling her focaccia Barese—a chewier, topping-heavy version native to Bari, in southern Italy—she was working full time at Famiglia Baldassarre, the Italian kitchen on Geary Avenue with a cult following for its fresh pasta. It did not go well. Eager to bring her childhood favourite to the masses, she baked six large loaves…and only sold a couple of pieces. “New things can be a hard sell, but it was disheartening,” she says. “At first I thought that I wouldn’t bother trying again.” But then a friend told her it tasted just like the kind her grandmother used to make and put in an order.
Slowly but surely, more orders trickled in, and Bruno made selling home-baked focaccia Barese her side hustle. When the pandemic hit, Baldassarre remained open for takeout—and her focaccia business took off in earnest (she even had to buy an extra fridge to store all the dough). But burning the candle at both ends was exhausting, so in the spring of 2023, she took six months off to get some much needed rest. This past February, Bruno did her first focaccia drop in a long while—and now she can hardly keep up with the demand.
Focaccia fans in these parts are probably more familiar with the Genovese variety, the flat, crisp-edged Italian bread rich with olive oil and flecked with salt. But focaccia Barese is far less common in Toronto, and it’s different in a few key ways.
Genovese is made with all-purpose flour; it has a soft, airy interior; it can be fairly tall; and, aside from salt, it’s usually light on toppings. Barese is comparatively maximalist. The dough always includes semolina, a coarser flour made from hard durum wheat, and usually mashed potatoes, which give the bread a touch of sweetness and its signature chew. It’s denser and flatter than focaccia Genovese. And best of all, it goes hard on toppings. The traditional Barese—which also happens to be one of Bruno’s bestsellers—is covered with tomatoes, olives and oregano.
For hers, Bruno uses green Baresane olives, dried oregano, fresh cherry tomatoes and a liberal sprinkle of kosher salt. With its crisp golden edges, chewy interior and bright toppings, it’s a carb lover’s dream. Another version subs red onion for the cherry tomatoes, giving it a deeply savoury, caramelized note. Then there’s one that doubles up on spuds—Yukon golds are in the dough and on top, along with rosemary, oregano and nutty pecorino Crotonese.
Focaccia Barese is more than just a bread course—it’s substantial enough to star as the main dish. Lavished with toppings, that potato-dense dough and an eye-watering 100 grams of olive oil per 12-inch square, all it needs is a side salad (or a cheeky slice of mortadella). That’s exactly how Bruno grew up eating it, though her father made his using store-bought pizza dough. “Growing up, I realized I wanted to make it the traditional way,” she says.
Related: Cucina Mauro, a cozy Italian lunch counter tucked away in a North York industrial plaza
Besides focaccia Barese, Bruno’s home bakery sells ricotta cakes: creamy, pillowy rounds made with ricotta, olive oil and seasonal fruit. The cake came about in an attempt to maximize oven efficiency—you can’t stack focaccia Barese in the oven because it needs heat from the bottom elements to get the right crisp, but the cake bakes up fine above it. One recent cake featured sour cherries; another local strawberries. It’s not too sweet and far from fancy, and that’s just the way it should be. In a bit of a detour from the southern Italian theme, Bruno also makes luxurious chocolate chip cookies, each one loaded with a mix of high-quality white, milk and dark chocolate chunks.
For now, her business caps out at 20 loaves a week. But, this summer, you can also catch Panificio Bruno at pop-ups—including one with Piano Piano in early June, where an antipasto plate will be paired with her focaccia. Eventually, Bruno wants to open a small bakery that will highlight other southern Italian specialties alongside her flagship focaccia. “I eventually want to offer full antipasto plates with my focaccia, with all kinds of cheese and mortadella,” she says. “That’s the kind of thing I want to eat all the time, and I never get sick of it.”
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