EMPOWERING FEMALE ENTREPRENEURS

hile she trained as a chemist at
university and later worked as a
research fellow, Aurora Zancanaro
always had a dream. Baking
had long been her first love, and
the dream was to open her own
bakery. In 2017, when she brought that dream to
life, having experienced life in laboratories, bakeries,
and mills throughout Italy, she became the first
woman in the country to own her own bakery.
Landing in Milano was a huge step towards
realizing her ambition.

When she opened the doors to Le Polveri, a 50-meter
square workshop near the Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio in
Milan, she had just a kneader, an oven, a leavening proofer,
a sales counter, and a beguiling selection of breads, buns,
pastries, and biscuits to bake. Soon, the most notable
feature of the business was the queue of customers reaching
out into the street.

The success of Zancanaro’s microbakery is no
accident. It is the fruit of hard work and dedication.
Working from dawn to dusk for the last seven years,
she bakes, makes dough and refreshments, and trains
her team constantly. Over the years, demand for her
products has consistently grown, as has the team, all
of whom understand that bread is experienced with
all of the senses, not just taste.
Classic products need new technology
Le Polveri draws heavily on classic baking traditions.
It uses flour from small artisanal mills around Italy to
make many different types of loaves, pizzas, brioche
bread, granola, sweet and savory cookies, as well as
leavened doughs for the tradition such as panettone
and colomba.
while she opens up new points of view on the baking
industry,
other colleagues take inspiration and undertake similar
paths, starting business on unique bakeries.
Over time, Esmach also followed market trends by
adapting its original Esmach Labs to the constantly
evolving technology applied to its equipment
The enterprise draws on hi-tech tools to support its
business, like many of the female-owned bakery
businesses Zancanaro has inspired: Sara Bonamini
and Flaminia Fratini's Le Tulipane, Ilaria and Simona

Paolino’s Forno Aurea, Giulia Busato’s Tocio, and
Sandra Tasca’s Ciopa.
Their laboratories were designed by Esmach, the
company behind EsmachLab: it provides a unique
format designed to inspire, educate and support a
baker’s work system using Esmach technology.
Esmach has been producing mixing machines for
over 50 years, and EsmachLab relies on innovative
Esmach artificial intelligence (AI) technology to help
make the job of a baker one that fits into normal
working hours, with machinery optimizing every
aspect of the job. EsmachLab enables a baker to
work in a very small space with five appliances that
support preparation and baking.
The AI is the control panel with interactive
software that connects to all Esmach equipment –
the GL AI natural yeast generators, the SPI AI
mixers, the SATURNE AI planetary mixers, the CPC
dividers, and the cold line for the management of
leavening represented by CLIMOTHER® AI. The
ovens are provided by Bongard, for which Esmach is
the sole Italian Distributor.
Using one piece of software, a baker can
communicate with the AI-enabled equipment via the
Esmach cloud. Recipes can be created and uploaded
directly into the devices. The baker takes control and
the equipment takes the strain. Today, tradition and
heritage go hand-in-hand with hi-tech innovation. ■

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