Lewis Carroll, in his masterpiece *Through the Looking-Glass*, left us with the unique phrase "unbirthday gift." If we were to interpret this in the Isetan style, it would be the small, nameless joys of everyday life. For example, freshly baked bread in the morning, or piping hot fried chicken eaten late at night. Ah, what else could we call this but happiness!

Bread is a living thing. Freshly baked bread sings.

People are usually smiling when they talk about delicious bread. Just having freshly baked bread makes you happy. There are even studies that suggest the aroma of bread has the power to make people feel gentle.

At Andersen, the popular bakery in Isetan Shinjuku, a delicious aroma fills the air as soon as the announcement "It's ready!" is made, attracting a large crowd. In fact, all of their bread is baked in the kitchen located on the second basement floor of the Shinjuku store.

"We send bread from the kitchen to the shop three times an hour," explained baker Takahiro Koike. "We want our customers to enjoy not only the delicious taste that only freshly baked bread can offer, but also the aroma and texture at that moment. That's why we want to deliver it to our customers in the freshest possible condition."


The shop always stocks around 100 kinds of bread, but the "Aoyama Andersen Toast" is made with a particular focus on how delicious it is when toasted. To bring out the flavor of the wheat flour, the bread is made without sugar, and when toasted, it becomes crispy on the outside and surprisingly chewy on the inside.

"The secret to its unique texture is the long fermentation time. This bread undergoes a primary fermentation of about three hours. The air bubbles inside the bread are proof of this long fermentation." However, the dough must be prepared about five hours before the bread is baked, so some people have to come to work at 4:30 a.m. every day! "Getting up early is tough (laughs), but managing the dough is the most difficult part. For example, if you don't change the temperature of the water used for mixing on a warm day compared to a cold day, the temperature of the dough after kneading will change. A difference of just 1 degree Celsius can result in a completely different dough, so the ability to judge its condition is crucial."

The work of making bread is far more delicate than one might imagine. "We add yeast and let it ferment. Bread is a living thing." It's kneaded, left to rest, waited to rise, and then baked slowly before it finally becomes a finished loaf of bread. In the kitchen, the sound of freshly baked bread crackling open and releasing steam echoes through the air. This sound is said to be "the bread singing" and is also called "the sound of happiness" among bakers.

We bake them in our in-store kitchen.

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