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This is how it all began... and, once again, this stroll down memory lane takes us right back to the beginning.
On joining the bakery, two of the optimal things to be able to do with your hands is moulding a French Vienna so that there is no ‘hump” in the middle and the other is to plait a Kitke.
After only a week at the bakery, Steven tried to plait a Kitke and got it wrong. By the second week, after quite some practice, Steven presented his Kitke to his dad and Mr B said “Not good enough my son.” He then crumpled up the piece of dough and said “Please don’t waste any more dough – stop plaiting.” Understandably, this upset Steven so he continued to practice and by the third week he was quite confident. They were plaiting Kitkes on the table when Mr B looked over and said “Almost my son”. Steven was absolutely devastated and asked “But why? What’s wrong with it?” His dad replied, “It’s not good enough. It’s not good enough for Buttercup. In Buttercup, there’s no second best, in Buttercup there is only the best.”
It took four weeks of practice but Steven was finally allowed to put a Kitke on the slips of the Matador flat deck oven.
As the years went by, it became a competition to see if anybody could plait as fast as Mr B. He had his own individual style that nobody could copy, it was almost back to front, something that came automatically – to the tune of “shamor vezachor bedibur echad.” This rhythm that he plaited to translates into “keep and remember the sabbath” and each time you said “keep” and “remember” you made another twist in the Kitke dough. It’s rumored to ensure that the plaints turn out just right…
“be humble, be teachable and always keep learning”
At a bakery expo being held in Port Elizabeth, which is a very rare thing, there was an exhibitor showcasing how to plait a Kitke. Steven stood by, watching and eventually asked the exhibitor to show him how he did it. It was completely different to the Buttercup way; the strands were all in a line and not in the shape of a cross. Steven fancied the process and was able to duplicate it – so well he was even shown how to do a 6-plait (as opposed to the normal 4-plait).
“When you work for your father, you will always want to try and improve on what your father has taught you because, if you don’t improve, what have you actually learnt? Then you’ve just been a ‘handlanger’ who has just been a copycat. I didn’t want to be better than my father to make him look like less, I wanted to be better than my father to make him proud of me.”
Steven started plaiting the Kitkes using the new style and one day, while working side by side, his dad actually stopped plaiting his Kitke and said, “Steven, can you show me how you’re plaiting your Kitke?” Steven’s dad then looked at him and said “your plaits are better than mine – show me how again.”
This happened about 4 to 5 years into Steven’s career in Buttercup. He’d achieved many things – learnt how to mix dough, how to run production, how to manipulate a recipe – many things but the proudest moment in his bakery life with his father was when his father said to him “show me how you’re plaiting your Kitke, your plaits are better than mine.”
“I didn’t want to be better than my dad, I just wanted to prove myself to him that I was good enough to run the bakery.”
As you can see, the history of Kitke is wound tight into the heartstrings of Buttercup Bakery. It’s with great simcha and nachas that we honour the legacy of Steven’s dad by introducing Buttercup Bakery Kitke to, not only Port Elizabeth, but to the Eastern Cape as well. Recently launched into SPAR, Kitke bread and rolls are now available 24/7, not just on a Friday through our Factory and Online Shops.
But it doesn’t end there, South Africa is the only country to call the Sabbath bread “Kitke” – it’s known as “challah” everywhere else in the world. The term "Kitke" is peculiar to Jewish folk of Lithuanian descent – which many of the South African Jewry are. So, in our own, small and unique way, we are keeping this Yiddish word alive. How special is that?
Your invitation? It’s to pop into your SPAR, take a Kitke home – and then let us know the hundred different ways you were able to enjoy it!
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