behind the menu | açma verde
the story behind the dish.
what has since been dubbed as ‘the turkish bagel’, açma is a soft, circular bread typically eaten for breakfast or a snack in turkey. we first came across the bread in february 2023 on a research trip in istanbul. it is made by twisting two strands of dough together into a loop and baked until golden on the outside, and doughy on the inside. ours is transformed by folding in a streak of [ wild, when in season ] garlic and parsley butter that gives the bread a deep emerald interior, contrasting with its caramel exterior.
from istanbul to chania to london.
this bread was developed over a series of months by baker, eyal schwartz. formerly, a neurological student, he turned his scientific approach to all things bread and handles the intersection of dough, yeast, fermentation and baking with the attention and precision of an academic. lucky for us.
it was on a research trip to crete where we first stumbled across eyal, consulting at the world-class red jane bakery in crete. founded by our friend, hotelier and restauranteur nikos tsepetis, it is located in central chania and designed by michael anastassiades, a cypriot-born, london-based designer. it is, surely, one of the most breathtaking designs we have ever come across. red jane is located in an old factory dating back to the 1930s. abandoned for many years, it was revitalised by nikos’s vision into a space where artisanal baking could coexist with moving design.
we always knew that bread was to be a central part of both the agora and oma menu and so invested a lot of love into those less commonly made in london. laminated breads and sourdough were done so well, what could we do differently?
enter eyal. head baker and co-founder of london’s iconic e5 bake house, and now a baker consultant lending his knowledge around the globe, he was working with nikos at red jane when we first met him. a friendship was born, and when we returned to london, we were lucky to secure his talents to help formulate the bakery offering at our new restaurants. the açma was developed over many months, baked, tried and refined until, finally, our final product was created: fluffy, garlicky-green interior, hard, perfectly browned exterior, faintly flavoured by sea salt.
above. early açma prototypes from the test kitchen.
today, the recipe is baked new each morning under the guidance of our head baker, gizem, who herself holds a long career in baking within her home country of turkey and her residence today in london.
our açma is intended to be paired with our spreads. scooped through silky hummus and labneh, used to mop up the last of a lamp chop. from turkey via crete, back to london. a bread of multiple stories.
