While the oven is heating, the bread dough is mixed in an industrial mixer, made into loaves, and allowed to rise. When the oven is ready, the bread is loaded in using a long bread paddle (a doppelganger of a canoe oar). Paco says he usually has so many different breads (and other pastries) in the oven that it’s a real art of timing; all this while serving customers.
Paco learned the art of bread making from his father who had a bakery in a mountain village called Paredes (pop. 700). Their bakery supplied bread for many surrounding villages and Paco remembers delivering bread when he was 14 (without a driver’s license). Paco met Vanessa through music - they are both musicians - and after they got married she then joined him in the family business. Though they say this type of work takes up a lot of their time, they gain weight, and are always cold (from getting used to the heat of the kitchen), they are happy running their own business and being known as the bread makers in and around Luarca.