Man has always eaten bread and cereals.

Originally, even before the technique of making bread was developed, people soaked and cooked cereals. These cooked cereals were mixed with fruit, nuts, herbs and honey.

The history of 'bread' starts with the pharao's, as the many Egyptian drawings in their tombs illustrate. Bread had a religious meaning and was often offered as a sacrifice to the gods.

According to the legend it was an Egyptian slave who discovered that dough could rise. A left-over of bread that wasn't baked, had gotten sour, and he mixed it with the new bread the next day so it wouldn't be noticed. The result was an airier and tastier bread.

For many years, bread was used as money. The Egyptians paid their slaves with bread and beer. The Romans had their 'Bread and games'. The Roman candidates for the elections organised games in the arena and distributed bread to win the crowd for their cause.

Roman bakers pressed their initials in bread as a signature. A brand name 'avant la lettre'.

In 1260, the first bakery guild was established in France. Only two types of bread were allowed: with cheap rye for the poor, the farmers and the slaves and more expensive wheat for the rich, nobility and the clergymen.

The 16th century famine turned bread and cereals into wanted items and you could end up in prison for stealing bread.

Thanks to the development of agriculture, different cereals were harvested : rye in the middle East, corn in Central-America, oatmeal in Southern-Europe, barley in Asia.

Bread has always been part of our civilization. It has always been an important component of our diet, for special moments as wel as for daily consumption.