Mumbai's iconic pav bread might soon be toast

A baker holds up a loaf of pav freshly baked astatine nan Yazdani Bakery successful Mumbai. A authorities scheme to prohibition wood-fired ovens successful bakeries arsenic a measurement to curb contamination could lead to a value summation successful nan beloved pav — and erase its steaming flavor. Indranil Aditya for NPR hide caption

toggle caption

Indranil Aditya for NPR

MUMBAI, India — Every morning, erstwhile nan metropolis of Mumbai sleeps, nan unit of Yazdani Bakery wake up to knead dough, trim it into small pieces and popular it into nan oven. By dawn, they're fresh pinch their astir celebrated offering: a 1000 pieces of pav, which flies disconnected nan shelves arsenic soon arsenic nan bakery opens.

Pav is simply a soft and fluffy bread, pinch a crusty apical and a chopped steaming flavor. It resembles a Parker House rotation isolated from location is nary ovum successful nan pav's dough. The connection originates from nan Portuguese connection for breadstuff — pao. It arrived successful India pinch Portuguese traders who sailed into adjacent harbors much than 600 years agone and brought pinch them a sensation of home.

It became a thoroughfare nutrient fixture successful nan 19th century, erstwhile nan larboard metropolis was emerging arsenic a textile hub, drafting workers from adjacent towns and villages to its fabric spinning and weaving factories.

"Pav is what Bombay's working-class blue-collar workers were eating, particularly those who were acold from location without nan infrastructure to create Indian nutrient for them," says Mumbai-based nutrient anthropologist Kurush Dalal, referring to nan metropolis by its erstwhile name.

A baker successful Mumbai weighs mixed that will go nan beloved pav bread. Indranil Aditya for NPR hide caption

toggle caption

Indranil Aditya for NPR

Since then, Mumbai's organization has grown 10 times complete nan past period to 12 million. This teeming larboard metropolis is location to Bollywood, banal markets, billionaire industrialists and millions of migrants, of collars bluish and white, surviving successful slums and skyscrapers. Mumbai's textile factories coming are hulking shells of their past, overgrown by chaotic fig trees.

But pav remains a moving people staple. A stack of six — called a ladi — costs little than 25 cents.

A bread's hazy future

But now, pav's endurance is successful peril.

In February , nan authorities announced that it would prohibition wood-fired bakeries crossed nan metropolis successful nan adjacent six months. The bid came a fewer months aft nan Mumbai-based Bombay Environmental Action Group published a study claiming that complete nan people of a year, contamination from Mumbai's 1,000-odd wood-fired bakeries was arsenic harmful to each resident as smoking 400 cigarettes.

But critics opportunity this is simply a lawsuit of misplaced priorities — of picking connected nan small guy. "The contamination that is emitted from these bakeries is thing compared to nan contamination that building sites are contributing aliases nan roadworthy repair sites are contributing," says erstwhile municipality assembly typical Makarand Narwekar.

Bakers astatine nan Yazdani Bakery successful Mumbai knead trays of dough. Indranil Aditya for NPR hide caption

toggle caption

Indranil Aditya for NPR

He points to nan monolithic makeover being undertaken by Mumbai's civic assemblage to remake nan city's roads, which has only worsened particulate and traffic. A study by nan Indian climate-tech group Respirer Living Sciences recovered Mumbai's aerial was unsafe for astir half of 2024.

Ravi Andhale, main of nan contamination power board, acknowledges that wood-fired bakeries [aha, truthful mention wood-fired successful conjunction pinch nan study] aren't nan worst offenders successful Mumbai. According to nan Bombay Environmental Action Group study they only lend 3% of nan city's particulate matter contamination – referring to matter successful nan aerial smaller than 10 micrometers successful diameter). But "just because your stock is small — you should not do thing — is not acceptable," he says.

And nan lead writer of nan study which spotlighted really polluting wood-fired bakeries are says 1 logic why they're being targeted is that it's conscionable easier to lick that small portion of nan problem.

"As acold arsenic nan contamination from construction, infrastructure and vehicles go, they person a batch of complexities," says Hema Ramani, an environmental advisor who useful connected ineligible and argumentation issues. "That's why we said let's look astatine faster, quicker, smaller transitions that tin happen. Then you move connected to nan bigger ones."

Ramani says she doesn't want nan bakeries to unopen shop, only move to a cleaner substance for illustration earthy state aliases electricity. The authorities tin help, she says, by subsidizing nan instrumentality aliases modulation costs.

But Nasir Ansari, president of nan Bombay Bakers Association, says that would summation nan costs of nan pav by much than a half. "Pav is often nan nutrient of nan working-class. Even a mini value emergence makes a immense difference. A fewer months ago, we had raised nan value of a stack of six by 3 rupees" — a mates of pennies. "We still had customers asking maine why I did that."

A baker places mixed into a wood-fired stove astatine Yazdani Bakery. Indranil Aditya for NPR hide caption

toggle caption

Indranil Aditya for NPR

Why pav is beloved

It's not conscionable astir nan cost, pav bakers say. The wood-fired breadstuff is portion of Mumbai's cosmopolitan heritage, a melange of indigenous and assemblage traditions.

This Portuguese-origin breadstuff is now eaten pinch a fried murphy snack called 'vada,' a buttery rootlike mash called 'bhaji', aliases spiced chickenhearted aliases lamb mince called keema. "They're besides awesome vessels for mopping up each kinds of gravies and curries — and conscionable astir everything Indian," says Dalal.

A baker carries loaves of caller breadstuff successful nan room of Yazdani Bakery. Indranil Aditya for NPR hide caption

toggle caption

Indranil Aditya for NPR

Perzon Zend, proprietor of nan Yazdani Bakery, says losing nan wood-fired pav would return distant thing intangible from Mumbai's cosmopolitan heritage. He points to his ain family history: Zend's ancestors came from Iran much than 100 years agone — and group up Mumbai's astir iconic Iranian restaurants and bakeries — wherever their cardinal merchandise is simply a Portuguese-origin bread. It's been a awesome business for nan family. He taps his potbelly to demonstrate.

"I decidedly want cleanable aerial successful Bombay," says Zend. "But I don't want to beryllium nan smallest and nan easiest target."

And he thinks nan method of baking is nan cardinal to success. "You can't hit nan wood-fire," he says. "In America, you fume nan chops and that smokiness is everything. It's for illustration that pinch pav too." Those made successful electrical ovens, he says, "taste for illustration cardboard."