In 1852, Kerala's first bakery introduced mota puffs. How British influence helped popularise the flaky, egg-mutton-filled pastry

Kerala bakeries need no introduction. But one of the most famous baked goods in the city is mota puffs. Golden, crunchy and flaky, this sweet and savoury concoction is a type of puff pastry wrapped around a hard-boiled egg, meat or spicy onion-and-masala filling. But do you know that puffs weren’t always synonymous with Kerala? In fact, they came from a demand for bread, made by the British.

How European demand led to Kerala’s first bakery

According to a report by The Better India, Kochi’s growing European community created a demand for bread and Westernised baked goods. A man named Ignatus Rozario was called in for the job. He was asked to create European-style baked dishes in a traditional wood-fired oven.

Tsarina Abrao Vacha, the great-great-granddaughter of Ignatus, revealed that Ignatus Rozario’s bakery started in 1852, which was attached to their house, but the shop was closed in 1988 after the death of her great-grandmother, as per The News Minute.

All about the first 2 bakeries in Kerala

Tsarina would watch the puff pastries being made from a batter of flour, eggs, sugar and butter. It all started in the early 1950s in Kochi, which was then ruled by Veera Kerala Varma. Many Britishers and other Europeans staying in Kochi wanted bread. That’s when the king called in Ignatus and gave him a piece of land, asking him to start a bakery.

But besides Rozario, another family also marked their venture in the baking industry. It was the Mambally family of Thalassery. As per The News Minute, they were the ones who famously baked the first Christmas cake in Kerala in 1883 with local arrack and spices in a brick oven.

All about mota puffs

Much like Ignatus, Mambally Bapu was asked by a British man, Murdoch Brown, to bake a cake for him. Murdoch presented Mambally with a sample of the cake he brought from England. Mambally was chosen because he had recently returned from Burma back then with knowledge of making biscuits, buns and bread.

Finally, in the 1960s, the Thalassery brothers introduced puff pastries, filled with mutton, as per The Better India. But when the meat became expensive, they looked for other fillings, and that’s how mota puffs were stuffed with eggs. In no time, mota puffs’ craze travelled all over Kerala, becoming a staple.