Iva Tsoneva is a FERRANDI Paris certified baking instructor. She has nearly 10 years of experience as the head baker of her own artisan bakery, as well as extensive international experience.
Iva strives to constantly improve her patience, precision, and ability to make complex techniques accessible and understandable, even for beginners. For her, working with kvass and baking are much more than a profession – “they are a way to develop ourselves and communicate fully with those closest to us,” she says.
What is the most valuable lesson for you after so many years in baking?
I learned that with your hands you can always make something really good, regardless of the conditions, as long as you are curious and brave enough to try. I learned that every master has his own way and even the best professional must keep the so-called beginners mind in himself. There are thousands of breads, thousands of people who know how to make thousands of different things. Just from Bansko to Sofia, for example, there are five types of masters from whom you can learn five different things about bread. I also learned that the moment you say to yourself “I am a master, I already know everything”, you are finished, you stop your development and then you are the least of a master. I, for example, have worked in the bakeries of Indians, Italians, Serbs, then I structured the accumulated knowledge and experience in the French school and I continue to learn every day.
How did baking become part of your life?
It all started with a baking course, which my aunt, not me, had attended.
I came a long way before I found my true calling and passion. As a child, I dreamed of becoming a journalist and I kept recording various interviews with my relatives. That's why I graduated in journalism. However, I gave up on this path after my first internship at one of the famous radio stations - it turned out that this profession was no longer what I imagined. Then I worked in advertising agencies, where I gradually decided that I wanted to develop in the NGO sector. I enrolled in a master's degree in Australia, but the NGO sector quickly disappointed me.
After I realized that this wasn't mine either, I returned to Bulgaria again, no longer having any idea what I wanted to do.
Around that time, my aunt, who lives by the sea, decided she wanted to learn how to make bread. She enrolled in a course and became so passionate about it that she started dreaming of a small bakery. She had a suitable space, found a master of stone-bottomed ovens from Shumen and offered me to help her. I liked the idea of living by the sea. That's how I ended up in Sveti Vlas, and soon after, baking turned out to be the true passion of my life.
A brand new craft and a brand new business. How did you do it?
At first it was really difficult because ten years ago people still didn't have today's attitude towards quality food and didn't understand why handmade bread was so much more expensive, different, more special and of better quality than factory-made bread. I constantly had to tell them how we make it and why it was worth the price. But we succeeded. Little by little we gained many regular customers from the village and various tourists from all over the world. It was great to watch how the children of so many families literally grew up before our eyes with our bread.
Who is your baking teacher?
After we stabilized the bakery in Sveti Vlas so that it would operate year-round and I trained people to manage without me, I decided to start traveling around the world and working in interesting places with interesting people to develop my experience and knowledge. That's how I ended up in bakeries in Costa Rica, Panama, Italy, and I also worked for a Serbian in Sofia. I learned a lot of valuable things about baking and more.
From the Indians, for example, I learned that you can make perfect bread even without having the perfect conditions – equipment, scales, measures – it is enough to trust your body and your feelings. From the Italians, I learned Dolce Vita – that the most important thing is the quality of life, quality food and the pleasure of preparing it for loved ones. The Serb, on the other hand, gave me confidence and calmed my pace in the kitchen. He constantly repeated: “Calm down, easier, slower! It will work!”. Of course, in the hands of a true master, everything seems easy and simple.
Finally, after thousands of hours of work in dozens of bakeries, under all kinds of conditions, in different parts of the world, I completed a certification course as a baking teacher at one of the most elite French culinary education institutions.
What is the first piece of advice you give to your students?
I always start by saying that the first 100 things you bake don't count. You shouldn't expect too much from yourself in the beginning, because it's a process – there are successes and failures, the road is not straight up.
First you have to understand fermentations and leavening, and that's very specific. You have to understand the microorganisms, know them - when they're happy, when they're unhappy, when to put them in, how warm they should be.
Besides, there are formulas and frameworks, but there are also feelings that you need to develop and that you can rely on and trust. Because no matter how precise your technique is and how controlled your environment is, in the end it all depends on your own sense – the dough feels on your finger.
I learned the hard way – slowly, through trial and error, but the good news is that in the courses we organize at Sharena Fabrika, we add to my rich personal experience and intuitive approach the teaching methods from the “mother of all cuisines” – the French School. When you have this extremely well-structured system on your side, you can progress much more easily and start achieving good results much faster.
What is your favorite bread?
Perhaps the most delicious was my first successful result. I was truly happy to try my 101st loaf of bread – after all the hundred failed attempts before that.
And then - my favorite bread is the one I make for my loved ones.
This is the fire that I want to light and pass on to my students – to take it into their own homes, because there is nothing more exciting than making something with your hands and then seeing the whole family gather around your baked goods with the words: "This is very delicious! Well done, Mom!"
👩🍳Current baking courses, you can see here.👨🍳
