Say hello to the Avocado Bread Company: the first-ever brand to create plant-based bread products made with — you guessed it — ripe avocados! I had the privilege of speaking with Ben Rizzitello, the company’s vice president of sales and marketing. He shared fascinating insights into the inception of Avocado Bread and provided a glimpse into what lies ahead.
The Origin of Avocado Bread
The concept for the Avocado Bread Company originated in the kitchen of Anthony & Sons, an Italian bakery based in Denville. Known as one of the nation’s leading suppliers of bread and rolls, Anthony & Sons played a pivotal role in the company’s development.
“I was hired to grow the company — the brand — and what I was looking for was the next best thing for the entire industry,” says Rizzitello. “What I found was how avocado toast with a multigrain bread was growing in the food service segment year after year. So I thought let’s see if we can make an avocado-based grain bread.”
Through research and careful practice, the Avocado Bread Company was born. The signature bread is the Avocado Seeds & Grains Bread. Made with guacamole spice, it’s a healthy, clean-label, and vegan bread. Rizzitello says his main inspiration for this bread was “the growth of the everyday consumer’s awareness of avocados, and the features and benefits that avocados had to offer. How can we put it in bread to make to become unique? And different from our competitors and take our company to the next level?”
A “Better-for-You” Product
Rizzitello says what makes their company stand out from the crowd is that “we’re not just a baker or manufacturer of bread and rolls. We want to [provide for] the retailers, the food service industry, and the end user, which is the everyday customer. So yes, our experience is in baking and that’s our forte. But we also want to be a solutions provider to our customers in the sense that hey, our customer is looking for not only just a quality product but a healthy product. A better-for-you product.”
The avocado and guacamole spices give this bread a unique flavor. This product also provides health benefits, allowing you to enjoy it with the satisfaction of knowing you’ve made a health-conscious choice. “It’s a good fat,” he says. “It lowers blood pressure. It’s good for cardiovascular inflammation. There are so many different things that avocado brings to the table.”
How to Serve Your Avocado Bread
So what’s the best way to serve avocado bread?
“You can serve it with cheese,” says Rizzitello. “You can have it with more guacamole or hummus.” Or find another way to enjoy it!
The Avocado Bread company often exhibits at trade shows to show off its product and allow people to try samples. “As far as sandwiches go, we found when we were doing the trade shows, that the people loved it in a panini grill where we grilled the bread with a little bit of avocado oil to enhance the avocado and we added some cheese to it,” says Rizzitello. “We made sandwiches and we kept them healthy. We did tomato and Swiss cheese with turkey, and we have you have an avocado sandwich. Or you could do just a grilled vegetable and keep it as a vegan sandwich.”
Where to Find Avocado Bread
You can find avocado bread all over: in grocery stores, at delis, and in restaurants everywhere from Turks and Caicos, to Hawaii, and Puerto Rico.
On the local front, you can pick some up at area grocery stores including Stop & Shop and Kings.
