Allison Moss-Solomon, public relations brand manager at J Wray and Nephew, is craving bread. On the return leg of the round-the-island bus tour of St Lucia, she hints, cajoles, beseeches, and even takes to calling her export director colleague Mark Nelson ‘uncle’, to secure a stop to satiate the yen for freshly made baked goods.

The tangerine glow of sunset signals the final leg of our island discovery outing. As the two-coaster bus convoy navigates the pothole-free road network and heads back to Rodney Bay Marina where our vacationing party is domiciled, we’re in St Lucia’s southern territory — Vieux Fort.

Daylight fading and the coastline affording gorgeous panoramic views of the Atlantic Ocean between the rising mountains on the island’s opposite end, we pass a roadside baking spot and pull over. Moss-Solomon is deliriously happy.

She alights from the bus, and is joined by a curious few who have caught her fresh-from-the-oven fixation, senior market director Ugo Fiorenzo included.

Across the road we make fast friends

with Fara Mongroo, the middle-aged baker, whose brick-oven bread is a favoured treat for community residents and passersby, and who runs the operation adjacent to his home in this hilly neighbourhood of Dennery.

There’s already a mini-crowd awaiting orders, and as the 60-year-old Mongroo clears the oven, dropping the hot mini French bread-styled goods into an oversized wicker basket, he obliges our request for info.

“I’ve been baking bread here for six years now,” he tells us. “I used to do farming, but in the 1990s, I had a friend who I saw baking in an oven similar to this one, and it planted the idea that I could do it too.”

The bread — made in batches of 30 — and loaded into the oven on a peel, takes no more than five minutes to bake.

Mongroo’s mouth-watering loaves, which he swears are made from an uncomplicated ingredient mix of yeast, lard and sugar, go for $1 each, and can be enjoyed plain, with butter, or cheese.

— Omar Tomlinson