Ivan and Olga Prytulak came to Britain in 1947 as war refugees. After years of saving they opened the Kolos Bakery in Bradford in 1961. Their bread has won plaudits in the food world, but to the family it is more than a business...

Ivan, who died recently, and Olga were both born in the Ukraine. They met after the Second World War, in a Displaced Persons Camp in Heidenau in Northern Germany. Here Ivan, who had already served his apprenticeship at a bakery, found work in a local bakery. The German owner was kind and shared a recipe with Ivan for Bauernbot, a German farmers' rye loaf, still made by the Kolos bakery today.

But at the heart of their family business in Bradford, is the secret recipe for their Ukrainian rye bread which now sells throughout the country. In 1947, as refugees on the shores of England, Ivan and Olga carried their possessions in a sack, and the secret Ukrainian bread recipe in their heads. It has never been written down. Ivan and Olga's three sons, Dmytro, Terry and Jerry all know the secret ingredients but for the moment, they're reluctant to pass the recipe on, even to their own children. James, 21 and Alex 24, realise they have to earn the knowledge, "Dad wants us to show we're willing to carry on the business. He'll pass on the recipe when he thinks the time is right. We have to be patient."

The Prytulak family is close, and the bakery a success, but the three sons found the going tough as they, and their parents worked tirelessly at the business, "It was the bakery which kept us together all these years. It was just bakery, bakery, bakery." As the three boys finished school they went straight to work with their mother until nine or ten in the evening. As they went to bed, their father got up for his shift and worked through the night. There was a pressure to conform. One of the sons admits, "I did try to escape from the bakery in the beginning, but in the end I came back. My father was very autocratic. He said, 'I've given you a chance in life, it's up to you to carry on.' "