Blog

What would tempt two young bakers to leave good jobs at a famous (to the family) bakery in the hotbed of North American sourdough bread? To move way cross country to bring the Good Stuff to a small town in Michigan? I just had to find out.

I’m so glad that my first ever Australian guest is John Reid, owner and baker of Redbeard Historic Bakery in Trentham, Victoria. He’s been recommended as “someone to talk to” from several bakers across North America and as far as Ireland.

Little did I know that I’d been wanting to talk to John for a long time too!

Rosie Gray is getting baking experience by seeking out that awesome network of bakers all over Scotland, England and into Europe too. These days, she’s working at a brick oven bakery in Genk, Belgium.

Oh yeah, and she’s getting from bakery to bakery on a bike. How cool is that?

Emily Cayer is bringing a lifetime of wildlife conservation and a love of nature to the baking community, through her new collaborative venture, We Knead Nature. She is organizing farmers, millers, bakers and brewers to ensure we are all giving back to the source of our great grains, nature itself.

This week I talk to Blair Marvin and Andrew Heyn. Their contributions to their community and the baking world at large are a true inspiration. Pairing a bakery with a stone mill company, Blair and Andrew have two important links in a stellar local food chain that includes everyone from the farmers that grow their grain to the quarry men who cut the massive millstones in Andrew’s mills.

When did you last sit down and really think about what you want to make vs. what your customers want to buy? What is the First Impression you are leaving with people when they come in your place?

When everything is in alignment, owning a bakery of any size is fantastic. But when you and your customers are misaligned, it can be frustrating and costly.

Lisa Somerville proves that persistence pays off. While working as a waitress, she kept on asking questions until her chef hired her in the kitchen. And her ongoing curiosity kept her moving to new restaurants and elegant country hotels.

But there’s a special attraction to doing your own thing and in 2010 Lisa and her husband opened Vintage Baking Company in Glen, New Hampshire, right in the heart of the White Mountains.

Mitch Stamm has had a wide ranging and extremely interesting career as a cook, baker and teacher and is still going strong. In this fun, meandering conversation, we talk about growing up in Alabama, cooking in Colorado, learning at Zingerman’s in Michigan, teaching in Rhode Island and more.