We are keeping a diary of the project as we go along so you can keep up-to-date with what we are up to.
Nestled over four railway arches beneath London Fields station the E5 bakehouse accommodated the students with a tour of the premises and an in-depth look at the patisserie workspace and the bread bakery. Unfortunately the in-store mill was being repaired so we couldn't see it in action. We were able to witness the making of their famous cinnamon rolls and some lovely quince galettes. Thanks to Jacob for showing us round and explaining the work they do there.
Dunns is the oldest bakery in London and we went along to film them explaining and making the ‘London Bloomer’. We interviewed Christopher Freeman, a 5th generation family baker and his son, Lewis, the 6th generation. We also filmed their wonderful head baker who has brought his skills and enthusiasm from his native Romania via periods working in bakeries in Italy, Germany and Spain.
We did three wonderful interviews today. Doug Beany comes from a long line of bakers in Kent and grew up working in the family bakery. After exploring a possible career in geology he decided to go to the National Bakery School and came to work for Bread Etc in Clapham moving on to work for several bakeries in new product development. Jane Hatton started work at Harrods while studying and went on to work in several bakeries before embarking on a distinguished career in teaching and training. Llinos Woods left Wales to work in high end bakeries in hotels in London and had a varied career before becoming head baker at the wonderful Clink Bakery, training inmates in Brixton Prison. We did have five more interviews set up but for various reasons people could not make it which is a shame but, in true bakers style, we made the best of the situation, interviewing two NBS students.
Two wonderful trips today. In the morning to Soho where Michele Wade and the team at Maison Bertaux showed us around and treated us to some of their wonderful pastries and scones. Head bakers Nabil and George also showed us some of their skills and spoke about their long careers at this London institution. In the afternoon we went to Rinkoffs in Whitechapel to find out about the history of their four plait challah bread, the recipe unchanged since Hyman Rinkoff started baking it in 1911. We’ll be making a film about the history, ingredients and method behind this famous loaf. Thanks to everyone at both bakeries for making us so welcome.
A group of us went to Brixton Prison to visit the wonderful Clink Bakery, Kitchen and restaurant. The head baker Llinos Woods took us on a tour and spoke about their missions to give inmates the skills, confidence and outlet though baking, making wonderful food and getting an NVQ qualification. We met and chatted with some of the inmates who are learning new baking skills. It was an inspiring visit showing the power of baking, and we sampled some of their delicious goods.
We had a brilliant day of interviews today covering some of London’s oldest family bakeries as well as one of its newest. Chris Tomkins came to talk about his family bakery, Kistrucks. Their baking journey began when his great, great grandfather arrived from Germany in the mid-nineteenth century, probably of Jewish descent, and ended up starting a family baking business that Chris took on, and which only closed recently. Ray Rinkoff’s grandfather arrived from Ukraine at the turn of the 19th century and started the family business in Whitechapel in 1911 and it’s still going strong. Christopher Freeman is a 5th generation baker and recently passed the North London based family business, Dunns, to his son Lewis. Colin Johnson had a more industrial based career starting in Lyons Corner House and then working for Hovis for many years. Jacob is a baker at E5 Bakehouse, a relative newcomer! E5 are trying to respond to climate change through their baking using heritage grains and sustainable working practices.
Thanks all for coming and sharing your brilliant histories which combined fascinating insights and social history with wonderful anecdotes from your lives in baking.
We were hosted by Antonio and Joao Luis today at their family bakery in Battersea. The students saw how natas are made and learned how to hand form the pastry for these as well as how to prepare Portugese bread rolls. They generally got a very good look at how the bakery works. Thanks so much to the family and to all of the bakers who shared their time and skill with the students, and also for allowing us to film their brilliant skills.
We started interviewing today with six varied and fascinating people. Antonio Luis spoke about the Madeira Bakery, a family business based in South London. Alison Springett spoke about her own family history in baking as well as about the history of the Worshipful Company of bakers. The wonderful Michele Wade spoke about the history of Maison Bertaux in Soho and her own role in starting there 40 years ago as a Saturday girl before taking over to own it. Charlotte O’Kelly spoke about her lockdown business to become the much loved Astrid Bakery in North London. Jake White spoke about his jurney from student at the National Bakery School through industry and back to NBS as a teacher. Sara Autton told us about her wonderful and varied career in baking on the science side of the industry, working across many bakeries.
We were hosted by the Weald and Downland Museum near Chichester where the team of curators and volunteers showed us baking techniques through the ages from Anglo Saxon to Victorian with lots of hands on opportunities. The Tudor kitchen, Vistorian bakery and wate- powered mill were particular features. Thanks to the Bakers Company and Craft Bakers Association benevolent funds, as well as the Mseu, for making it possible.
We spent two days intensively training the students in oral history interview skills, audio recording techniques before an intensive session to decide on the themes to explore in the interviews and developing the oral history questions.
We had a good first day which took place at the historic Bakers Hal. We met the students and had a great intro talk from a historian all about the history of baking in London. In the afternoon we had a reminiscence group with several bakers who are going to be interviewed. The discussion was wide ranging from the history of their bakeries, their own inspirations, experiences as well as the highs and lows of their working lives. Thanks to Christopher Freeman, Chris Tomkins, Sarah Autton, Antonio Luis, Charlotte O’Kelly and Alison Springett (soon to be the first woman Master of The Worshipful Company of Bakers in their 950 year history).
