An article exploring the life of an artisan baker, exploring the sourdough process and the unseen work behind your loaf of bread.
I can smell the enticing, comforting smell of freshly baked bread from halfway down the street. It’s still dark outside when I arrive at the rather respectable hour of 6.00am, passing headlights gleaming through the windows of the Assembly Bakery, but the bakers inside have been here since 4.30am; “It used to be 4.00am, but we realised we could have an extra half hour in bed!” head baker and manager Dave Fung jokes, as he offers me a much-needed cup of coffee.
It’s a two person show in the bakery at this time of day; Dave is working on mixing the white sourdough for tomorrow, while Courtney mans the ovens and bakes today’s loaves. I join Dave as he weighs the ingredients for tomorrow’s white sourdough into the massive mixer, hefting 25kg sacks of flour with remarkable ease. “It’s a very physical job,” he jokes. “Sometimes you get home and everything hurts – your muscles, your hands…”
Excerpt from Farmdrop, October 2018, words and photos.