Who we are

The Baking Chambers was reborn during lock-down 1.0. Friends, neighbours and relatives were asking if I could bake bread again for the local community. So, I dusted down my oven mitts and got stuck in, baking from our small cottage kitchen with a range oven and cast-iron Dutch oven pots, the so-called oven within an oven workaround. Initially 'For the love of Crust' was sent out on mail to a core, super loyal, enthusiastic tribe of previous customers. But gradually week by week the interest, and demand in my sourdough bread increased. The dyslexic typos, appalling spelling & grammatical errors became more profound but by word of mouth, that fabulous organic way of growing a business, things started to evolve. After a few months I was driving my incredibly patient & supportive wife Claire and my daughters Evie and Poppy crazy, completely taking over the kitchen with dough tubs and bannetons rising on the kitchen table.

As demand increased, I desperately needed a dedicated professional workspace, a 'Baking Chamber', for the business to evolve and develop. Thanks to the help and support from my family, local craftsman Mark ‘Barry’ Paradise, and a brilliant local builder, Andy Bunce; (who knew exactly what was needed coming from a family of successful bakers), we converted our garage and The Baking Shed was born.

We now supply artisanal breads and Dylan’s Doughnuts- how they made in 1950’s to a variety of cafes, delis, farm shops, and pubs including, The Swan in Wilton, The Lawn Farm Shop in Milton Lilbourne and Food Magpie in Old Town, Swindon.

My desire has always been to make naturally leaven breads and pizza that are all about the taste, the crust and a moreish almost chewy crumb, created through long fermentation & high hydration (water to flour ratio). Over the last year I have invested hours of labour in my mission to create the perfect sourdough loaf, made with 100% organic flour, with no additives, no 'improvers'. To tuning my own leavens to create a fruity/ tangy loaf rather than overly sour, to avoiding huge holes in the crumb-that beset some sourdough, for precious dollops of butter to escape, to sourcing a selection of organic flour with provenance & character like Stoate’s a family owned Victorian water powered, stoneground mill in Shaftesbury, to the well known Shipton Mill near Tetbury and the superlative Gilchester Organics, who gown their own organic tall-straw heritage wheats, rye and ancient grains and expertly stone ground.

To create bread with just flour, salt, water and a lot of passion & hard graft.