Maddie Reynolds, Namasdough, York

One of my first memories is baking fairy cakes at nursery and being so proud taking them to my dad. All through my life, me and my friends would rather have a night making butterfly cookies than going out drinking! Being diagnosed with a chronic illness drove me into baking even further as it became a necessity to be able to eat. I have absorbed as much information as I can since then – from developing dough recipes and exploring ancient flours to digesting cookbooks to find techniques to carry over in allergen free baking.

I began just before lockdown, baking my first gluten free loaf and normal sourdough, and haven’t looked back since. People would order through my Instagram and many a stressful evening was had throwing things into my uneven tiny kitchen oven and praying everything came out. The community of York have been so kind, loving and understanding.

This is how I carried on, moving to completely gluten free at the beginning of 2022. I finally got a proper and amazing bread oven last year and things have grown ever since. Everything I bake is small batch, individual, completely vegan, NGCI and top allergen free – and it’s baked with calm and peace from my yogi heart. Baking is my outlet from being a full time student as well as a yoga and pilates teacher and so I always want to keep it an enjoyable experience.

Megan McSharry, Haxby Bakehouse, Haxby

Around 5 years ago I was living and working in London feeling unfulfilled in my career and wanting to shake things up a bit. I had always had an interest in baking and bread, and decided to quit my job and enrol at Le Cordon Bleu on the Boulangerie diploma. I caught the bread bug and went on to study at The School of Artisan Food.

My career has been a bit of a whirlwind – I managed to walk straight into a head bakers position at Marmadukes in Sheffield. It was a steep learning curve and I will always be grateful for the opportunity. More recently I have relocated back to York and am now at Haxby Bakehouse. It has always been a dream of mine to work here with Phil and the team – we work hard and make great bread, it’s the best job I’ve ever had. I have also recently had a recipe published in the Knead Peace charity cookbook, it was such an honour to be asked to contribute alongside many of my baking heroes.

Baking makes me happy and I want the bread to make others happy – there’s nothing nicer than a freshly baked loaf of sourdough with loads of butter! It doesn’t have to be super fancy but it should use good quality ingredients sourced as locally as possible made by someone who cares. As long as I continue baking bread I’ll be happy.

Sally Cunningham, Forge Bakehouse, Sheffield

I was exposed to baking at a young age – so for me there’s always been a sense of nostalgia attached to baking. I’d help my mum and dad bake, decorate cakes with my grandma and make my own gingerbread houses for Christmas. For a period I worked photographing food and at home would bake for my family and friends – this made me realise I much prefer making food than taking photos of it! That was the catalyst for a career in baking.

Just before lockdown I found out about the Advanced Diploma course at The School of Artisan Food. I originally started the course wanting to go into pastry and Viennoiserie, but that’s where I discovered the wonderful world of sourdough. I found bread really fascinating due to its complexity and the sheer science involved. Baking evolved into something I became completely enthralled with and immersed in.

I found my current job, a Senior Sourdough Baker at a lovely little bakery called Forge Bakehouse, where I’ve been developing my skills and knowledge. Working at Forge has opened up numerous avenues to me, one of which is teaching Sourdough classes that will be open to the public.

It’s all about Sourdough! It’s the best form of leavening and the fermenting of bread. It’s healthier for your gut and it’s full of flavour too. I think this method should be appreciated and shared at home and within local communities.

Jenny Bell, Leeds Bread Coop, Leeds

I first got into baking in my 20s when I started to struggle to digest supermarket bread. At a similar time a bakery were kind enough to give me a sourdough starter, so I started baking my own sourdough at home. It was absolutely rubbish to begin with, but I persisted, watched lots of youtube videos and gradually got better. A few years later I wanted a change of career out of an office – a job at Leeds Bread Coop came up and I’ve been working here developing my baking skills ever since.

It was when I started volunteering in a café to get on my feet and realised I loved the kitchen environment that I began to think my home hobby of sourdough baking could become a career move. I am still so grateful Leeds Bread Coop took me on – it was lucky as they couldn’t find a baker with experience at the time. I joined a large experienced team of bakers that were all so happy to share their knowledge. It has, and continues to be, a great learning opportunity.

My baking is mainly sourdough, with lots of different flours thrown in, and more recently pastries. I have always been obsessed with ethics in food supply chains, and for that reason I love finding locally produced food – nothing beats being able to see where something is grown.

Ruth Diskin, Mill Kitchen, Farsley

Having finished university and wasted a few years in various office jobs, I signed up to do a baking course at Leeds City College. I’d already started dabbling in some home baking, including sourdough, and found it almost addictive. This course really opened my eyes to the satisfaction found in the methodical nature of baking, whilst still being able to have fun with flavours and ingredients.

My first baking job was making all the bread for a cafe called Graze on Call Lane (now IF). I wanted to properly get to grips with sourdough so applied to work at Leeds Bread Coop – they taught me everything I know about sourdough bread – I stayed there for over 6 years working with some incredible people. I moved to Mill Kitchen last year, giving me the chance to work more creatively on a smaller scale, especially with pastry and cake products.

The best part of being a baker is that I get to make (and eat) the most delicious food from the best ingredients. It helps that Yorkshire has some incredible food producers – from flour to forced rhubarb – and it’s more important than ever to support local suppliers. Currently I’m working on setting up my own business, Fat Pigeon Bakery, from a building in my garden in Bramley. I’ll be making lots of different Viennoiserie using the best local ingredients. I’m hoping to open in Spring 2023.

Claire Baker, Baked, Todmorden

It was about 9 years ago when I baked my first loaf of bread. It all started when I went on an evening bread baking course at a local college – I loved it, starting with just flour, salt, water and yeast and with a bit of mixing, kneading and time you’ve created bread. I was hooked. Baking at home in my small kitchen for a few friends became what I did at weekends. I set up a little Facebook page called Baked with the dream of one day being able to somehow open a bakery.

What changed my hobby into my profession happened when I became very ill very quickly – I had haemorrhagic pancreatitis and was given a 40% chance of survival. This was a huge wake up call for me. My husband Christian kept me positive, talking about when I got out of hospital we are going to live the dream and build a bakery. Bakers by name, bakers by nature. This saved my life. My aim was to open a bakery less than a year after I got out of hospital. 363 days later we opened the shutter door to Baked. It was the proudest moment of my life.

Baked are still a micro bakery with 5 team members, our first fully trained in-house Baked baker and one delivery eco bike cyclist. We bake 550 loaves of bread a week – we have two pieces of machinery and everything else is done by hand. I’d describe us as a traditional bakery with a modern twist. We like to use old fashioned methods but we keep our flavours up to date with the latest food trends. It’s real food made by real people. Our motto is “taste the patience” – we put our, love, heart and soul into making our food and we know that is tasted in the end product. It’s not just a job to us, it’s a calling.

Alexandra Vaughan, The Crow’s Rest Bakehouse, Wakefield

I have been a keen homebaker my whole life but I had not made bread until I moved from Portugal to London in 2006. I was not familiar with industrial pre-packed loaves and after months of eating them I decided to get a bread-making machine. Attending an introduction to bread making class with a network called Bread Angels was fundamental to finally grasping the ins-and-outs of bread making.

Roundabout 2015 I asked my local bakery if they would have me for a shift and that day spent in a bakery was a game changer – it really crystalised the dream for me. I then spent the following two years trying to get as much experience as I could, volunteering in bakeries around town and opening my microbakery as a side-hustle. When I moved to Wakefield in 2018 my goal was to work in a bakery, not to run my own. However, the lack artisan bakeries led to me going full-time with The Crow’s Rest Bakehouse by the end of 2019, with massive support from my community who helped me crowdfund for my Rofco oven.

My business goals are to deliver delicious breads that support our ecosystem, our local economy and our bodies. I work with local millers and farmer-millers who use stone-ground methods to produce their organic flours and use wholegrain flours made with diversed grains. I am also passionate about reducing the use of animal products so have been adjusting recipes that currently use eggs, milk and butter. I feel a responsibility to feed people healthy, nutritious products.

Lisa Fraser, Edward St Bakery, Saltaire

I originally did a degree in fashion and went to work in London but I found I was much more interested in the world of food and cooking. Eventually I came home and took a job at Salts Diner in Saltaire. I worked my way around all sections of the kitchen but once I arrived at the pizza section something clicked. There’s just something magical about hot ovens and dough.

After moving around a couple of restaurants in Leeds, I settled at a little start up bakery in Shipley. Here I was given loads of creative freedom to bake anything my imagination could dream of. Then I became obsessed with the iconic pork pie and moved to a job at Lishmans Butchers in Ilkley. During my time there I started Edward St Bakery as a pop up from my house. We would open whenever we fancied and alert the neighbourhood by leafleting the village the night before. Now we’ve got a brand new shiny shop on Bingley Road where we are fully settled into a happy baking routine.

The products we make are based on my favourite foods and childhood memories. After school snacks at friend’s houses of buttered chapatis, pakoras and super spicy chutneys, bacon sarnies, samosas, chips and dhal, shepherd’s pie with polish pickles, croissants in a can dipped in tandoori curry sauce, salted fries with French mayonnaise and Dutch ketchup, chai, proper lemonade and jazzed up super noodles stuffed in fresh bread with Spanish butter. I don’t worry about food being authentic, it’s just got to be delicious. All I care about in the world of food is making people smile.

Roxy Riley, Flour and Feast, Hull

I got into baking around 10 years ago. It started as a hobby for family and friends, then I did a part time course in patisserie at my local college. I got my first baking job in a small local bakery – I was baking cakes, tarts, cookies, brownies and decorating the cakes. Looking for more advanced baking work took me to a few different kitchens locally, and then to London where I worked for Gail’s bakery. Although it was a short stint, it was a real eye opener.

Back in my home town of Hull, I opened my own bakery in a small unit with my partner Joe. We outgrew the space within a couple of years and now have our own bricks and mortar bakery where we are a team of 10! We bake a wide variety of Viennoiserie, including croissants, Danish pastries, cruffins, pain au chocolat and pain au jambon, and have a growing selection of breads and cakes which we make on site daily. We specialise in traditional artisan methods mixed with more modern techniques and believe in making as much as we can ourselves – including all of the jams, custards, sauces, caramels and curds.

We’re always working on improving and coming up with new ideas. We’ve recently starting smoking some butter and cheeses to add more depth and interesting flavours to some of our bakes. I’d also like to work more with local growers and producers so we can bring the best quality produce we can to our customers and be involved in the whole picture. And then there’s always the ongoing conversation about whether we’ll eventually move to a bigger premises – never say never!

Sophie Hutchinson, Leeds Bread Coop, Leeds

I baked with my mum and grandma a lot when I was very small, and when I was a bit older I would mix random things in the house I thought would go well together. This was how I thought I had invented lemonade and flapjacks, and my parents didn’t have the heart to correct me! Later, I graduated onto my mum’s baking books and got pretty good at cakes.

I went on to do an apprenticeship with a wonderful French baker at The Wee Boulangerie in Edinburgh. She taught me so much, and instilled my love of making delicious things from scratch. I got a position at my sister’s local bakery which specialised in sourdough, and I became obsessed with how to raise a loaf out of nothing.

It didn’t last. My boss couldn’t remember my name, he called me darling, patted me on the head, and stopped me from talking, adamant that one of the male bakers could provide better answers. I didn’t have the patience for it and I left for Leeds Bread Coop. I’ve been here for 4 years now and manage the business along with 10 other amazing colleagues. It is very empowering.

My aim is to make delicious and nutritious bread with organic grains, grown locally while keeping it affordable. I’m proud to be part of the movement empowering communities and local growers and producers. I’m also a strong believer that the occasional buttery, sugary thing can be good for the soul.

Lydia Brown, Nova Bakehouse, Leeds

I have always been a keen baker, I’d bake for family and friends. Then in 2020 when the world went into lockdown I was one of the many who started making sourdough bread – a lot of trial and error but very much a labour of love.

I started working at Nova Bakehouse in June 2022, my first professional baking job and I couldn’t love it more. I have learnt so much in such a short time and am very excited to continue learning.

One of the many reasons I was drawn to working at Nova Bakehouse is because they have strong ethics at the heart of the business, a focus on fresh flour and good quality produce. I have also been plant based for 5 years, so I often try to adapt recipes into plant based ones.

I am also a yoga teacher and would love to combine my two passions by running retreats. Yoga & amazing bakes.

Lyndsey Mortin, Company, Halifax

I’ve always loved cooking and sharing with others. My passion for food led me to work in hospitality where I was the General Manager of a restaurant in Leeds. During lockdown I worked in a bakery where I learnt the basics and it reignited my love for being creative in the kitchen. From here, I taught myself how to bake sourdough by watching countless online tutorials and trying different techniques.

Seven months ago I had a wonderful little boy, Sid. During my maternity leave I began to work on my own project, Company. Some would say I’m nuts launching a small business whilst having such a young one, I would say the same! I hope to grow Company as I grow my baking skills, initially launching it to friends and family to build on their feedback – Sid loves a good chunk of his mum’s sourdough!

The word Company derives from the Latin words ‘com’ and ‘pani’ which translates to ‘with bread’. For my first project, I did a small run of exclusive Valentine hampers with an array of homemade produce and sourdough bread cooked from my home in Halifax. Over the coming months I will be providing local bread subscriptions and attending local markets with freshly baked bread and other homemade produce. I am super proud of where I have got myself to in such a short space of time.