A fresh batch of UK bakers, including business founders and baking class instructors, have been announced as new ambassadors for the Real Bread Campaign (RBC).
The 14 volunteers (see full list below) are tasked with finding and creating opportunities to “fly the flag not only for real bread, but also the charity’s beliefs, values and work”, noted the RBC.
The campaign, co-founded in 2008 by baker Andrew Whitley and run by food and farming charity Sustain, defines real bread as made without additives. Earlier this year, it published its ‘Real Bread Manifesto’ which features a list of proposals for how the new government can help create a “better bread Britain”.
It also organises the annual Sourdough September event aimed at promoting the baking and buying of genuine sourdough bread which it defines as being made without the use of baker’s yeast and chemical raising agents. Several new loaves were launched as part of the month-long celebration.
Here’s the latest line-up of RBC ambassadors:
Rebecca Bishop is a self-taught baker, food writer, and teacher who runs The Next Loaf baking school from her home in Suffolk. She previously founded Two Magpies Bakery, which won Employer of the Year at the Baking Industry Awards 2023.
Giovanni di Sarno is a fourth-generation baker from Naples in Italy, who runs baking classes suitable for people of all abilities around Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, and London. Examples of his workshops include Bread & Health, where he teaches wholemeal, rye and barley bread making, as well as Neapolitan pizza and Italian street food.
Neil Holland is the director of Loaf Bakery & Cookery School in Stirchley, south Birmingham. He has a passion for teaching breadmaking, sharing the knowledge and skills for people to make their own real bread at home.
Hannah Frost is a head baker, running a team at Pump Street Bakery in Orford, Suffolk. Her life revolves around feeding people, celebrating local ingredients and encouraging conversations about how to make the production of food more accessible, affordable, and planet friendly.
Marcia Harris is founder of The Flour Union, an organisation which is dedicated to offering inspiring workshops for families focused on the art of baking. She is also a primary school child and family support practitioner.
Rom Jedlovec is the founder and head baker of Flour & Spoon artisan bakery in Essex. He also is said to be proudly spreading the love for real bread at both of his bakeries (in Chelmsford and Leigh-on-Sea) by running sourdough baking classes.
Frances Logan is usually either reading about, talking about, or thinking about baking. She is also secretary of Slow Food Glasgow and says: “For me, Real Bread is a key building block of a fairer, healthier and more sustainable food system.”
Camila Marcias is a Chilean-born pastry chef, baker, and food grower, currently working at E5 Bakehouse in London. She regularly writes about Latin American food systems and her journey in making desserts more sustainable on her Substack, Latina Cooking.
Paul Raddan launched micro-bakery and education provider Rugby Real Bread in 2013. He teaches widely, including at food festivals, charities, and institutions like The School of Artisan Food, with a determination to share how much fun breadmaking and baking can be.
Eddy Sleiman is the founder of Ed Baker in Hither Green, London. He is a self-taught baker, who started his bakery journey during the lockdown of 2020, and marks his return to the RBC ambassadors circle having appeared in the class of ’21.
Utako Tanner was born and raised in Tokyo, Japan and moved to the UK in 2002. She has taught at Bread Ahead in London, runs her own microbakery, as well as cooking and baking lessons, specialising in Japanese bread.
Nelly Trevelyan and her husband Philip bought Hill Top Farm in Spaunton, North Yorkshire in 1974 and founded Yorkshire Organic Millers in 2005. They use four modern Astrié stone mills to produce about 350 tons of flour a year, from grain grown on their own 100 acres and from other organic farms in North and East Yorkshire, which they supply to artisan and home bakers.
Liz Wilson has been running Ma Baker, a micro-bakery and bread school in Wrexham, for almost a decade. Courses include introductions to bread and sourdough, Italian and artisan bread, and even how to set up a micro-bakery. “I’m in the business of making people happy, myself as well as others,” Wilson says.
Boudicca Woodland runs One Mile Bakery Exeter, a home-based micro-bakery making artisanal real bread, soups, and preserves for people within a one-mile radius. She champions the therapeutic benefits of baking, emphasising how the process fosters mental health and wellbeing.
No comments yet