As you can’t have helped noticing it was my 70th birthday on 17 February. As well as being taken out to lunch by Sue, she also gave me a big wad of dosh to buy my first DSLR (Canon 100D) + the complete oevre of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. Then there was the matter of the birthday party, previously mentioned, attended by some of the UK’s leading bakers – all the important ones anyway.
Two days earlier Peter had celebrated his birthday and, lucky boy, his wife Kay bought him a one-day sourdough course which took place yesterday.
Not only had he never baked bread before, the closest he had come to cooking was the odd encounter with the microwave. So it was very impressive the way he picked up the hand skills – mixing, kneading, scaling, shaping and slashing. As you can see he produced excellent loaves – Black Olive, Classic Sourdough, Pain de Campagne, 5 Seed with Spelt, Cherry Tomato Focaccia, baguettes, rolls – the plait came out a bit phallic but that’s a small consideration Your Honour.
On top of that we put together a pizza lunch, Sue produced a birthday pavlova and we toasted him with a Loire Valley sparkle, one of my birthday bottles from my sister Anne.
Excellent day. Peter went home with all his bread, a box of high hydration dough for later use and a mini baking kit: starter, scraper, tomato knife for slashing.
So he can practice his baking skills and I can do some work on my low-light photography under tungsten. I always thought AWB meant Average White Band …
The PArtisan Baker 