White, male, British-born and proud

(published November 2000)

I’m going to let you on a little secret. Many of the bakers who produce the loaves that line the shelves of our supermarkets, who graft during the night to produce some of the finest breads, morning goods and pastry lines, are not white, are not British born. And I’ll tell you, so much the crap that parades as baking excellence is produced by men who are.

Wake up. If I had a penny for every time some braggart baker has told me proudly of money he saves using cheap foreign labour, I would be a very rich man. Buy an automated belt divider? Why, when you can pay immigrant labour sixpence and claim the loaf ‘hand crafted’. I’ve watched Indian, and Eastern European labour run rings around local bakers, working methodically and carefully to produce the loaves that we take credit for. Yet, will we acknowledge their place at the top of our industry? Hardly.

There is a vicious streak of xenophobia that deadens every loaf parading as ‘bread of the world’, often no more than bun dough flavoured with herbs. Why don’t we acknowledge as part our industry the men and women, born overseas and here, who work hard to create what we try to call British baking excellence?

Women fare little better. Just consider the arrogance of taking the traditional recipes of home baking into our misogynistic plants; a group of men in suits analysing a cupcake. We will pin their naked flesh on the bakery walls, but let them run the plant - never. Well, there is a wake up call coming, and there will be no bovver booted mates to help. Embrace our community of bakers as it exists today, or your business will be taken over by those who do.

Much of what we claim to be British within our industry has its roots in the breads of other countries. Read the volumes of Kirkland’s ‘Modern Baker’, or any of the early issues of the Baker & Confectioner, and see intelligent reflection on the skills taught to us by bakers new to our shores. You can feel the rush and embrace discovering new ways of working, and the pride we felt for our bakers. The fact that a baker from another country had chosen to reside and work in Britain was enough to make them a valid member of our baking community.

I joined this industry not because I wanted be mates with bakers, seduced by the muscle and sweat that produces each loaf. Simply because I wanted to bake well. Bake excellent bread. Produce loaves to be proud of. Bakers born in other countries taught me what mattered. Yes, they were British citizens, as far as the home office were concerned. But for many of you I was taught by Johnny Foreigner and his wife. I’m proud of them and the knowledge they taught me - you should be too.