Q. Do you sell half a loaf?

A. We do sell half a loaf, for 90% of the breads.

Q. When we spoke before you said, "I want to keep the bakery small." Why did you say that?

A. Well, [big] isn't what artisan baking is about. I guess that the number one rule of artisan baking is that it needs to be expressive. And it needs to be part of the bakers mood, and beliefs and philosophy. Working in a small bakery restricts the baker, and stops him from becoming greedy. We see that happening every day, the baker becomes successful, and then looks for ways to make more bread. I don't think that's the answer. The answer to good bread practice, for me, is maintaining a product, once you've got it right and got a following. It's very difficult to maintain it. And in this bakery I think that's a part of our success. We started with a product that we'd fine tuned, then got to a point where it was very well received. And then it was just a matter of maintaining that for our customers. And we've done that successfully. But I'm afraid of the idea of getting big, and trying to maintain that. It only results in your bread becoming unpopular.

above, biodynamic spelt and rye flour are held in bins on a trolley, in reach of the baker

Q. Now, it's just coming up to 12 midday, and there are clearly bakers working everywhere. You could avoid that, they could all work at night. They could start at 10 and finish at 6 in the morning.

A. Absolutely. I was taught never to trust bakeries that have counters and shelves filled by 7am. You know, it can only mean that it was made a long, long time ago. Especially refrigerated counters. We don't have refrigerated counters, or a refrigerated display in the bakery shop. Which forces us to make things on a daily basis fresh. Which ultimately is always going to be the best result. Which ultimately is part of our philosophy. Bread making, to produce good bread, any good baker will tell you that time is necessary. As long as it's not exhausted, you can over do it. We kind of feel, well, our bread production is allowed 12 hours from start to go, and that's for a normal days production.

Q. So is the production started by one baker and finished by another?

A. That's right. I feed the leaven at 2pm in the afternoon; it then needs 6 to 8 hours. It's probably best at the 6 hour mark, but it tends to get 7. At 9pm our dough maker comes in, and he'll prepare dough for 9 hours of the day. All our dough is scratch dough, and we do at least 11 varieties per day.

Q. And the dough that he makes will be baked the following morning, or the following day?

A. The following morning. The first dough will be bulk proved, scaled and shaped by 1am. We start baking at about 5 or 6 am. Prior to that the bakers prepare all the pastries for the day, and bake them off, and prepare the counter for about 6am just with pastries (continued below...)

clockwise, from top left: pastry chef Louis Vaussenat lining tart cases; freshly mixed dough from the mixer; the oven gloves and cloth; a cut slice of Pain au Levain.

Q. So who orchestrates the production through the oven? You have three decks that are quite small, so it must take some thought to make sure that there isn't this backlog of risen dough.

A. That comes only from experience. I only really have experienced bakers in baking the bread, like myself and Tony who I've been working with for some time. Tony oversees most of the bread production these days during the week. And then we share that on a weekend, when it gets a bit busy. He orchestrates it, with my guidance, and then I come in and finish the baking off, pretty much, that's how it works these days.

But in the beginning it was not like that at all. It was just Tony and I doing everything, it was just [a] kind of unspoken understanding about how things should be done. But when you have young bakers in, who have only been doing it for a year, I certainly try and instil in them that good baking is about common sense, and what improves that is foresight. Most of the young bakers I first meet only concentrate of what is going on in front of them, and wont think about how that affects the guy at the oven, pretty much. But that foresight takes a lot of time to develop, because you need to be working the oven to understand what is happening on the bench, and what is happening on the doughmaker.

Q. Do you rotate the shifts around?

A. No, not really.

Q. So when people take on a position in this bakery, they stay there?

A. Yes, until they have it set in their memory. We test that by getting somebody fresh in to do the job, and let that person explain to the new one how the bakery works. And from that we have a good idea of where their knowledge is at. It's working, so far.