Drawing up my personal list of Melbourne’s ‘top 10’ bakeries was a tough job. Not because ten great places are hard to find, but because there are now so many bakeries in the metropolis which deserve to be included – bakeries which are turning out bread and cakes which are noteworthy by any standard. I’ve tried to make the task easier by excluding everything outside the metropolitan Melbourne area (so no Irrewarra or La Madre), and anything essentially ‘ethnic’ will have to wait for the ‘Melbourne Foodie’ list (sorry, Balha’s Pastry).

I then decided that, as I’d written about and recommended Phillipa’s, d chirico and Loafer elsewhere on this site, I could afford to leave them off this list – not because they didn’t deserve inclusion, but because they were already up there in the posh seats. But I still couldn’t whittle it down to ten; and so what I’m now able to give you, not in any particular order but all unmissable,  is my baker’s dozen of Melbourne’s finest, not-to-be-missed bakeries.

n.b. Many, many Australian businesses still don’t have even the most basic web page. Go figure.

1. Knead
396 Burwood Road
Hawthorn 3122 VIC
Telephone:  (03) 9819 5883
Try their ‘pinolate’ pine nut cookies, tarte au sucre (sugar-and-cream-filled brioche), gluten-free chocolate brownies and their seeded and sprouted grain breads.
www.kneadbakers.com.au

2. Natural Tucker
809 Nicholson St
Carlton North 3054 VIC
Telephone:  (03) 9380 4293
Melbourne’s oldest traditional sourdough bakery, the website says, owned now by John and Jan Bryers but started in 1984 by John Downes on the site of one of Melbourne’s oldest, turn of the (19th/20th) century, bakeries. So many other great bakers in Melbourne can trace their careers back to time spent at Natural Tucker. Try their sourdough loaves, pies, organic Anzac cookies, sourdough croissants.
www.naturaltuckerbakery.com.au

3. Let Them Eat Cake
147-149 Cecil Street
South Melbourne 3205 VIC
Telephone:  (03) 9686 0077
No wonder their website describes Christopher Montebello as their “Artist and Pastry Chef”. There’s something of the exclusive fashion boutique about this utterly beguiling shop. This isn’t a bread shop, it’s where you come for perhaps the most creative, original, and occasionally madcap petit fours, cake making and cake decorating in the whole of Victoria.
www.letthemeatcake.com.au

4. Aviv Cakes & Bagels
412 Glen Huntly Rd
Elsternwick 3185 VIC
Telephone:  (03) 9528 6627
Apparently, ‘Aviv’ is Hebrew for Springtime. Quite simply, the best bagels in Melbourne, if not Australia; doughnuts and almond scrolls, cheese, apple or apricot danish, and at the end of the week (Thu/Fri/Sat), challah.

5. Brunetti
194-204 Faraday Street
Carlton 3053 VIC
Telephone:  (03) 9347 2801
A Carlton icon. Patron Giorgio Angelé originally came to Australia as a pastry chef with the 1956 Italian Olympic team, returning later as a migrant, and acquired Brunetti in 1991. Excels at all the things you’d expect – cannoli, rum baba, panzerotti (filled pastries), bocconcini di nonno (flourless almond biscuits with an amarena cherry centre).
Also at: 214 Flinders Lane
Melbourne 3000  VIC
Telephone:  (03) 9663 8085
and: 1-3 Prospect Hill Road
Camberwell 3124  VIC
Telephone:  (03) 9882 3100
www.brunetti.com.au

6. Firebrand Sourdough Bakery
69 Glen Eira Rd
Ripponlea 3185 VIC
Telephone:  (03) 9523 0061
There’s an ‘Italian’ bread style popular in Australia we don’t see in the UK, the ‘casalinga’ (lit: housewife). Made here in a 1930’s wood-fired oven, using a wholewheat leaven, white flour, water and sea salt, hand-shaped, risen in canvas cloths and baked on the oven floor; or buy their walnut bread – white flour, biodynamic wholewheat flour, organic rye flour, wholewheat leaven, water, and sea salt, mixed with top quality Californian walnuts.
www.firebrandsourdough.com

7. Dench
109 Scotchmer Street
Fitzroy North 3068 VIC
Telephone:  (03) 94863554
There are some terrific loaves being made here – potato bread, walnut, apricot & honey loaf, beer bread, raisin loaf; on the sweet side, don’t miss local favourites like their friands; and most of all, gingerbread cats, sold to benefit the Whittlesea Vet Clinic, which provides free care for animal victims of bush fires.
www.denchbakers.com.au

8. Sugardough Panificio & Patisserie
163 Lygon St
Brunswick East 3057 VIC
Telephone:  (03) 9380 4060
There’s something ineffably sweet and irresistible about this shop which struck us the moment we looked in the front window. Maybe it was the striped awning, maybe the cosy, almost domestic interior – but really, it was the obvious love, skill and attention to detail which had gone into everything they had on sale. As another reviewer commented, it looks and smells just like grandma’s kitchen. The best bomboloni in town; we went in for a bread roll and came out with one of everything.

9. Babka
358 Brunswick St
Fitzroy 3065 VIC
Telephone:  (03) 9416 0091
Most of what’s baked here fits in with the east European air (isn’t ‘Babka’ Russian for Grandma ?) Sunflower and rye loaves, baked cheesecake and a highly recommended lemon tart. Can get very busy, and we hear that service can suffer at those times.

10. Laurent Boulangerie Patisserie
306 Little Collins Street
Melbourne 3000 VIC
Telephone:  (03) 9654 1011
Sourdough olive bread, rye loaves, baguettes and epi, pain de mie; macarons and meringues. And numerous branches; Laurent is also remarkable for having maintained quality while expanding the business to over a dozen locations.
www.laurent.com.au

11. Brioche by Philip
208 Commercial Rd
Prahran 3181 VIC
Telephone:  (03) 95251966
Run by Philip Chiang, their eponymous brioche can be found with interesting flavour combinations, such as fig, walnut, and blue cheese. In the 2010 Foodies’ Guide To Melbourne, their sourdough baguette was named ‘best bread’, bringing together a full-flavoured moist crumb with a crispy crust. And in a way, that’s what Philip is best at – the fusion of different styles, trends and flavours. Must be seen.

12. Fatto a Mano
228 Gertrude Street
Fitzroy 3065 VIC
Telephone:  (03) 9417 5998
Means ‘made by hand’. Well, it would be, wouldn’t it.  Still using the leaven handed on by their predecessors on this site, the much-loved Gertrude St Bakery. Pumpkin loaf, focaccia, or for your takeaway lunch, try either the eggplant (aubergine) or potato and olive pizza.

13. Dolcetti
223 Victoria St
West Melbourne 3003 VIC
Telephone:  (03) 9328 1688
Marianna Di Bartolo was brought up on her mother’s Sicilian cooking, and it shows. Lemon-spiked ricotta cassateddi, panna cotta tarts, almond or pistachio biscotti, chocolate, prune & grappa cake – and some amazingly good nougat. George Biron, from Sunnybrae, clearly approves – and if George likes it, that’s good enough for me.

above, large wheels of tourte de meule (a naturally yeasted leaven bread) sit on a shelf at Eric Kayser's eponymous bakery, 8 & 14 Rue Monge, Paris 75005

I’m regularly asked what bakeries might be particularly worth a visit when in Paris. Very briefly, and in no particular order, this is my ‘top 10′, a personal and far from exhaustive list.

1. Max Poilâne
87 rue Brancion
75015 Paris
Tel: 01 48 28 45 90
www.max-poilane.fr

2. Lionel Poilâne
8 rue du Cherche-Midi
75006 Paris
Tel: 01 45 48 42 59
and 49 boulevard de Grenelle
75015 Paris
Tel: 01 45 79 11 49
www.poilane.fr

3. BE boulangépicier (Alain Ducasse)
73, boulevard de Courcelles
75008 Paris
Tel : 01 46 22 20 20
www.boulangepicier.com

4. Eric Kayser
8 & 14 rue Monge
75005 Paris
Tel 01 44 07 17 81
www.maison-kayser.com

5. Le Quartier du Pain (Frédéric Lalos)
74 rue Saint Charles
75015 Paris
Tel: 01 45 78 87 23
and branches
www.lequartierdupain.com

6. Gosselin
123-125 Rue Saint.-Honoré
75001 Paris
Tel: 01 45 08 03 59
www.boulangeriegosselin.com

7. Le Pain au Naturel (Moisan)
5, place d’Aligre
75012 Paris
Tel: 01 43 45 46 60
and branches
www.painmoisan.fr

8. Boulangerie au 140 (Mr. & Mme Demoncy)
140, rue de Belleville
75020 Paris
Tel: 01 46 36 92 47
www.au140.com

9. Moulin de la Vierge (Basile Kamir)
166 ave. de Suffren
75015 Paris
Tel: 01 47 83 45 55
and branches
www.lemoulindelavierge.com

10. Pierre Hermé (Patisserie)
72 rue Bonaparte,
75006 Paris
Tel: 01 43 54 47 77
and branches
www.pierreherme.com