The Story
Born and trained in a baking school in regional France, I moved to Melbourne, Australia at the age of eighteen hoping to find a place where I could be anyone and become someone. Working my way in the strong baking scene of Melbourne, I finally opened my own bakery in 2017. After a few years working countless hours, sleeping at minima and having no social life, I realised how it’d impacted my life and how something had to change..
2020 is really when it all began.
Sourdough Shokupan, Melbourne 2020.
After many trials, I finally developed my recipe for the perfect sourdough Shokupan, also called Hokkaido bread or Pain de Mie.
Why do I think it’s perfect ? Well. It’s Sourdough fermented (I won’t brag here about the beneficial effects of sourdough baking compared to industrial yeasted methods), it keeps for days and it’s ultra versatile.
From your morning toast to the most amazing sando (Japanese sandwich), there’s just so many things you can do with this Shokupan.
I started delivering Shokupan to people’s home during the Covid-19 pandemic. Not only I was able to reconnect with my customers and build a relationship with them, I was also growing a business idea..
Chicken Katsu Sando in collaboration with @Romu_Melbourne. Melbourne 2020.
The idea was that if you change the products you offer, you can change the business model.
When all you offer is croissants and baguettes, you have to serve them very fresh and bake early & often to do so..
But when the product you offer have a long shelf life, there’s no more need to work at night or to work weekends.
For once in my life, I felt that I could have a normal life.
I enjoyed weekday dinners with friends, the Friday night live gig or a weekend away camping.
I realised that I could be Baking and Living.
And If I can do it, many other bakers can. We just have to reinvent our business models.
In 2021 I joined Ecole internationale de boulangerie in France, one of the best school in the world for sourdough baking. I taught for a year while learning even more about the science of sourdough baking as well as how to run businesses in an economic and profitable way. The school now has a network of over 250 business owners who are thriving economically.
In my time there, I got selected for the final of the French national panettone championship, I also joined Thomas Teffri-Chambelland, founder of the school and the French national panettone champion at the panettone world cup 2021 where we respectively finished 5th and 6th out of 24.
The school being located in a remote area in the south east of France, I took this spiritual opportunity to bring you Oji.
