Australia's original sourdough baker is resurrecting a lost art form and teaching new dogs old tricks through his books and work at the newly reopened Maldon Bakery in central Victoria.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
John Downes said he was the first baker in modern times to have made sourdough bread - making him known across the country for being the 'Godfather' or 'Granddaddy' of sourdough.
"I'm the first of the modern artisan bakers," he said.
"I started in 1979 in Farewell Found in Prahran, Melbourne, and then in 1984 at the Natural Tucker Baker at Carlton.
"I just started doing it because it seemed like a great thing to do."
The seasoned baker said his start in the industry happened 'serendipitously.'
"It was something quite unusual," Mr Downes said.
He said he found a glass of fermenting apple juice at his cafe in Bryon Bay in the seventies, which he mixed with flour as he thought it would leaven the bread - and he was right.
"It made a beautiful loaf of bread," Mr Downes said.
"So it just kind of astonished me."
The baker said an American customer told him it was called sourdough bread, which he didn't even know at the time.
"And from then on I started making more and more," he said.
Mr Downes said he loved baking because it was fascinating and he wanted to provide people with high quality product made from high quality, simple ingredients - which for sourdough are just flour, water and salt.
"Anybody can do it and I document it fully in my book and it's relatively easy.
"I'm really interested in providing alternative and proper food.
"So I started the whole movement really."
Mr Downes said he was retired and hadn't baked for over 25 years when he decided to unretire as Rebecca Barnett reopened the Maldon Bakery and sought him out to become Head Baker at the business.
"They've renovated it and exposed the old scotch wood fired oven, which had been covered up for 25 years;" he said.
"And I'm one of the few people around who knows how to use those ovens."
The artisan baker said he was also passionate about the historical aspect of bread.
"This is traditional. This bread's been eaten for thousands of years," he said.
"I'm just reviving or resurrecting a lost art really.
"And the reactions I've had from people which are overwhelmingly, hugely positive like eating your bread makes them feel better, fixes their tummy issues and all sorts of things."
IN OTHER NEWS:
Mr Downes said his book, The Sourdough Loaf, will give readers a lease on life from a nutritional and a culinary point of view, but also, from a personal point of view.
"It's very rewarding and enriching to make your own good bread and to give it to your friends," he said.
"It's a great thing."
The head baker said people should get down to the Maldon Bakery to taste proper bread because it will give them a benchmark to then judge others by.
"[Sourdough bread is] a nutritional gem and it's a culinary gem really," Mr Downes said.
