Page 30 - Foodservice Magazine October 2018

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DINING
what each other wants, and we can go from there,” he explains. “If things work out in the next few years, we’ll have much more flavour from the grains.”
One way that James is looking at improving local produce is by tapping into the deep wellspring of knowledge held by Indigenous Australians. Lately, he’s been working with writer and historian Bruce Pascoe (who wrote the incredible Dark Emu – really, go read it) to help revive First Nations farming practices. “I was helping with the harvest. Bruce is trying to rediscover how Aboriginal people harvested and used the grains,” he says. “A lot of stuff got destroyed or vandalised, and we’re just rediscovering things again, like native grains. It’s quite sad.”
Nonetheless, with the help of the community and various research grants from universities, Pascoe is indeed reviving the almost-lost art of cultivating Australian grain. Lately, he and James have been experimenting with kangaroo grass and, more successfully, native millet. “With the kangaroo grass, I just made some sourdough with it. It’s quite rough, like teff. They’re really
Clockwise from left: Behind the counter at Tivoli Road Bakery; savoury danishes with kipfler potato, leek. raclette, mustard and thyme; and updating the bread board.
small fibres, and you can use a lot of it, and it has a slightly nutty. It’s not like flour,” says James. “The native millet is really, really good. Hopefully, we’ll have more in the next year or two.”
Basically, the baker from Cornwall is always moving forward. Whether he’s innovating with grains or with his business model (last year he moved the entire staff onto four-day working weeks, which he says does wonders for morale and productivity), James is driven towards constant improvement. It’s this constant movement that drew him towards bread in the first place. “Sourdough bread, it’s all about the variables. Flour can vary from bag to bag, or field to field. There are different proteins, and they hydrate differently, so you’ve got to mix that for different amounts of time. It takes a lot of experience from the baker to get a feel from the bread,” he explains. I guess that’s why I got into baking – because every day
is really different, and sometimes really hard to control. What separates a good baker from a great baker is that appreciation of raw ingredients. It’s about having that feel for the different doughs; I think that’s quite rare. You have to be at one with the dough.”