Page 28 - Foodservice Magazine October 2018

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DINING
"I got into proper baking at Bourke Street Bakery in Sydney. That’s where I learnt. You’re kind of left on your own to pick it up yourself,” he says. “It’s kind of hard to teach because it just takes time. You’ve got to get a feel for it. And that’s pretty much the main thing.”
And after that, he landed a job at MoVida Aqui, where he was named head pastry chef. Obviously, he quickly earned the respect of Frank Camorra and Peter Bartholomew, who drafted him to open the MoVida Bakery, a first for the Spanish restaurant group, in a tiny shop in South Yarra.
This only lasted a year. Soon, James and Pippa were scraping together every dollar they could gather – even borrowing a final $20,000 from James’ mother. The gamble paid off. On opening, Tivoli Road Bakery had already scored a big client – Nathan Toleman, whose cafes Top Paddock, The Kettle Black and Higher Ground set the standard in Melbourne. “For the first two years, it paid our bills. 20 or 30 loaves a day, it was stable, and we knew we had to make that,” says James. “Wholesale is crucial for the first couple of years. And it meant we could use the best possible produce we could get our hands on.”
Left: Michael James, founder of Tivoli Road Bakery.
Below: Pear and brown butter bundt cakes topped with vanilla custard.
Right: The entrance to Tivoli Road Bakery.
Soon, the James’ were turning heads of their own accord. Their handmade sourdough, using organic ingredients and King Island butter, is among the best in town. However, the most important ingredient (of course) is the wheat. “We work with the farmers to get it super fresh, that’s the most important thing. It’s harder to work with, but it just gets blander the older it is,” James explains. “Our flour’s milled fresh every week. We don’t do it every day, because we don’t have space for it. If you look at coffee, we freshly grind it. That’s because when it’s fresher, there’s way more flavour, and the oils go rancid after a few days.”
Still, for a restless self-improver like James, this isn’t quite good enough. A stage at the almost-mythical bakery Tartine in San Francisco, James was inspired to push a little further with the quality of his grain. “They’re so advanced with what the grains they have, and the mills and the baking techniques. It was a big eye-opener,” he says. “We’ve just got a few varieties of wheat, but they’ve got a whole range they can choose from. It’s quite amazing really. A lot of farmers and the millers and the bakers talk to each other at the gatherings they have.”
James has taken this collaborative approach to hear, setting up the Grain Gathering here in Australia – a bread-heavy conference of bakers, farmers, millers and researchers that takes place every year. “It’s just about starting the conversation so we all know