Artisanal Baking Quotes

A good fruit cake is good fruit cake. A bad one is really bad.

I admire my fellow judge Paul Hollywood enormously, though we often argue. He believes presentation and uniformity are paramount; I'm more interested in taste. I don't mind if one bun is smaller than the others, or if there's a little pastry cracking, though I don't want a soggy bottom.

I prefer cooking to baking. Baking, to me, is very precise, and it's about perfection.

Loaves of bread remind us of sunlight, but when we are inside that orb,we lose interest in building ovens,in millwork and the preparation of fields before the planting.

There are divisions between a culinary chef and a dessert chef, also called a pastry chef. There are specializations within the pastry chef field. Some pastry chefs specialize in baking breads, while others are master cake designers. Each field requires an exceptional level of creativity and attention to detail.

When I opened Milk Bar in November 2008, I was quite adamant about making sure the bakery was an honest reflection of life and food through my eyes. I had no intention beyond that.

The matriarchs of my family loved to bake, and the apple didn't fall far from the tree. Baking became something I did every day; it became a time where my creative and nurturing side took stage.

The product I deliver is a luxury item. It's not cupcakes. A team of 10 works on my cakes.

I want to pass on my secrets to people who are going to say, 'I have realised that I love baking, and now I'm going to make my bread and sell it at the local farmers' market,' or who might say, 'I am going to use the local Post Office in our village to sell my cakes.' I want to give them that little bit of fire.

For me, it is always part of my holiday to go and work my way along the shelf in the local artisan bakery with its breads, savoury tartlets, pastries and cakes. It is soul food: one of those things that tells you about a place and the history of a place and its people.

When I'm home in L.A., I go to La Brea, a bakery which does artisan breads, excellent sourdoughs primarily, but also patisserie and cakes.

Plain fresh bread, its crust shatteringly crisp. Sweet cold butter. There is magic in the way they come together in your mouth to make a single perfect bite.

The composition of my desserts is taken care of by the farmers' market.

There's something clean, simple, and even detoxifying about a loaf that contains nothing more than the best stone-ground, whole-meal flour, salt, yeast and water.