On special occasions, we gather our loved ones together, to honour specific moments in time and share delicious food. For Tina, one of our trainees, the memory of Easter in her Polish homeland brought such a picture of happy times to mind.
In Poland, Easter is family focused, full of traditions and collective preparations for the day ahead. For Tina, the centrepiece of it all was chałka bread – a Jewish plaited enriched loaf, full of rich, buttery flavours. According to tradition, once the chałka dough had been blessed by the church, everyone had to dance for the time it was baking in the oven. If you sat down at any point, the fear was that the chałka would also sit and go flat! With dance and laughter filling the kitchen, the dough would ‘come alive’!
What makes this bread so special is the fact that it is enjoyed only once a year. It was a time that Tina looked forward to and a memory that still fills her with joy.
‘I was six years old when I first experienced chałka. I was at home with my mum, dad, sister and brother. It was magical: the smell, the dancing and laughter.’
But life isn’t always so magical. Years later, Tina found herself homeless when her landlord ended her contract so that he could upgrade the living space. With no place to go and no financially viable options, Tina began to live on the streets of London. After five months with no safe shelter, yet not a priority for council housing, she found a homeless hostel for temporary refuge. Life was bleak and she began to believe that there was no way out. It wasn’t until she saw an advertisement for a baking course with Luminary that things started to turn around.
Tina didn’t start our programme with the kind of confidence needed to experiment with baking methods and flavours. Prior to starting, she described herself as anxious and hesitant. But as the course progressed and her knowledge of baking grew, so did her excitement and creativity to explore. This new-found confidence brought us the recipes she contributed to this book.
One of the modules taught on the course is breadmaking. Tina thought it was going to be difficult, but found it came naturally to her. It had such an impact that, after graduation, she went on to train at a London bread bakery, refining her skills and mastering her knowledge and understanding of this everyday staple.
To this day, Tina returns to Luminary to teach bread lessons to our trainees. This honour of returning as a teacher to where she was once a trainee is an experience she finds powerful and a process we find to be fully restorative.
‘Luminary is a provider in so many ways. They have fed my body, spirit, dreams and imagination as to what’s possible in the future. I’m certainly a different person – I’m brand new!’