What’s been happening since our last book?

Over the years, as well as growing both our bakery and our obsession with all things sweet, we’ve also thrown ourselves into all kinds of other projects. What’s the point of owning your business if you can’t have a little fun and space to be creative, and do some good in the world, too? The truth is we do feel that Bourke Street is more than a bakery — it’s our love and our life. We want to put that love into food, but also into other projects.

Some of these side projects have been hugely successful. Others we’ve had to walk away from because, as passionate, crazy and energetic as we are, there just aren’t enough hours in the day, right? Because I’m an upbeat guy, I’ll tell you about the projects that have worked and enriched our lives.

Back in 2011 my wife and I made a trip to an orphanage in Mae Sot on the Thai–Myanmar border, where we spent a couple of weeks teaching a small group of Karen refugee women how to use a little oven the orphanage had acquired. In that way they could start a small business to help the orphanage and provide themselves with a livelihood, so they could look after their own children. When I returned to Australia, I was buzzing with enthusiasm from this experience and I discovered that what we had done was help set up a ‘social enterprise’. This was a new word and world for me — one that would take over my life for the next five years.

A social enterprise, in short, is a business whose profits go into providing opportunity to those who need it most, or creating a needed social benefit. Luckily, my business partner, David McGuinness, has also always seen Bourke Street as more than a bakery and got right behind what was probably my craziest idea to date — to gift our wholesale potential and set up a social enterprise in Sydney, training refugees and asylum seekers in artisanal baking and pastry, known as The Bread & Butter Project.

The Bread & Butter Project is Australia’s first social enterprise bakery — and now I know why! David and I have done this voluntarily, and it has been the most rewarding, but hardest, thing we have ever done. It is now almost three years old and we have a host of graduates who have completed the year-long paid training program and found jobs in the hospitality industry. There are many more in the wings as the social enterprise grows.

The Bread & Butter Project is a strong business with strong social outcomes: the more bread we sell, the more people we can train. We like to see it as a win–win for everyone. As you can imagine, this sideshow has taken over our lives at times. But, if you’re thinking about starting a social enterprise — just do it. If there’s a little corner of your business where you see further potential, why not gift it to help others? You can make the world that little bit better, and you only live once — so why not? My only advice would be to try to make it your main game, because you might just find you want to spend all your time on it.

Another project has developed from our obsession with environmental sustainability. We own a ‘Closed Loop’ environmental waste system, the first business in Australia to do so. All our organic waste is processed through this amazing system and, within 24 hours, is converted into compost that we give away to our customers. The local green thumbs say our Bourke Street Bakery compost is the best around town!

By careful ordering and baling our cardboard waste, we function as close to waste-neutral as possible. We’ve installed enormous silos to store our flour supplies, which means no more flour packaging or carbon-intensive road trucks hauling in our flour each week. Our native garden is irrigated with recycled grey water, and up on our roof at our Banksmeadow bakery, or sometimes on the garden piano roof, you’ll find our five busy bee hives, producing all the honey that we use in our bakeries.

Beyond our ‘bleeding hearts’, there have been many dramas, distractions and celebrations over the years as well — epic stories of love, heartbreak and betrayal (someone should write a television series set in an artisan bakery). There is never a dull moment at Bourke Street! Many of our staff are actors, musicians, artists, designers, young movers and shakers, so they keep David and me up to date on what goes on about town. Our end-of-year parties are always rather memorable — usually for good reasons.

If you’re thinking about starting a social enterprise – just do it. If there’s a little corner of your business where you see further potential, why not gift it to help others? You can make the world that little bit better, and you only live once – so why not? My only advice would be to try to make it your main game, because you might just find you want to spend all your time on it.

After twelve years now, some of these staff are growing up and getting married and having kids too, so there are special wedding and baby welcome cakes to design and decorate in the bakery kitchen. David and I feel like the parents in the room, as some of our apprentices have gone on to open their own wonderful artisan bakeries — such as Paul Giddings at The Bread Social in Byron Bay, Simon Cancio at Brickfields in Sydney, and Mike James at Tivoli Road Bakery in Melbourne, to name a few. It is fulfilling for us to see their success and see the appreciation of artisanal goods growing in society.

Lastly, there is so much life bursting from our one little bakery and that’s thanks to you, our loyal customers who come back again and again and make it all possible.

Pursue your passion; make a mess and clean it up later; forget about sleep (it’s overrated — all good bakers and pastry chefs know that); ditch the carb- and sugar-free fads (there’ll be some new bandwagon we’re meant to jump on in five years); eat good, hearty bread spread thick with butter and honey…

BAKER’S TRUTHS

Before we get into the finer details of choux pastry and chocolate tarts, please indulge me while I share some of my own simple baker’s or pâtissier’s truths with you:

Use your hands; pursue your passion; make a mess and clean it up later; forget about sleep (it’s overrated — all good bakers and pastry chefs know that); ditch the carb- and sugar-free fads (there’ll be some new bandwagon we’re meant to jump on in five years); eat good, hearty bread spread thick with butter and honey. (And, yes, butter is best when baking – do not consider lard or margarine.) Eat good sweets made from real foods with real sugar and the best possible ingredients and enjoy them, savour them and share them with those you love or want to seduce! When you start making sweet things for yourself (and stop buying sweet things in packets from the supermarket) you’ll discover they taste better and give you an entirely new appreciation of a birthday cake that is baked for you. Take your time to do it all properly: grow your own quinces to make the best damned possible quince jam — and your quince jam rolls will taste sublime.

Enjoy All Things Sweet as memories in the making.

Happy sweet baking,
Paul Allam