Putting bread on the table

Earlier this year some rather tempting baking smells starting emanating from the café connected to The Leaping Salmon in Horrabridge. Local residents knew the pub was closed during lockdown, so it was quite intriguing!

In March all was revealed when Quernstone Bakery started trading from the former café, selling artisan sourdough and rye bread, along with empanadas and a delicious, eclectic range of Spanish, Scandinavian and British cakes, buns and biscuits. Egoitz Fernández has been perfecting his skills as a baker for 11 years, and is delighted with this opportunity to run his own business. 2020 didn’t start well - he was made redundant in January, just as the country entered its third lockdown of the pandemic – and only 18 months after he had arrived in the UK from Spain. Fortunately, he has a good network of friends and when Fred Andrews of The Leaping Salmon heard about his predicament, he offered Egoitz the unused café premises.

Egoitz grew up in the Basque Country in the north of Spain and at 18 he already had an interest in baking bread, but without any official baking courses or artisan baking apprenticeships in the area, he took work in forestry management. His grandmother had always made her own bread though, and she taught him the basics. But when it came to quantities, she told him there was no such thing – he just needed to feel when the dough was right. He joined a Spanish bread forum and after various recommendations he managed to source the sort of flour he was looking for and start baking. A couple of years later the forum alerted him to a government funded scheme encouraging under-25s to become craftsmen, which included a pop-up bakery in a series of shipping containers in San Sebastian, called ‘The Loaf’. Egoitz successfully applied for a place and spent three months working with baking mentors, and networking with the multitude of bakers who flocked to visit the venture from all over Spain and further afield.

Most bread was mass-produced locally, so after the placement, Egoitz went to work in Cantabria at a small artisan bakery, where he worked hard for the next year. However the lack of social life was tedious for a 21-year-old, so when he was approached to work in a new bakery in San Sebastian, with its backdrop of sea and mountains, along with a much younger vibe, he leapt at the chance. For the next five years, he mixed with talented chefs who came to learn how to bake bread, while aspiring to meet the requests of Michelin-starred restaurants who sought out the bakery’s breads but continually pushed for more.

One of his chef friends went on to spend some time in Denmark and returned with a loaf of bread from Copenhagen’s Mirabelle Bakery, famous for its bread, croissants and organic baked goods. He told Egoitz he should spend some time at the bakery - so after managing to secure a month’s apprenticeship, he went to learn how to work with a very different bread made with rye and formed into massive loaves that required little handling. Following this exciting experience, he ended up taking work at an industrial scale bread factory in Valencia, which he disliked intensely and abandoned nine months later, questioning what he wanted from baking. Hearing Egoitz was unemployed, the same chef friend, suggested he join him in England where there was a vacancy for a baker in Chagford. Egoitz talked to the bakery owners and the terms sounded perfect – a flexible working environment, a lovely setting, and the chance to make bread by hand exactly as he wanted. He settled in North Bovey and thoroughly enjoyed the role, until the pandemic took hold, and he and his partner Esme set up Quernstone Bakery in Horrabridge.

Most flour for large-scale bread production comes from China or Canada because it is easy to work with and produces consistent results. Egoitz is determined to only use flour which is grown and milled in the UK - currently from Gilchester Organics. One batch of his dough is never exactly the same as another, which is where his skill as an artisan baker is so important. He purchased his own oven and fridge for the business, and spent the first two weeks experimenting with the flour and tweaking the fermentation until he was successful. He says that ‘bread is alive and every loaf has a character’ – even the weather can change the outcome. He is loving this new life and enjoys the interaction with customers which he hasn’t experienced before. He says it is imperative to source all ingredients very carefully but then the key is to keep it simple – rather similar to his outlook on life.

You can buy direct from Quernstone Bakery on Wednesdays, 12-3pm (side entrance to The Leaping Salmon, Horrabridge); place an order at info@quernstonebakery.co.uk for delivery on Tuesdays & Thursdays; or Quernstone products are available at The Game Larder, Yelverton and Country Cheeses, Tavistock. For more details see quernstonebakery.co.uk.