Getting to know: Tom Herbert

I love – teaching people how to bake great bread. The more someone feels they can’t bake, the greater the satisfaction for me when at last they (or you) do (as one lady reported back to me recently, “All our married life, he never went in the kitchen, now I can’t get him out”).

Baking’s in my jeans –  I grew up above the bakery and butchery that is now our cookery school. As a toddler I “helped”  jam doughnuts with my dad. Later I could be found making drop scones in full Victorian get-up as a teenager (see photographic evidence in our first Baker Brothers book). To this day, the smell as you walk into any of our shops in the morning reminds me why I love being a baker.

Music to bake to – I’m sure good music helps you knead, shape and rise a good loaf. I’ve made a playlist of some of my favourites for you on Spotify, check it out! Let me know if you’ve got any recommendations.

Whilst I’m resting like a well worked dough – I like to watch short films like this by Mickey Smith and his Dark Side of the Lens as HD and loud as possible.

The best meal is – at home, a late breakfast feast at the weekend with friends and family when the day and all its possibilities stretch out ahead, the kids are distracted and a big pot of coffee washes down the bacon porridge is my favourite way to eat. If we’re eating out, the wood fired Hobbs House Bistro is always first choice, le patron mange ici!

The kids say – ‘Daddy get off twitter‘.

I believe – anyone can bake and EVERYONE should bake.