Work Experience at Hobbs House Bakery

Freya joined us for a week in April, and wanted to share her experience of working at Hobbs House…

I had an early start on Monday, having to drive up from Plymouth to Chipping Sodbury to start my week of work experience. Despite nearly ending up in Wales, I made it to the bakery at 9am, eager to get stuck in! I was given a tour and introduced to numerous people whose names I vowed to have remembered by the end of the week. After donning a rather stylish plastic overall and snazzy blue hair net, I was shown to the bakery, where my completely hands-on week began.

I spent the first day and a half working in the bakery. I've never seen so much of so many different types of bread in my life! It was fantastic to see the processes they go through to make the bread, from weighing out the ingredients, to the mixing, cutting, rolling, proving, shaping, baking, packaging and sending. All done by bakers who were obviously passionate about what they were doing and had the knowledge to answer the many questions I had.

I then went on to the confectionery section. What first struck me was the smell of all the delicious things being made, and then seeing how mouth watering everything looked when it was finished! I loved my time there, learning how home baking is transformed into a bigger scale production, and the team work that goes with it.

My final 2 days I spent in the shops. One day in Chipping Sodbury and the other in Tetbury. Being able to bake things from scratch and decorate them myself was fantastic, I felt quite nervous when they were taken out to the shop floor! It was brilliant to see the interaction between all the areas I'd visited, the final products, and the many happy customers I saw come and go. I also had the chance to have lunch at the Bistro in Nailsworth, where I marvelled at their vibrant displays and then indulged myself in a gorgeous wood fired oven baked pizza.

I left on the Friday, with bread, carrot cake and a Baker Brothers book in hand, exhausted, but thrilled to have learnt and experienced so much at the wonderful Hobbs House Bakery!