SPOTLIGHT! James Currie on Basic Bread Making
James Currie, development chef at SORTEDfood has years of recipe development experience and couldn’t imagine a life without cooking at the centre. It hasn’t always been that way though, with his love for cooking only taking over halfway through his time studying Computer Science at university. During his studies, he realised that he was far more passionate about cooking than code! He took a leap of faith and dropped out, changing university in the process, to study cooking full-time.
James’ passion for bread-baking developed through years of making bread at home and he’s sharing his experience, tips & tricks in his basic bread making workshop. In this workshop, James introduces you to simple bread baking concepts, starting with making white and wholemeal loaves, gradually bringing in more complex techniques as you make your own focaccia and brioche.
If you are thinking about taking the first step into bread baking, give James’ workshop a try and start learning, by doing! Before you jump straight in however, James has a couple of valuable pieces of advice. Firstly, “give yourself the best shot at success and grab the equipment you need before you get ready to follow along. Don’t just watch the videos through without doing the work yourself… that’s the whole point! And once you’ve done it once, do it again and again. That’s when you really learn.” Secondly, James warns you “should not be put off by the odd bad loaf because it happens to everyone! Just make sure you learn from it and try again.” – Even professionals can have a bad day in the kitchen!
When it comes to Workshop, James’s favourite thing about it is that “everything is filmed and curated by the team, so you know that when you join a course it’s the real deal. If you do the work, you’re going to improve your skills in that very specific area of interest.”
Personally, James wants to sign up for workshops to help him further develop his skills and feels that even with his years of experience, he is just getting started. He’ll be looking for a more advanced bread workshops in particular that “drills into the science, hydration, talks about starters, sponges and all the other stuff I don’t know!” Well, James, watch this space!