Planning a function or a special occasion? We have the answer….
Grego Montalban Sanchez starts his day at around 4am.
It requires an early start to make around 100 loaves of bread and 150 pastries and deliver them to cafes and stores across Gippsland.
It’s a life the Inverloch baker thoroughly enjoys.
Although he had always worked with food, Grego hadn’t done much baking until he and his wife Hanna Lofgren spent a year in Sweden in 2019. Surrounded by fabulous bakeries in Scandinavia, the Spaniard was inspired to learn about sourdough baking, and has been on the rise ever since.
He and Hanna opened The Invy Baker in Inverloch nearly five years ago, and their new cookbook has just hit the shelves.
‘Opening my own micro bakery gave me the option to step away from working as an employee in small business hospitality and have some control over my work again, both creatively and with regard to work-life balance,’ he said.
‘I love the flexibility offered by running my own business from home. It means I can spend more time with my family than when I used to work as a chef. If also allows me to be as creative as I like and, because it is such a small operation, I get to know my wholesalers and customers directly, it’s all about the people and our community.
The people and the community really are the beneficiaries though, and now they get to try replicating the delicious breads in pastries in their own kitchens.
Page Street Publishing approached Grego about creating the cookbook, and despite being in the Unities States, made the process a simple yet enjoyable one.
‘Not having done anything like this before, the publisher and our editor really guided us through the process. I wrote the recipes in Spanish and then Hanna had the fun task of translating them into English. She’s actually a professional translator, which helps! Then we worked with local photographer Karli Duckett who worked her magic with images of our products,’ he said.
‘We worked lots of late nights and weekends to get it across the line, but it was mainly a fun experience all round!’
‘Hopefully it helps people realise how much you can do with some good basic sourdough recipes. The book is structured around three main dough recipes in the book and once you master these, there are limitless ways to use them.’
The book is currently on the shelves in the US and Canada and due out in Australia very soon. You can order the book from The Invy Baker’s website, www.invybaker.com or from Paperplay in Inverloch www.paperplayonline.com.au.
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