Born & bread

Before opening Beaten by a Whisker I had never made sourdough bread before and planned to only take on the sweet baked goods myself. Teo, who I met through working at a bakery in Dalston, was to be the bread baker. As soon as I tried his bread all those years ago, I new it was the sourdough for me. It was fortunate that he began to work in a café a stone’s throw from my house and we reconnected and made plans. Circumstances changed and Teo wasn’t able to permanently work at Beaten by a Whisker, but he did teach me sourdough bread from scratch and impart a little of his passion for it to me. During a month-long consultancy, I had a pretty intense crash course and since then have grown in confidence, knowing that Teo will be, maybe asleep (baker’s life!), but at the end of the phone to advise on any dough crisis! I took a minute to ask him about his life and what inspired his baking career…

How did you get into baking sourdough?

I started baking sourdough in my first year at university in Mersin. My family business was a bakery in my town of Bartin, Turkey,  so I had learnt from a very young age how to make bread in my father’s style using commercial yeast. I always felt that it was not REAL bread and after leaving home, I read a book about sourdough and made my own starter. When I return home with new knowledge of sourdough, my family were not interested. They laughed at the process because it took so long compared to yeasted bread-making.

I knew that sourdough what I considered to be REAL bread and it was the only style of baking that I found attractive and impressive. It is a process that is 100s of years old. The nutrition of the flour is not lost. After tasting sourdough, I never wanted to taste anything else as it was just incomparable.

After much effort I just could not convince my family their business should adopt my new recipes and methods so I left to travel around turkey. I visited as many bakery as I could to taste a wide range of sourdough bread and develop my palette. I ended in Instanbul, working in a real sourdough bakery, Canteen, under the great chef, Semsa Denizel.

What is your family’s bakery like?

They grow wheat and mill our own wholemeal flour with a water mill. The flour has a really good flavour and is 100% organic. The mill was founded by my father in 1983 when he came back from serving in the army to a country without much work available. The business still provides the local towns with 5000 Turkish frangella breads per day!

What’s special about your sourdough starter?

My starter is over 18 years old and has been fed with flour from my hometown grain, as well as many many flours from around the world, as I travelled with it around Europe. The flours from Spain or Belgium bring new flavours and make the starter become more and more complex in flavour.

When did you move to London?

I moved to London in 2018. When I first visited in 2010, sourdough bakeries existed but were not so common. By 2018 there had been a huge increase in it’s popularity and I worked in four different bakeries gaining experience.

What was your experience like teaching me?

It was exciting. You learnt quickly, but I was worried that you panicked too much when I was not here. You were quite emotional under the pressure of needing to learn quickly, but now I can see that you can deal well with the dough whatever happens. Since I have left, you you have created your own style. Minor touches you can still improve, such as trying not to follow the instructions so specifically, but you should instead use instinct each time to cope with variables.

What do you think of Beaten by a whisker bread?

It’s soft. The outside is crispy. It’s like mine… but a bit different.  

What are you dreams and plans for the future?

I hope to create a bake truck, a micro-bakery on wheels! I will deliver fresh bread around the country. This oven to customer concept will cut out the time bread is waiting on the counter, so it’s fresher than ever and available 24/7. With a truck I can go anywhere and it will never be boring. It will be like an ice-cream van…people will get excited when they hear it coming.

Watch out for @teosbread !