What is your bakers’ background?

Jamie is a well travelled patisserie chef from Glasgow, who discovered after a few years that his heart was in bread making. He has then worked in various artisan bakeries in Britain and New Zealand before joining The Wee Boulangerie in April 2014. He is now our main baker. He created Heather, our rye sourdough culture, and consistently produces stunning breads and pastries. That, in my experience, can only happen when the baker truly loves their craft.

In July 2014, Sophie has started as a young apprentice, with the help of the Edinburgh Job fund and YES fund. You can see her talking about it on http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/info/20220/economic_development/385/a_strategy_for_jobs (starting at 3.53 minutes)

Katia, who set up The Wee Boulangerie in 2012 (from scratch, just as our breads),  has formally trained as a baker in France, first in the INBP in Rouen with Thomas Marie, now a “Meilleur Ouvrier de France (MOF)”, and the EFBA  in Aurillac, ran by Christian Vabret, also a MOF.

She’s also worked and trained in “Le Pain D’Eric”,  an organic bakery in Camelas (Pyrenees Orientales) with a wood-fired oven (actually, almond-shells-fired oven) wholesaling to the local markets, “Le Quartier Du Pain” in Paris (where she learnt the recipe for the almond croissants), over three years in Peter’s Yard in Edinburgh.

Before that, she got her hands floury at James Morrison’s Bakery in the Little France of Edinburgh -where she’s learnt a good few tricks of the trade, as well as some proper baker patter, such as “shift yer arse into gear” (please proceed with the task at hand as diligently as possible), “denny fart aboot”, (do not stand idle or beat around the bush).

And before that still, she was a lecturer and researcher in signal processing in the school of Engineering and Physical Sciences,  Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh…