Keep Sourdough Culture Alive

Keep Sourdough Culture Alive

Warwick Quinton, Sourdough Baker Café’s owner and operator, has been baking bread for nearly thirty years. He has endeavoured to provide the highest quality bread to the public, with a general love of skill building.

In opening up shop on Newcastle Wesley Mission’s Denison street premises, Warwick, along with his partner, Ginnie have had an opportunity to run a business with the spirit of what used to be the Soul Kitchen, in providing a space for everyone. Through uniting Wesley mission with Sourdough Baker Cafe, one idea was to create workshops as a counselling and empowering method on sourdough bread making, coffee making, pastry making, along with some basic culinary skills; a hands-on approach to learning basic skills for people who might not otherwise have the opportunity.

Bertha was a wood-fired oven used at Sourdough Baker Café’s previous location on Hunter Street in Newcastle. Since Sourdough Baker Café has opened its location on Denison Street over one year ago, the bread baking has been an incredibly unsustainable and challenging practice. Gas ovens need more time to heat up to create the thermal mass needed for productive bread baking. Warwick has been designing and planning the construction of Bertha II over the last six moths openly with customers and the general public. With the arrival of Bertha II, Warwick has been working to alleviate any concerns by adhering to WHS and food safety requirements. Through this process it was deemed there would be a workable solution to Wesley Mission’s concerns.

The Wesley Mission has not only restricted the use of Bertha II, but Sourdough Baker Cafe is to be closed from the first of February, 2013.