Brad Burkitt from Terang Country Bakery is passionate about what he does, and most recently he helped the Australian ANZBake team take home the winning trophy. We caught up with the Victorian-based baker to find out how he got his start in the industry.

Can you share a bit about yourself?

I was born in New Zealand and migrated here to Australia when I was 10 years old. I’ve always lived around the South Western District of Victoria – Warrnambool, Timboon, Port Fairy and Terang.

What was your first introduction to the baking industry?

I first started when I was about 14 or 15. I used to pack pie orders at a big wholesale bakery. I worked in the afternoon before the bakers started so I never saw them or knew what they did. I used to have a look around as I was leaving and tried to figure out what everything did. It’s quite funny because when I did start working there [as a baker] nothing did what I thought it did.

I never really had any passion for it, but one day I got introduced to one of the bakers. He came out – he was weighing up one of the doughs – and he shook my hand. He had flour all over his hand and when he shook my hand, it was like he left a floury handprint on my hand. And ever since that day, I sort of thought, ‘oh, maybe this is something that I could do’.  Funnily enough that baker, Jase, came and worked for us for six years before leaving the industry.

That’s pretty symbolic. You say never really had any great ambitions, but when did you decide ‘this is the job for me’?

Pretty much that day. That day he shook my hand with the flour, I showed a lot more interest. I’d come in in my own time a lot and ask the boss for an apprenticeship almost on a daily basis, and finally annoyed him enough that he caved in and gave me a job.

Brad hard at work during the ANZBake competition

What were your early ambitions as an apprentice?

As an apprentice I found out about a few baking competitions that we have down in our area, and I entered them. I didn’t succeed the first time, but the second time I went – as a second year apprentice – we got a couple of seconds and a third.

That was 10 years ago, and I’m still going back today. Initially it was just entering those competitions, but then as time went on I used to say to myself, ‘I’d love to own my own bakery’. But I think I used to just say it and didn’t really know what it actually meant. I was just saying those words.

How did that then evolve?

I used to say to people ‘one day, I’ll own my own bakery’. I didn’t have any concept as to what I needed to do, or even how the process would look. I said it to guy who was a bit of a mentor in the industry while we were walking home from a competition. He pulled me aside – we were looking through a window of a bakery – and he explained to me about how it’s so much more than just making pies. It’s the psychological aspect of how you set up your shop and where you put your pie warmer and where your cake fridge goes and where your drinks go and having a table here or there. There’s so much more to it.

Then one day I was talking to a friend. She was on long service leave from the hospital where she was working and I just said to her ‘are you looking forward to going back to work?’, And she said, ‘no, not really’. I said to her ‘we should start a bakery’, she said “Ok”.  It was as simple as that – that’s how we started Terang Country Bakery.  The planets were in alignment because everything fell into place so easily – the location, the equipment and the fit out.

What has your career looked like since your days as an apprentice?

I started my apprenticeship at Timboon Bakery. They actually closed down just before I was qualified – they were bought by a bigger production place about half-an-hour away – and they closed down the factory where we worked so I sought employment somewhere else.

I moved to Port Fairy which is a little seaside town and worked at a bakery there. I worked there for about three years. And then I moved up north for a year and worked at a bakery in Stawell, where I learned a lot.

I was there as a production manager, which opened my eyes because it was very much a manufacturing process. Everything was worked out as to exactly how much we were making per month, rather than per day, and the majority of what we made there was not for sale as fresh product, it was more for the frozen product market.

I then moved back down to Warrnambool and worked there for two years before we opened the bakery in Terang.

Tracy Nickl, Brad Burkitt and Jeremy Mavromatakis

You’ve carved a name out for yourself in the industry and were selected as part of the Australian team for the ANZbake competition. Can you share a bit about this experience?

This year was the reincarnation of this competition. It hasn’t happened for 20 years. When they were looking for people to join the team, they wanted people who were known within the industry, but also people who were willing to help out and are doing things behind the scenes to ensure the industry continues to grow.

I believe that sort of shortlisted my name, and then two people had put my name forward to make the pie. They called me and asked me if I’d be interested to do it. Initially I said, ‘yeah, that’d be great’ and then sort of didn’t really think about it for a couple of months. But when things started to get a bit close I started practicing.

It’s a very different feeling to practicing at home to what it is to when you normally go to a pie competition, because usually you’re just making the pie for your own bakery. This competition had such a different feeling about it, and the competition itself was so much fun. It was a really cool experience and I was very glad and honoured that I was able to be a part of it.

What was it like working with Tracy Nickl and Jeremy Mavromatakis?

Yeah, it was really good. Although we worked together, we each had our own workstation like you do on MasterChef. So we each stuck to our own stations. It wasn’t until probably the last 45 minutes, where we were starting to really get to the end of it, where we sort of had to jump in and help each other. I had 10 minutes spare while I was waiting for something to happen so I could help Jeremy.

It was really cool because we only met each other the day before. We hadn’t met each other before because Jeremy’s from the Gold Coast and Tracy is from New South Wales and I’m down in Victoria. That was fine because we were doing our own products anyway, but it was really cool working with them, and seeing the level of talent they have and that they brought was amazing.

Brad filling the pies during the ANZBake competition

Did you expect to bring home the trophy?

How I thought the competition was going to go is quite the roller coaster. Leading into it I thought we would win. Maybe not easily but I did think with the talent we were bringing in [we would win]. I had full confidence in myself and full confidence in the other guys.

Then on the day there were a few things that we probably didn’t do as well as I thought we were going to, and I thought we had lost. But then when they made the announcement at the dinner we were surprised and very grateful. We all had a talk afterwards and we were quite surprised.

Looking forward, what do the next few months hold for you and Terang Bakery?

Pretty much from the week after the competition everybody was coming to the bakery wanting to try this lamb pie, so we’ve been making lamb pies like no tomorrow. I’ll be trying to keep that going. But it’s been amazing already in the amount of lamb pies we’ve been selling – and a lamb pie isn’t something that we even had at Terang Bakery before this event.

So you actually created it specifically for the competition?

Yeah! I reached out to a few friends within the industry and asked for a few recipes. And I took them apart and put them back together until I was happy and then finally came up with the recipe.

How long does that process take?

I’d say it took me six batches to get it where I was happy. Because each time you change a couple of things and then you go ‘oh, this one worked, that didn’t’. You make a lot of big changes in the first two or three batches, and then once you’ve got it close then you’re just dialling it in right in.

What advice would you give to an apprentice who is just starting out in the industry?

I would say try and get along to some industry events, whether it be a trade show, or a pie competition. Go to any sort of industry event and just meet people and talk to people. And just understand that the industry is so much bigger than your bakery where you work. There’s so many more people out there ,and there’s so many more career opportunities that aren’t just making the pies or making the bread.

And also that having your own bakery is very attainable, if that’s what you want to do. I opened Terang Bakery when I was 23 years old and haven’t looked back since. Anyone can do it if you’re willing to put in the hard work.

If you could bake or eat anything, what would it be?

Pies are my thing. I love to make pies and I love to eat pies. The number plate on my ute is PIEGUY.