Industry tips from judge Michael Prowse from this year’s prestigious LA Judge Award.

Passion is in the DNA of every successful baker. When I began my baking career 23 years ago as an apprentice at South Australia’s celebrated Gawler South Bakery – it was passion that had me set an alarm at the same time some of my mates were coming home from the pub.

From that eager apprentice I worked my way up to becoming General Manager, before joining leading flour and bakery manufacturer Allied Pinnacle seven years ago where I’ve held leadership roles in both production and innovation.

Today, for the next generation of bakers, while passion for product remains at the core, success in the baking trade is about much more. The baking profession demands creativity, technical skills and business acumen.

Encouraging the next generation relies on giving them space to create, experiment and fail. As a mentor and leader, it’s key to encourage this skill practicing. Allow your young talent to make mistakes but also guide them on where they went wrong and ask how they would correct it in the future.

This can help with one of the big problems we are facing as an industry – a lack of technical know-how. We need experienced mentors to partner with young talent to move the industry forwards.

To do this, we can focus on four things:

1. Recognition: Always praise your young talent when they have done a great job. That may be if asked to come in early because the night baker has called in sick and they have had to pull a longer shift. This is the part of the job that isn’t fun but is necessary sometimes to get product out the door.
2. Customer connection: Speaking directly to customers about how baked goods are made is deeply rewarding. If in a retail environment, encourage this with your apprentices and watch them get the satisfaction of seeing a customer enjoying a product they produced.
3. Career growth: At Allied Pinnacle, we bake the future from flour and there are countless career opportunities for passionate bakers across our national footprint. Even in a small bakery career growth is possible. This may include having your young talent create a new product and see how it performs in the bakery for a month – a great lesson in business. Bakers must learn to understand the total cost of a product from start to finish – and not just the ingredient cost. This inspires creative solutions, like less wastage or improved methods. This is part of what I do with Allied Pinnacle customer’s product development from concept through to commercialisation.
4. Teach soft skills: I also believe in teaching baking soft skills for consistency and efficiency. For example, using both hands when rolling rolls, listening for your oven and returning tools to their rightful place. At the recent LA Judge Award, which I was honoured to judge for the first time, I assessed entrants on criteria including technical skill, process, creativity and cleanliness – qualities essential for a well-rounded baker.

Baking is a great profession that feeds millions of Australians. The trade is rewarding, giving you daily output for your efforts in the form of delicious products for beloved customers. It’s something worth getting out of bed for – even at 2am.