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www.eatdrink.ca
№ 44 | November/December 2013
farmers & artisans
Unique Innovations in Baking Downie Street Bake House • Lindsay’s Bakery • Organic Works By Bryan Lavery
Really Good Bread From the Wrong Side of the Tracks
T
he sale of artisanal premium breads — high quality, hand-crafted and free of artificial additives and preservatives —continues to be on the rise. Alan Mailloux, a trained chef from Stratford Culinary School with nearly 30 years’ experience baking bread, has the skilled hands of a practiced baker who knows how to perfect the ideal crust and crumb. Kneading, long rises, multiple rises and sourdough starters produce complex artisanal, specialty breads of great diversity. The latest incarnation of Alan and Barb Mailloux’s baking career, Downie Street Bake House, has allowed them the opportunity to experiment with long
Cinnamon Walnut Raisin, Sour Chocolate Cherry Sourdough and Olive & Oregano. Mailloux started baking at the age of 24, “when my wife (the lovely Shop Girl) politely suggested that I might want to get a hobby. I was newly married; I thought that I already had a hobby.” They opened their first B&B in Windsor, in Mailloux’s grandparent’s old house on the main street. They did some baking for a local coffee shop in the evenings after Alan finished work at his “day job.” They relocated to Stratford in 1990, so that Mailloux could enrol in the Stratford Chefs School. “Cooking was going to be my thing, but something kept pulling me back to bread mak ing. We had an opportunity to take over the Orbit Bakery in Stratford when it came available in 1993, but thought I needed to practice my cooking instead (so I trained the eventual owner how to make bread) and moved on.” “After cooking around for a couple of years, we ended up back in Stratford in 1996 to open a B&B. Baking bread on Friday nights to sell
Alan Mailloux (above) and his wife Barb are hands-on owners of Downie Street Bake House and cold fermentation times for their breads (giving better flavour and keeping qualities) and expanding the selection. On offer is a variety of bread baking that includes: Whole Wheat Rye, 12 Grain Sourdough, Plain (not boring) White, French Country, Stratford Sourdough, Walnut Sourdough, Mini Me Miche, Potato Currant, Rye Sourdough,
at the Stratford Farmer’s Market on Saturday mornings was going to be a temporary thing to do until the B&B became a success. Instead, the bread making became a success, something we could do year round and that people enjoyed.” “Our first bakery was located in Sebringville and it suffered from four problems: location,