Modern Baker

Modern Baker may have seemed to have popped out of nowhere to land in Summertown, but it’s actually been a long time in the proving. It all began over four years ago, when owner Melissa Sharp was diagnosed with breast cancer. As she embarked on treatment, she gradually realised that her lifestyle certainly wasn’t helping her health, and may even be damaging it: her high-stress job as a management consultant, but more importantly, the food she was putting into her body, needed changing.

Melissa began to investigate alternative ways of eating and revamped her entire diet so that (mostly!) everything that goes in will do her good. Modern Baker is the result of four years of study, experimentation, and practical baking, and is Melissa’s attempt to share some of what she’s learned with others. She began by popping up at Worton Organic Garden, while taking artisan baking courses at Daylesford and at Virtuous Breads. However, a full-time bakery needs a full-time baker, and so she recruited Lindsey Stark. Lindsey comes with years of training behind her, and together the two of them began to develop their range.

The starting point for all the foods that Modern Baker produce and sell is that they should be as close to their natural state and as minimally processed as possible, whilst also tasting fab! Lindsey had trained to bake with sourdough starters, and was keen to continue using this more traditional (and, as far as I’m concerned, more flavourful) way of baking; this meshed well with the research Melissa had been doing into the health benefits of slower fermented breads. For many with gluten intolerances, sourdoughs can be considerably easier to digest than their speedily, mass-produced, supermarket cousins. They’ve also chosen to use a range of naturally lower-gluten or entirely gluten-free flours. Having experimented at home with spelt flours, I’m particularly excited to try their loaves made with kamut, an even more ancient forerunner of modern wheat.

But for many people, the cakes will be what entices them in to Modern Baker! As with their breads, Melissa has replaced processed ingredients with more natural ones, particularly focussing on replacing refined sugars with coconut sugar, honey, or maple syrup, which not only have the benefit of being less processed, they also taste significantly better. Alongside that, they try to use raw ingredients like nut butters, berries, and raw cacao.

The shop is aiming to be a one-stop centre for those interested in healthy eating, and one of the aspects Melissa has enjoyed most so far is putting together her “Wall of Health”, which runs all down one side of the shop. This holds a glee-inducing range of products I’ve previously struggled to find elsewhere: more of that raw cacao, heaven-scented herbal teas, and, joy of joys, a brilliant cookbook collection. Everything on sale has been personally tried and tested by Melissa; the cookbooks are just the tiniest selection from her collection of over 60 tomes. She’s got a way to go before hitting my total (currently running at over 80), but she’s certainly trying!

The whole space is light and airy, reflecting the cleanness of the food, and much of that is thanks to part-barista, part-designer, <a href=”http://www.charlotteorr.com/”>Charlotte Orr</a>. She drew the beautiful Scandi-inspired tree designs for the Modern Baker signs, and the whole space draws on that same feeling. I can imagine the cafe being a great place to sit, relax, and take time to focus on one’s self and one’s own health: I certainly look forward to spending many hours ensconced there.