When COVID grounded business consultant Richard King in Melbourne he was one of the many in lockdown who started baking sourdough bread.
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"In my previous life, I was doing lots of travel around the world and didn't have time to be really intentional about looking after a starter or a mother," he said.
The starter for sourdough bread - which takes the place of yeast in conventional bread - requires constant attention to keep the culture of microorganisms that provide the rise in sourdough bread alive.
"COVID allowed me to do that, and we started creating way more bread than we could possibly eat," Mr King said.
Living in Melbourne at the time, Mr King and his wife Lucy King began dropping bread off on the doorsteps of neighbours' and friends' homes.
During a break in restrictions, the couple commenced a road trip from Melbourne to Sydney, but it being the end of 2020, couldn't make it to their destination due to the lockdown. The rules of their home state meant they couldn't return, and what was meant to be a short stay on the South Coast turned into a permanent move.
"We fell in love with the South Coast and schemed how we could possibly come back. We went home, sold that, continuing to make bread all the time," Mr King said.
Having tended their starter the whole way, the pair are now preparing to open a sourdough bakery in Kiama, cementing Mr King's COVID-induced status as "the bread guy".
"People in the community were wanting to ask me if they can start buying our bread, and that's how Slow Dough was conceived," he said. "We started thinking, all right, this might be the way we can stay here."
Earlier this month, plans were submitted with Kiama Council to open the bakery in the former manse next to the Kiama Uniting Church which had previously been the Men's Shed. The couple are planning on turning the red-brick bungalow into a haven for sourdough and seasonal sweet goodies.
Eschewing the bakery-cum-cafe model, Slow Dough is all about the bread. The cottage will be kept largely the same from the outside, apart from a ramp and verandah, but the inside will be transformed into a bakery, complete with prep-rooms, cold storage and ovens.
In a design move seen at internationally renowned Melbourne croissant shop Lune, customers will be able to watch as bakers shape, roll and bake a range of breads and pastries, having worked with architects THE NRML STUDIO to open up the space in a way that allows customers a direct view into the dough kitchen.
"While we'll be serving coffee, our primary focus will be on a range of wholesome sourdough breads, baked fresh on premises," Mr King said.
A big focus for the couple has been offering seasonal breads, so in addition to basic white sourdough loaves, Mr King has recently been working on a fig and walnut loaf to make the most of late-summer figs. The focus extends to pastries as well, such as frangipane tarts using roasted pears in autumn and galettes that can be topped with what is in season.
While neither have a background in bakery or commercial food production - Mrs King leads Kmart's sustainability efforts - Mr King said early breads had been helped along the way by a range of other bakers including now author but formerly of Bourke St Bakery and Movida Michael James, Maaryasha Werdiger of Zelda Bakery in Melbourne and Dougal Muffet of A.P Bakery in Sydney.
All things going to plan, the couple hope to be able to open the bakery in spring.
You can follow their journey as they get closer to opening on Instagram at @slowdoughbythesea.
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