Behind the bakes – meet Kev our Head Baker

If you’ve walked past our bakery and admired the rows of golden loaves through the window. Or inhaled the heavenly scent of fresh sourdough from the open doorway, then you’ve already encountered the work of our Head Baker, Kev, without even making a purchase.

Mastery & heart

With nearly 40 years of experience under his belt, Kev brings both mastery and heart to every loaf that leaves our bakery.

His journey into baking began in Fordingbridge, where he worked in bakeries and these sparked his fascination for the craft.

Artisan baking

His mum quickly recognised that this wasn’t just a passing interest and organised an apprenticeship for him at Mellors, setting him on the path toward a lifelong career in artisan baking.

After completing a three‑year apprenticeship and college training, Kev honed his skills in bakeries across the region in Ringwood, Oxford and Southampton.

Career achievement

He later worked as a travelling baker for the renowned Lyons Group and today he leads our bijou team of Bakers, a role he proudly calls his greatest career achievement.

Kev’s signature bake is his much‑loved granary sourdough, but his favourite thing to create is any sort of bread.

Simple ingredients, great bakes

He loves how the same simple ingredients – flour, water, salt, yeast – can be transformed into such a wide range of products depending on how they’re mixed, fermented, shaped and baked.

He started our commitment to long fermentation, slow mixing and zero improvers and this perfectly matches his philosophy of traditional, time‑honoured baking.

Passing on the passion

Outside the bakery, Kev enjoys simple comforts: a steak and kidney pie, a pint of Guinness, and quality time with family. While he’s admired many bakers down the years, what he values most now is passing on his passion to the next generation and he trained our Assistant Baker, Jack.

Rebuilding community

In fact, Kev isn’t just baking bread here with us; he’s helping rebuild the sense of community that neighbourhood bakeries, like ours, once brought to areas and helping us boost social connectedness too.

Each loaf Kev makes and bakes supports the work of Communicare and his craft is making a difference far beyond the oven and the countertop.