Whats on......Events & Courses
Established in 2010, Mayfield Farm Bakery set up our Courses to share our knowledge of Baking.
We have a wealth of experience here in our Bakers and Confectioners and we enjoy meeting people and passing on our skills.
Our courses are fun, friendly and informal and you get to spend your day with like minded people learning a creative skill.
Check out our available courses, there is bound to be one to suit you.
Bread, the staff of life & king of the table!
Giovanni Di Sarno, Bakery School Tutor
I approached the world of bread making, fermentations and flours (with and without gluten) when I was about 15 years old.
Born in Naples ( Italy) I am the fourth generation of bakers in my family, which owns a bakery in Pollena Trocchia, in the Vesuvius National Park, near Naples.
My grandmother Maria was the first person who made me fall in love with bread making. In my view, the most satisfying process that a person can do is creating a tasty, healthy and symbolic product full of meaning with only 5 ingredients: flour, water, salt, time and patience! I grew up professionally following the teachings of my family, which has been producing bread without preservatives, made with sourdough starter and baked in a wood oven for generations.
I graduated at 18 from the chef academy in Pollena Trocchia and worked in the family bakery full time for four years. Then I started to feel the need to move, explore, and learn more about bread making and it was exactly in that period of about (15 years ago) that one day I left home and started a baking journey around the world, starting in Australia. I met wonderful people from different parts of the world who taught me a lot. Even though we spoke different languages, and had different cultures, the love for bread united us all.
About 10 years ago,I came to England, a country that I now consider home, precisely in Essex, Here, I was lucky enough to meet and work with Master Baker Nick Anderson from whom I learned so much and who, together with the various bakers who followed at the Mayfield Farm Bakery in Harlow, we have won several World Bread Awards and prizes.
Since last October I have been appointed by the Real Bread Campaign as a Real Bread Ambassador. Real Bread Campaign is an independent charity based in the UK that researches and shares methods to produce better bread for communities and the planet.
My intent and duty in this role will be to continue sharing my knowledge through the courses I hold in different venues in Essex, Suffolk and London Areas regarding the ancient and genuine art of bread making, to those who have forgotten or are unaware of what it means to produce good quality bread, to continue supporting small independent bakeries that are going through a difficult time in this historical period, but above all I will also try to inspire and awaken the conscience of people, subjugated by misinformation and pushed to eat bread with additives and preservatives.
