The Artisan Baker Rises to the Top Winning Gold
31 October 2022
Five Valleys’ very own independent baker has won four gold medals in the UK’s biggest bread competition.
On Wednesday October 26, The Artisan Baker entered the competition and brought home gold for their Focaccia topped with feta cheese and pickled onions. They then went on to be awarded three further gold medals for their full selection of sourdoughs.
Tiptree World Bread Awards with Brook Food is the UK’s leading celebration of the art of bread-baking and is regarded as the UK’s most prestigious bread awards.
For the first time in three years, since the COVID-19 pandemic, the bread-baking world gathered for this year’s competition which was held at Westminster Cathedral in London.
The winning organic sourdough loafs, which included their popular olive and seeded loaves, are made with Shipton mill organic bread and dark rye flour. The doughs have been hand made with a 48hour preparation process which starts by activating the sourdough starter, making the dough, stretching and folding the dough in order to create the right crumb structure, shaping into their bannetons, then 10-12 hours cold proof before the loaves finally go to bake.
Ori Hellerstein, the owner of The Artisan Baker, said “I’m so pleased with the results of this year’s competition after a few years of absence, a lot has been tweaked and improved since. I’m so proud of the team who have worked so hard putting us right at the top, among the best of UK artisan bakeries."
A silver medal was also awarded to their Challah loaf, a Jewish semi sweet, braided loaf.
These newly awarded loaves can be found daily at The Artisan Bakery in Five Valleys and at the newly opened store at Imperial Gardens in Cheltenham, seven days a week.
Ori has a London Cordon Bleu training background where his passion for the culinary arts was cultivated back in 2016. Inspiring him to set up his business from an industrial unit working alone initially, he soon set to work delivering the tastiest, freshest produce to the local area always keeping the core values that ingredients should be fully organic and all products handmade.
The local community quickly got a taste for Ori’s creations and following a presence on Stroud’s Farmers’ Market, the baker and pastry chef felt it made total sense to have a unit within the Five Valleys indoor market where he set up two years ago joining an array of artisan producers and street food vendors.
Quickly building on their success they have now expanded into Cheltenham high street following a partnership formed with the Five Valleys landlord, Dransfield Properties. Ori’s range of organic hand-made pastries, bread, cakes and other baked goods can be found here as well as a wide selection of small plates including Charcuterie style meat and cheese boards to enjoy with a glass of wine.
The Artisan Baker himself, Ori, oversees both outlets using his 16 years of experience to fine tune his popular award-winning and fully certified organic baked products, which are all made at the Stroud hub creating further jobs for the area.
ENDS
Pic Caption: Ori Hellerstein
For further information, contact:
Public Relations Department, Dransfield Properties Ltd
Tel: 01226 360644
Email: admin@dransfield.co.uk