About

your tutor, Paul Merry

Your tutor, Paul Merry has been involved with craft baking and masonry ovens for over thirty years, and has been teaching courses for fifteen years. When he is not teaching he is a consultant in traditional baking or is dealing with his French wood-fired ovens.

“I find it a real pleasure to teach”

An Australian, he had his own bakery with wood-fired oven outside Melbourne, where he enjoyed for over a decade the life of the village baker in an appreciative community.

He considers that the step from being a master of your trade to becoming a teacher and a consultant is a natural and easy progression. “During the years I was in my bakery I enjoyed having apprentices, and to watch them flourish into competent bakers was deeply rewarding. I have always enjoyed teaching my craft, and now I see it as a worthy duty given that the craft itself faces extinction unless others are persuaded to put the clock back to allow time for fermentation and the proper handling of dough.”

  • panary adj [L.panis bread + - ARY] Of or pertaining to bread; p. fermentation