About PANARY and Paul Merry

I’ve been been involved with craft baking and masonry ovens for over forty years, and have been teaching courses for nearly 20 years.

When not teaching, I am a consultant in traditional baking or dealing with my French wood-fired ovens for which I am an agent in Britain.

I find it a real pleasure to teach, and consider myself a lucky person for being able to say that I really like my work and being a baker.

In Australia I had my own bakery with wood-fired oven outside my home city Melbourne, where I enjoyed the life of the village baker in an appreciative community. It took me several years to build the bakery, where I stayed for over ten years as baker before coming to live in Britain.

I consider 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.