A very enjoyable week in Provence
I have just returned from a very enjoyable week in Provence at Domaine L’ Ancienne Ecole with a great group of people. I have learnt so much about bread making from Paul this week and finally understand what my husband is talking about with reference to sourdough breads in particular.
Jane Aldridge, Bread baking student, 2019
Paul is very flexible and gave us the opportunity to choose breads that we would like to make such as brioche, pain aux raisin and pain de Campagne, for example. During the week, we baked most of our bread in a wood-fired oven. The week included a visit to a fabulous local market and an afternoon in a local town. The course is based at an organic winery with lovely gites in a beautiful part of Provence owned by Anna and Wilson Thorburn who could not be more welcoming. Highly recommended!!
An excellent hands-on course today
Hi Paul
Barry and Christine, Bakery students, Northallerton
Many thanks for an excellent hands-on course today. We both really enjoyed it and learnt a lot.We have been tasting some of the bread at home for our supper and it is all fantastic and really tasty.I hope that we now continue to make bread like this at home ourselves.Thanks again for a great day.
The ultimate professional
Paul is the ultimate professional. We had loads of hands-on practise and also got the opportunity to explore the beautiful local area with fantastic scenery. Wilson and Anna our hosts, could not have been more welcoming, and we enjoyed touring their wine making facility at Domaine l’Ancienne Ecole, bringing home several bottles of wine, as well as some of the loaves we baked on the course to share with family and friends.
Linda and Kevin, Provence, France
If you are interested in bread making and want to combine it with a “holiday”, then this course is for you.
I learned such a lot
I enjoyed this last weekend’s course hugely and I learned such a lot. It was a real pleasure and privilege to be tutored by you.
Charles Everett
I’ve been making sure I remember all the tips and techniques that you worked through with me and that none slips through the cracks in my memory. I thought I was a moderately experienced domestic baker but spending the time with you has given me a complete step change in my approach.
You are a great teacher. You bring the theoretical and the practical together beautifully and make what is actually quite hard learning so enjoyable that the time passes in a flash.
Looking back over the two days, I am amazed at how much you managed to pack in to so short a time. Certainly, I felt a happy exhaustion at the end of each of the two days!
Putting new techniques (autolyse) into practice.
I just wanted to say a very, very big thank you for the course this past weekend. I learnt a huge amount, picked up so many tips and just ways of making little improvements in so many aspects of breadmaking. Tomorrow I will start my sourdough ready for a Friday bake, and I’m very much looking forward to putting new techniques (autolyse) into practice. Over the thirty or so years I’ve been making bread I have always loved trying something a bit differently, and the autolyse approach is completely new to me; I really want to work with this.
Ali Cripps
Thank you for your inspiration, common sense, and excellent teaching – and I do wish you every success in France! (Thank you too for including David and James in Saturday’s drinks at the end of the day!)
I thoroughly enjoyed the one day British
What an interesting day. Paul is a great at teaching not only the art and craft of baking but the science that’s hidden inside the dough. We thoroughly enjoyed our one day British course even if we did veer off into France making great looking (yet to try) baguettes and batons!
Paddy Gallagher
Many thanks Paul!
An extremely informative day
I just wanted to thank you for a very enjoyable and extremely informative day on Saturday. I learnt a lot and really appreciated your pragmatic approach to introducing a group of novices to the art of making sourdough.
Patrick Shone
I have managed to take home what I learnt and bake bread with reasonable success. Many thanks again Paul for an excellent day.
One Day Sourdough
Hi Paul, Just wanted to say a huge thank you for all the knowledge imparted during the sourdough course on 10 May, ironed out where I was going wrong time and time again using recipes only.
Matt
Planning on coming back for an apprentice day later in the year if you’ll have me!
Admiration of humble people …
It was a real pleasure to meet you, I am always in admiration of humble people like yourself who are so keen to share and pass on all that you have learnt. Being at the beginning of my bread making, I am truly thankful there are people like you around!!! Despite sore feet after two days, I still felt like I was walking on clouds!!!!!
Bridget Ho
PANARY Basic Bread course
Having been given the Paul Hollywood Bread book last Christmas, I have been baking bread for just over a year. I attended the PANARY Basic Bread course with Paul Merry just to ensure that I really understood the principles of baking and to learn from a master baker.
John Turnbull
I must say the day was fabulous, the programme covered a range of flours, breads and very hands on. Paul is very personable, obviously extremely knowledgeable and has an easy teaching style. I have already booked up for my second course and would recommend PANARY to others.
An incredible day
What an incredible day we had on Saturday! It was inspiring, instructive and awesome in every way. Your teaching method was brilliantly fluid and responsive, I don’t think I’ve ever been taught so much in a single day.
Tara Frazer
We hope we can come and do lots more with you over the coming months. Have a million questions lined up but for now enjoying the unfolding of our bread journey. With many thanks and all best wishes
Ofsted … an ‘outstanding’ report
Thank you for a great course. I hugely enjoyed both learning and your excellent tuition and company – an ideal learning place where theory and practice could operate simultaneously, and a teacher who struck the right balance between encouragement and exactitude.
I especially liked the way you were happy to abandon Rob and me to get on with mixing dough or kneading or whatever while you busied about other stuff so that we felt we weren’t being micromanaged although we also knew we could ask if something went pear-shaped.
Ofsted would give you an ‘outstanding’ report – were they not to, that would only confirm all teachers’ reservations about their methods.
Anthony Peter
One day British
Just a note to stay that I really enjoyed my one day British course in early April. The theory I learned has been really useful in helping me understand recipes better and has extended what I’d already picked up from books. However, as with my engineering apprenticeship 35 years ago, the main value was in learning the hand skills from a real master craftsman. Some things you just can’t learn from a book!
Ed Deacon
Armed with the experience from the course, I got myself a baking stone, hacked a peel out of some plywood & had my first few goes at hand shaping – something I wouldn’t have had the confidence to try before the course.
No better introduction to … baking
It was a huge privilege and a great pleasure working with you – there could have been no better introduction to the craft of baking. I’m most grateful, and you were also a most generous host too.
David Wright
French with Sourdough course
I would like to thank you very much for the great time I had at your French with Sourdough course at the beginning of March. I learnt a lot and now feel more confident about going forward.
Pain au levain recipe
I had a go at your pain au levain recipe on Friday and got the best rise I have had from a sourdough to date and the taste was lovely. I am trying the Normandy sourdough rye today as a neighbour enjoyed the one I brought back from the course so much she has commissioned one.
Hilary Fisher
Going Professional
After attending your ‘Going Professional’ course in October, I have begun – in a very small way – to do just that. I now now bake once a week for a farm shop at a garden nursery. I bake sourdough loaves on Friday and get up early on Saturday to bake a range of yeasted loaves. I have been doing this for 12 weeks and the amount that I am selling is gradually creeping up. I am enjoying it a lot; it balances out the other work that I do. Although I had been baking for many years, your course gave me the confidence to develop it.
Rosanne Cecil
Semolina bread for breakfast
As I sit here eating our delicious semolina bread for breakfast, I wanted to send you a brief note for a truly wonderful three days at PANARY. For me, your course was pitched at just the right level. I loved the way we gradually became more confident and at the end, you were letting us ‘just get on with it’… (that’s how it appeared anyway, the mark of a good teacher!).
Jonathan Darnell
A brilliant day yesterday at Panary
I want to say a big thank you for a brilliant day yesterday at Panary. The basic course was pitched just right for me and not only taught me the necessary science behind the bread baking, but also answered the questions that I had been struggling with for a while.
Valerie Clinch
Enjoyed the hands-on work …
I really enjoyed the hands-on work and have come away with a better understanding of the process, which I can now use to improve my baking further at home. Altogether a thoroughly enjoyable experience and a course that I would strongly recommend to anyone who appreciates “proper” bread and the sense of achievement that comes with baking!
Valerie Clinch
Sourdough course … with a fantastic lunch
I enjoyed the Sourdough course I attended last Friday. I gained so much knowledge in a short space of time – but also now realise how much more I still have to learn! My family loved the bread we made and the leavens have been well looked after. The pace of the course was just right, with a fantastic lunch and lovely informal atmosphere. I hope to book another course soon.
Stacey Breese
A wonderful and informative course …
Thank you for the wonderful and informative course. I really enjoyed the experience and will most certainly put your course notes to the test over the next few days. I can not remember when I have enjoyed learning so much new information.
David Cornwell
