Local baker, Ryan Needham, recently graduated from the William Angliss Institute and was awarded the EOI Dux in Baking Award for Excellence.
Ryan, who completed his baking apprenticeship at Bairnsdale Bakehouse, said his passion for baking started when he was young.
“I’ve always wanted to bake, I’ve been buying ingredients since I was six,” he said.
“I also did a lot of baking with my mum.”
To say Ryan was devoted to baking is an understatement – he started his three-year baking apprenticeship at 16, making the drive to and from Melbourne once a week for nine weeks before starting his late night shift, working through to the early hours of the morning.
“Mum and dad have been a huge help, getting me out of bed to go to school,” Ryan said.
Ryan completed practical work and assignments at school, and was also given modules to complete at home – and the hard work paid off, with his teachers nominating him for the EOI Dux in Baking Award for Excellence.
Baking isn’t your run-of-the-mill work environment either. Ryan’s working hours are generally while most of the rest of the region is asleep, refining his craft late at night and in the early hours of the morning to ensure the bakehouse’s products are fresh each and every day.
For those wanting to try some of Ryan’s favourite baked products, such as his brownies, head to the Bairnsdale Bakehouse.
