In 2018, French baker Quentin Berthonneau opened Q le Baker at Prahran Market. It quickly became a favourite for its laminated pastries and strong focus on sourdough. But the intensity of running a bakery – especially at a young age (Berthonneau was 24 when he co-founded Q le Baker) – led to burnout. And he stepped away from the business physically in 2019, and legally in 2022.

“I was the poorest and the saddest and the least healthy that I have ever been in my life. And I just realised I didn’t want to keep going that way,” he tells Broadsheet. “I got out of Q le Baker and my goal after that was to rebuild a life around wellbeing.”

Since 2019, he’s been on the teaching staff at prestigious French sourdough school L’Ecole Internationale de Boulangerie, consulted at over 70 bakeries in France as well as at Sydney’s Flour and Stone and AP Bakery, taught masterclasses, and is captaining the Australian team at the Panettone World Championships in Italy later this year.

Stay in the know with our free newsletter. The latest restaurants, must-see exhibitions, style trends, travel spots and more – curated by those who know.

SIGN UP

Now he’s preparing to open Oji House in Preston – a baking studio where Berthonneau will teach sourdough masterclasses that are open to anyone, but geared more towards industry. On Thursdays and Fridays, he’ll also sell four breads – rye, table loaves, a seed- and nut-heavy gluten-free loaf, and his signature sourdough shokupan – and one weekly changing grand levain (a large-format levained product) such as a pandoro or panettone. All baked goods will only be available for pre-order.

“A promise I made to myself when I was at a low point in my life was, ‘I will try not to work weekends and night shifts anymore’. So I decided to create a business model that will allow me to do that as a baker, and try to fix a lot of things that I noticed in my previous business, like the mental stress of not knowing if you’re going to sell out too early, or having too much waste.”

The first Oji House class will take place in June, and Berthonneau expects to start taking preorders for baked goods in November. In the meantime, he’s launched a Kickstarter campaign (where rewards included pre-ordered baked goods, discounted baking classes and limited-edition merch) primarily so he can purchase higher-end baking equipment.

Berthonneau is thinking of Oji House as an artist’s studio rather than a bakery. “If you walk into a bakery, you already have an expectation of what they should be doing. You would not walk into a painter’s showroom and expect them to be making a specific piece,” he says. “[At Oji House] I’m being a creative in my studio and just expressing myself. I think it’s important, as small artisans, we try to keep our creativity up and running.”

While he knows this structure won’t work for everyone, he hopes that by introducing a new business model for bakers he can encourage others to think beyond the traditional. “It’s about challenging the current status quo, because I won’t find the answers for everyone, but at least people will think, ‘Oh, yeah, we can do things differently’.”

Oji House is expected to open at 1/80 High Street, Preston in June.

ojihouse.com
@oji_house