 | A major contributor to this article appears to have a close connection with its subject.(August 2015) |
Dan Lepard | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1964 (age 59–60) |
| Spouse | David Whitehouse |
| Website | www |
Dan Lepard (born 1964) is an Australian baker, food writer, photographer, television presenter and celebrity chef. He was previously a fashion photographer working for Italian Vogue [1] before changing careers age 27, and is today known for reconciling historical methods with innovation in baking. [2]
In 1992 Dan became a pastry chef for Alastair Little [3] in Soho, London even though he had no formal training. [4] He then worked for David Hockney as a chef in both London and Los Angeles. [5]
He started working as a baker and consultant at Baker & Spice Bakery in 1997. [6] At his time at Baker & Spice he worked with Sami Tamimi (chef), Yotam Ottolenghi (head pastry chef), and Jim Webb (head viennoiserie chef). Tamimi, Ottolenghi and Webb along with Noam Bar later teamed up to start Ottolenghi's deli's and restaurants, and Dan helped advise the team on the bread for their bakeries. [7]
He has founded bakeries for Fergus Henderson at St John, [8] John Torode at Mezzo, [9] Tony Kitous at Levant [10] and Giorgio Locatelli at Locanda Locatelli [11] and Zafferano. [12]
In 2003, he was the winner of the Outstanding Contribution to London Restaurants at the London Restaurant Awards. [13] In 2012, he created the pop-up bakery The Loaf in a Box in San Sebastián, Spain. [14] It ran from July to September and served as an arena for all those who love bread to debate and eat fantastic produce. [15] In 2012 UK supermarket chain Sainsbury's launched a baking website with Dan where he has a regular Q&A slot. [16]
From September 2005 [17] through to September 2013 [18] he wrote a weekly baking column in The Guardian called How to Bake. [19] His column has been very popular drawing a broad fanbase of eager home bakers. Dan's recipes can also be found on the BBC Food website [20] and he is the baking guru for Mumsnet.com. [21]
He also writes for Waitrose Magazine, [22] Sainsburys Magazine, [23] and Delicious Magazine [24] (UK). In Australia Dan writes for Gourmet Traveller Magazine. [25]
In April 2014 Dan started to write a cookery column for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age in Melbourne [26]
In 2013 Dan featured as a judge alongside Kerry Vincent on The Great Australian Bake Off , a cooking television series aired on Nine Network in Australia. [27] This was the first series and is based on the popular British format The Great British Bake Off . In the UK he appears as a guest chef on Channel Four's Sunday Brunch. [28] [29]
Dan teaches sourdough masterclasses for the Cookery School at Little Portland Street, London. [30] He frequently gives baking demonstrations, talks and masterclasses throughout the country at a wide range of events and festivals.
He has lived in London since his late teens. In 2012 Dan Lepard entered into a civil partnership with his long-term partner and business manager David Whitehouse. [31]
Baking is a method of preparing food that uses dry heat, typically in an oven, but can also be done in hot ashes, or on hot stones. The most common baked item is bread, but many other types of foods can be baked. Heat is gradually transferred "from the surface of cakes, cookies, and pieces of bread to their center. As heat travels through, it transforms batters and doughs into baked goods and more with a firm dry crust and a softer center". Baking can be combined with grilling to produce a hybrid barbecue variant by using both methods simultaneously, or one after the other. Baking is related to barbecuing because the concept of the masonry oven is similar to that of a smoke pit.
Pastry is baked food made with a dough of flour, water, and shortening that may be savoury or sweetened. Sweetened pastries are often described as bakers' confectionery. The word "pastries" suggests many kinds of baked products made from ingredients such as flour, sugar, milk, butter, shortening, baking powder, and eggs. Small tarts and other sweet baked products are called pastries as a synecdoche. Common pastry dishes include pies, tarts, quiches, croissants, and pasties.
French toast is a dish of sliced bread soaked in beaten eggs and often milk or cream, then pan-fried. Alternative names and variants include eggy bread, Bombay toast, gypsy toast, and poor knights (of Windsor).
A baker is a tradesperson who bakes and sometimes sells breads and other products made of flour by using an oven or other concentrated heat source. The place where a baker works is called a bakery.
A hot cross bun is a spiced bun usually made with fruit, marked with a cross on the top, which has been traditionally eaten on Good Friday in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada, India, Pakistan, Malta, United States and the Commonwealth Caribbean. They are available all year round in some places, including the UK.
A bakery is an establishment that produces and sells flour-based food baked in an oven such as bread, cookies, cakes, doughnuts, bagels, pastries, and pies. Some retail bakeries are also categorized as cafés, serving coffee and tea to customers who wish to consume the baked goods on the premises. Confectionery items are also made in most bakeries throughout the world.
A pastry chef or pâtissier, is a station chef in a professional kitchen, skilled in the making of pastries, desserts, breads and other baked goods. They are employed in large hotels, bistros, restaurants, bakeries, and some cafés.
Ciabatta is an Italian white bread made from wheat flour, water, salt, yeast and olive oil, created in 1982 by a baker in Adria, province of Rovigo, Veneto, Italy, in response to the popularity of French baguettes. Ciabatta is somewhat elongated, broad, and flat, and is baked in many variations, although unique for its alveolar holes. Ciabatta is made with a strong flour and uses a very high hydration dough.
Nancy Silverton is an American chef, baker, and author. The winner of the James Beard Foundation's Outstanding Chef Award in 2014, Silverton is recognized for her role in popularizing sourdough and artisan breads in the United States.
Yotam Assaf Ottolenghi is an Israeli-born British chef, restaurateur, and food writer. He is the co-owner of seven delis and restaurants in London and the author of several bestselling cookery books, including Ottolenghi: The Cookbook (2008), Plenty (2010), Jerusalem (2012) and Simple (2018).
Paul John Hollywood is an English celebrity chef and television personality, widely known as a judge on The Great British Bake Off since 2010.
John Whaite is an English baker who won the third series of The Great British Bake Off in 2012. He works as a chef, television presenter, and author.
Britain's Best Bakery is a British daytime cookery show part of the ITV Food category on ITV and narrated by Wendi Peters with judges Mich Turner and Peter Sidwell. The show aired from 26 November 2012 to 14 February 2014.
The third series of The Great British Bake Off began airing on Tuesday 14 August 2012. The series was filmed at Harptree Court in East Harptree, Somerset.
James Patrick Bowie Morton is a Scottish doctor, baker, author and reality television contestant, based in Glasgow, who rose to fame when he became the runner up on the third series of The Great British Bake Off.
Sami Tamimi is a Palestinian chef and author living in London. He is the co-owner of six delis and restaurants in London. Tamimi is also the co-author of several bestselling cookbooks, including Ottolenghi (2008), Jerusalem (2012) and Falastin (2020).