All the tools you need to be a pro home baker

Daniel Trulson was in the USA about 12 years ago apprenticing with a French chef in Chicago when he received the hardest news of his life so far. He learned that he was suffering from a brain tumor. “At this extremely challenging moment in my life, baking bread became the meditative process that helped calm me down, made me focus and find clarity,” Daniel tells us over a call from Pondicherry, where he is now based. Daniel went on to not only beat the illness but also change his career path. Having discovered his passion for the art of baking, he decided to hone his skills working with some of the best bakers in the country, including Peter Reinhart. He then travelled to Europe with his wife to study and learn further.

Nine years ago the couple moved to Pondicherry, where his wife is from, bought a clay oven and started researching local wheat suppliers to find the best raw material. He began by working long hours, waking up before sunrise, hand mixing the dough himself, and selling the bread locally. As his business grew, he went on to launch his own café with Jane Mason (of Mason & Co Chocolates). Bread & Chocolate, the café, is now one of the most popular places in Auroville. It was at this café where a chance meeting with Rahul Reddy led to a new business partnership. The duo launched a specialty coffee roasting and craft bakehouse in Mumbai called Subko where everything is created using only locally sourced ingredients.

“It has been a creative process. We discuss and dream and come up with ideas and try those ideas together. Because I am a foreigner here, I didn’t just want to bring European style of baking to India,” he says. For Rahul, the question was how to work through Indian ingredients and climatic conditions, and create a global specialty standard in India. “It is about a merging of the flavours of India and techniques of the west which is what I always wanted,” adds Daniel. Which means besides the excellent sourdough and croissants, you can also find upma sourdough, palak paneer quiche, kulfi stuffed croissant at the café too.