Breaking Bread: A Baker’s History of the World

’An amazing book.’ Dan Lepard

’The rich and fascinating story of bread.’ Lily Vanilli

’A brilliant, timely and important book full of compassion.’ Olia Hercules

’A fascinating exploration of our universal love of bread. David traces the past, present and future of bread through his personal lens as a third generation baker.’ Edd Kimber

In Breaking Bread, third generation baker, food writer and presenter David Wright examines the universal questions about bread and baking. About the people who make and shape the bread we buy and the difficulties that social and cultural change, food fads and health directives have had, and are having, on the baking industry. After his family bakery sadly closed its doors after seventy-five years, Wright asks if the the closure of the bakery underlines the very idea that bread is a dying foodstuff. Is bread good or bad? And what does the future hold for bread?

Bread is an essential part of our story, our health, our very being. Every civilisation has a form of bread, and how we create, make and bake it, how we sell it and buy it, our food security, our access to it, affects everything: our physical and mental well-being, the ingredients, the seeds, the very earth we grow our grains in, the water we use and how we treat and sustain these natural resources, impact on the very health and future of our planet.

Chapters include:
1 Why Bread? - Creating, making, baking
2: The Wheel of Life - A loaf’s cycle
3: Frankenloaf - Science and the perfect loaf
4: Sicker by the Slice - A marriage not made in heaven
5: Big Bread - Industrial vs artisan bakeries
6: The Breadline - The economics of crust
7: Flour Power - The politics of bread
8: Bloody Bread - The costs of conquest
9: Our Daily Bread - What the gods want
10: Breaking bread - A once ropey baker looks to the future

Breaking Bread contains interviews and expert contributions from Olia Hercules - Food Writer, Dan Lepard - Baker and Writer, Felicity Spector - Writer and Baker, Kateryna Kalyuzhna - Baker, Brad Leone - Food Personality, Chris Cowie - Philosopher, Zara Mohammed - Religious Leader, William Kendall - Food Producer, Andy Cato/George Lamb - Wildfarmed, Daisy Terry - Dusty Knuckle, Ollie Hornsey-Pennell - Hylsten Bakery, Tim Williams - Regenerative Farmer, Matt Burgess - Chef, Martha Delacey - Teacher and Writer, Karl De Smedt - Sourdough Librarian, Vanessa Kimbell - Baker, Chris Young - Real Bread Campaign, Ben MacKinnon - Baker E5, Ben Glazer - Coombeshead Bakery, Andrew Gilespy - Fresh Flour, OJ Borg - Radio 2 DJ and Presenter, Christopher Tan - Baker and Writer, Martin Bricknell - War Studies Professor KCL, Wing Mon Cheung - Cereal Bakery

David Wright is a baker, food writer and presenter from Suffolk. He has co-authored DJ BBQ’s Backyard Baking (Quadrille, 2023) and writes for The Sandwich Magazine regularly. David’s father and grandfather were also bakers which allows him a unique personal window into the period before mass produced bread. A graduate from King’s College London where he studied English Literature with Film, David has written articles for many small publications and worked as an advertising copywriter before returning to baking. David’s presenting includes compering the Literary Stage at Camp Bestival, demonstrating at festivals such as Tom Kerridge’s Pub in the Park and working alongside brands such as Gozney - producing video content for their popular YouTube channel.