We’re a noisy bunch, I get it. I’ve been struggling to figure out if all the endless chatter about what we do (usually from me) really had, or has any purpose to the business whatsoever. I mean, wholesale customers don’t sign up in droves because of a healthy 275 tweets a week, nor do numbers in the Cafe skyrocket everytime there’s a new entry on the blog.

I’ve kept my head down as of late namely due to that internal struggle of finding a purpose to what I say online, and also because we’ve been busy as bees working on an overflowing honeypot of projects. But overflowing doesn t mean in over our heads the atmosphere in here is positively brimming with anticipation, a real sense of ‘All Systems Go’.

With our wholesale side going strong, 2009 and our tentative foray into fostering our retail community through the Caf , Training School, Markets, and online started by chattering our heads off really. To chatter is to create buzz , which was one thing I found, but this year, 2010, is one that has to be filled with purpose, in all our chatter both in and out of the Bakery. Chatter with purpose, which I suppose constitutes ‘dialogue‘. It has to create a dialogue amongst audience, customers and fans who are part of a Brasserie Bread community that is relevant, fun, interesting and connected by trust.

Yes, we are an Artisan Bakery, and yes, we make and bake hand-made bread, pastries and cakes. We haven t lost the point of it all, we are a Bakery. But we also have a multitude of stories to tell. From the hands that mould and mix, to the tried-and-tested recipes; from the daily hustle of packing and delivering your bread in time for breakfast, to the many-a-failed loaves; from the painstakingly-refined techniques to yield that distinctive taste, to the sometimes laborious process of poaching an Artisan Baker from Production to take a children s baking class because we don t short-sell the Artisan ideal of our Baking Classes. Neither do we take children (nor parents and teachers) for idiots by having an untrained, unskilled teacher take them along for a ride. Let s face it, pizza is delicious and THE all-time favourite, but how do you make pizza dough? What s the best way to mould that dough with your hands? And hey, let s try shaping it a little differently: we ll teach you the technique, and you sprinkle some imagination into it 🙂

Frank's astronaut. need I say more?

At Brasserie Bread, you see what you get, and you learn from the best. Want to try some of that Sour Cherry? Here, take a handful! Savour it, take your time, and if you like it, buy a loaf. Show your kids the Bakers feeding our 15-year Starter (or having flour fights), and at the same time, let the Bakers appreciate who s coming in every day at the same time to buy that Rye they shaped for 2 hours yesterday. Or how about the regular who comes in to place an order with our Caf staff (who know he likes his Corned Beef sandwich with no watercress), made on the French Mountain Bread pulled out the ovens yesterday.

And no, that s not stale bread either 😉

This isn t so much a proclamation (or perhaps even a declaration) to our critics, as it is a call to action for me. Sometimes I struggle with justifying what I do, am I creating too much useless noise with this blog, or Twitter, am I damaging any notion of exclusivity or artisan with this much chatter, or is there a direction in which I need to focus on in my writing and dealings with fans, customers, potential partnerships. Sometimes, even sincerity is called into question I m not a baker, neither am I an owner, yet I tweet on account of Brasserie. I deal with stories, and I deal with the people behind this excellent product. So yes, I do think that qualifies as a good-enough platform to vocalise the genuine passion of the people who do the real back-breaking work here. And everything we make here tastes good and is made with nothing but raw passion and good intention so isn t that reason enough to shout it out from every rooftop so that everyone has the chance to hear about it and try it for themselves? I suppose this is where chatter serves its purpose.

And listen, if you don’t like what you hear, if you don’t like what you taste, join the dialogue – let’s have a conversation 🙂