“Ohhhh, my love, my darling, I’ve hungered for your touch,” the radio serenades me as I pre-shape thousands of Quinoa & Soya loaves (I may be exaggerating, but it sure feels like thousands). We’ve talked about Ghost in our blog before – the way pottery and dough shaping have a whole lot of similarities.

Sure, in Ghost Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze are having a romantic moment as they shape their vase (or whatever it is) on the pottery wheel. Let’s face it, there isn’t really anything romantic about the way we’re shaping these loaves of bread down in the bakery, but there’s definitely something sensual about it – it’s so physical and tactile, and so unique to each baker.

Matthew teaches me how to pre-shape lots of different breads: from the Spelt Tin to the Olive & Rosemary (my favourite! The soothing aroma of the rosemary wafting up as I’m kneading is one of the highlights of my day).

By lunchtime I’m confidently pre-shaping baguettes, covering the baguettes in our (tasty!) seed mixture and then placing them into a linen cloth, which is called a couche (eventually these turn into the Seeded Baguette – mmmh). I also handle the Garlic Bread, getting my fingers all garlicky and doughy.

There’s something therapeutic about all this kneading and shaping (even though it requires a lot of muscle) and the string of bad songs on the radio is so calming, it’s almost putting me into a trance.

The multiple hands kneading and moulding away are also very multicultural – Paul is Irish, Junior is Samoan, Adi is Indonesian, the list goes on. I join the multicultural medley with my German-Indonesian roots (it’s like the United Nations of bread down here).

Most of my day is spent pre-shaping, which I’m glad about – I’d rather not send out wonky-shaped sourdough loaves to all the Sydney bread-heads out there. But Matthew also lets me shape a few New York Ryes and Slider Brioche Buns.

Being a baker is hard, hard work. On your feet all day, hands constantly shaping and kneading dough, carrying boards, sweeping the floors, it’s all so gruelling… The speed of these guys (and girl – Alice is the only other girl besides me in the bread-shaping room) is astonishing. In no time I’m feeling the competitiveness to try and keep up. Of course I don’t – quite the contrary, I get slower and slower, especially towards the end of the day.

As Adi says when he sees how exhausted I look, “Muscle work is different from brain work” (this is a pretty loose translation of what he says in Indonesian). And boy, is he right. When I get home, I spend the next three hours in a comatose state on the couch and eventually fall into a deep slumber at 9pm.

The next morning I wake up with what I can only call “baker’s elbow” (my newly invented name for the baker’s version of tennis elbow). Clearly I’m not cut out for artisan bread-baking. My arms lack muscle and my legs are too weak to be standing and kneading for 7 or 8 hours every day.

But I sure unearthed a newfound appreciation for the bakers downstairs. While I comfortably sit in my rolling chair in front of my computer (writing blogs and tweeting away), these dedicated guys are bustling around the bakery, making sure that all the Sydney bread-heads are fed by the morrow.

Take one of our baking classes to get a taste of what I experienced. We’ve got a wide range of baking classes available – see our course calendar for availabilities. To make a booking call us at 1300 966 845 or enquire online.

Watch the Behind the Scenes video of our bakers in production