Helen Underwood established the White Cottage Bakery in Kingston to provide local businesses and the community with wholesome bread made from locally grown and milled grains . She is an award-winning artisan baker, who has specialised in sourdough for many years, and converted the bakery into a training school in 2015.
She believes in using locally grown grain and ingredients, wherever possible, and the importance of improvisation, making for a fluid and flexible approach to her baking. Her background as a scientist is always evident, giving her students greater confidence in their own understanding and abilities. Her mission is to remove the mystery from what can appear an arcane craft and make it a simple, everyday skill that can be enjoyed by all.
OUR TEACHERS
HELEN UNDERWOOD
Helen has been teaching here at the White Cottage Baking School since 2015 where students from around the world come to attend her workshops. She has taught chefs, bakers and keen amateurs throughout the UK and Europe the sheer joy of breadmaking; bringing together the simplest and most fundamental of ingredients and turning them, with nothing but a pair of skilful hands, into something wondrous.
Helen runs popular baking retreats in Tuscany each year and, as a renowned bread-making and sourdough specialist, makes regular appearances on BBC radio. She is a recipe developer, food-writer and a recent judge for the World Bread Awards.
CLARE BERMINGHAM
Clare trained at the Leiths School of Food and Wine, going on to further her knowledge in bread and viennoiserie at Le Cordon Bleu and The School of Artisan Food. She has since worked as a freelance chef at the Cambridge Cookery School, and, having apprenticed at White Cottage back in 2014, has been working alongside Helen as a teacher at The Baking School since 2021.
COM-PANION
Did you know that the word 'companion' comes from the Latin 'cum panis': literally 'with bread.' A companion is somebody you break bread with!
Bread is not just about sustenance, it's food for the soul. The people you break bread with are your friends, your family, your community. Bread, then, has always been about sharing—an ethos that's at the heart of everything we do here at White Cottage.
OUR VENUE
Our workshops are held in a listed 17th century cottage and former bakery which stands opposite the churchyard in the picturesque village of Kingston, about 8 miles outside Cambridge. Classes are held in the old farmhouse kitchen, with its beams and ancient Aga, adjacent to the bakery where the bread is baked. The cottage garden provides for the school all year round - from the plentiful herbs and salads to the orchard fruits and edible flowers used in the classes.
