classes &
consulting

Hungry Ghost Bread started in my backyard (and then basement) in Leverett, MA in 1998. I drove a lot of loaves around to local CSA farms. For a couple of years, I worked out of an alleyway in Holyoke. Then, in 2004, my partner Cheryl and I opened up our retail shop in Northampton and have been there ever since. We’ve baked thousands of loaves since then, garnered 6 James Beard nominations and a few burn marks.

I’ve also done a lot of teaching about bread and baking techniques in different contexts:

From multi-series classes at Holyoke Community College and at The Baker’s Pin shop, to one-day workshops at The Kneading Conference, the Institute for Sustainable Nutrition, Hunt Hill Farm, Northern Grain Grower’s Association, Plimoth-Patuxet Museum and elsewhere. UMass Dining Services brought me in for a 2-week consult on using natural leavens and locally-milled fresh flour in June 2018.

In addition, we’ve hosted dozens of professional and amateur bakers in our shop, one at a time, to “shadow” our production day, to see the mixing, baking, and firing of the oven up close, and to join in on the afternoon dough-shaping sessions. There’s nothing like seeing it all in action, in real time, and being able to ask as many questions as necessary to get a feel for what we do. Cost is $300/day.

If you want to step-up your bread program, whether it’s at home or in a bakery or a dining hall or a summer camp or a restaurant: we can help you learn to use natural leavens and fresh-milled flour to make delicious, nutritious bread that will astound your guests. We will help you determine which tools you need and what kind of production schedule will fit. The world needs better bread, and that bread needs tuned-in bakers.

If interested in consultation, classes or shadowing, contact us at
somehungryghost@yahoo.com