By Elisa Cirene
How does a French trained, Belgian pastry chef end up living on the Bellarine Peninsula and selling sourdough in Spotswood?
It was a circuitous route but love was the key. Love of travel, baking, quality pastries, the outdoors and finally the love of an Aussie man. Miek Paulus’s journey to Wallington began as a travel adventure and ended with a husband, a family and a business in Geelong.
“I remember travelling with my parents as a child. The excitement of a new journey and discovering new places, smells and foods.
After completing my pastry training in Belgium, I wanted a change, an adventure. I travelled to France – I wanted to indulge in the world’s top cuisine and drink the wine!
And the mountains were close by. So to balance out all the eating and drinking, I’d go out to the mountains. Which I did, a lot. I’d hike, ski and snowboard. A lot. And one day, when there was fresh, white powder snow, I met Stu from Geelong.”
The name ‘Ket Baker’ is inspired by Belgian slang and roughly translates to ‘young street urchin’ It is more of an expression or an attitude about an individual way of thinking, a free-spirited, tear-about approach to the world.
“It is the charming delinquent, with a good heart and a wildly independent streak.
And it’s what we like to think we bring to the bread making community of Victoria.”
Miek has enjoyed bringing her baking skills to Victoria and is a champion for healthier daily bread, tastier croissants and guilt-free pastries. Everything at Ket Baker is baked with perfection – with every croissant taking five days to develop the intense flavour profile and texture they are famous for. Freshly baked raspberry croissants, fruit danishes, crème koeks, fruit loaf and baguettes are just some of the wonderful aromas drifting from the Ket Baker kitchen.
It is with great pride that Miek ensures the bakery only uses high quality, local, chemical-free flour and selects short-chain, nutritious ingredients as much as possible. She chooses sustainable practices and closed loop systems to minimise the impact on our land.
You can pop in and visit the shed bakery in Wallington or catch Ket Baker at the Slow Food Melbourne farmers’ market in Spotswood every 4th Saturday of the month.
