Taste the Nation: How Innishannon's newest food star makes his daily bread

Chris Fahey of Wildflour Bakery began his business selling bread out of his car-boot

Thu, 23 Sep, 2021 - 07:16

Ciara McDonnell

Five years ago, Chris Fahey read a book and fell head over heels in love with bread. In Cooked, celebrated food writer Michael Pollan explores different ways of cooking. He learns how to grill with fire, cook with liquid, bake bread, and ferment everything from cheese to beer. In the course of his journey, he discovers that the cook occupies a special place in the world, standing squarely between nature and culture.

It was bread and fermentation that caught Chris Fahey’s imagination. “He wrote about bread making so passionately that I wanted to give it a go, so I started making my own sourdough. The first loaf of bread, I made was rubbish but it was still the best loaf of bread I had ever tasted.”

Tipperary-born Fahey has been working in Cork since he was 18. His wife, Michelle, is from Cork, so the couple has laid strong roots in the county. While he has spent most of his career working in some of the city’s most well-known cafés, his love affair with bread has taken him westwards, to Innishannon where his bakery Wildflour opened last month, just down the street from Rohus.

His bread journey has taken many twists and turns. During the first lockdown, Johnny O’Mahony of Pompeii pizza offered the use of their pizza oven during the nighttime.

“It didn’t cost them anything — the residual heat from cooking pizzas during the day was enough for me to cook up to 100 loaves of bread,” says the baker.

So, he started making loaves and selling them out of the boot of his car.

“I started selling bread to friends and then people started coming to me by word of mouth. It just kind of snowballed a bit into something big — it felt like everyone wanted to try this bread.”

When it became apparent that the demand for his product was there, Chris began to look for premises, and Innishannon just made sense, he says. "It's the gateway to West Cork, and more than that, it's a fantastic community."

Since they opened, Chris and Michelle — who makes cakes for the bakery when not at her full-time job — have been embraced by the people of Innishannon, selling out of products every day.

"The support we have received is unbelievable. I don't think we would have received a welcome like the one we got here anywhere else."

Wildflour specialises in Chris's sourdough bread but is fast becoming well known for his signature cinnamon buns ("They take three days to make"), and those in the know get there early to secure their prize.

The bread community in Ireland is a friendly one, he says: "We have a Whatsapp group called Real Bread Ireland and there are over 100 people on it. People are so generous with their recipes because they know that bread is reliant on so much more than the ingredients — it depends on the water, the temperature, the level of humidity. So people are extremely kind with their tips and recommendations."

When Chris was developing his idea for Wildflour, he reached out to Dara Ó hArtghaile from Ursa Minor Bakehouse in County Antrim. "I called Dara and asked him if I could come up and hang out with him for a week to see how he worked and he had me shaping bread from the minute I arrived. He was so generous with this knowledge."

Ireland is full of amazing bakers, says Fahey, citing Sarah Richards from Seagull Bakery in Tramore as one he hugely admires. "I don't know how she does it, but her caramel squares taste magical. I don't know anyone who can make them like her — I've tried, but I can't do it."

The hope for Wildflour is that it becomes a destination for people who want quality bread, pastries, and coffee: "It's simple, but when simple food is done well it is amazing."

With queues for his pastries and bread every weekend, it looks like Wildflour is well on its way to being Innishshannon's next big success story.