Italy has never needed to borrow from France. It has its own answer.

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When the French baguette began appearing on Italian tables in the 1980s, one baker pushed back. The result was ciabatta (slipper bread) rustic and unmistakably Italian. Not a copy. Not a compromise. A declaration.

And like all truly great bread, its magic lives in what you can't see...

 

A slow-fermented Italian pre-ferment, time doing the work that shortcuts never can, a dough so alive and full of water it seems almost impossible to handle... until it isn't.

 

Until it comes out of the oven with a crust that shatters and a crumb so open and wild it could only have been made the Italian way.
 

This workshop is about learning to bake that bread. The real one.

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The Experience

Join Babette in her dedicated bread studio for four hours of authentic Italian bread-making.

 

Using a biga pre-ferment, that is the soul of this bread, you'll make ciabatta from scratch.

 

You'll learn to read and handle this extraordinary high-hydration dough, understanding why its character comes entirely from patience and technique.

While your ciabatta bakes, we'll sit down to a simple Italian lunch: fresh bread, olive oil, wine. The kind of meal Italians have always known how to make feel like enough.

You'll leave with your own baked ciabatta, a prepared biga to take home, and a technique that will change how you think about bread forever.

Authentic flavour comes from understanding why.

 

What will you learn :

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• The story and culture behind Italy's most iconic bread

• How the biga, Italy's fermentation tradition, creates flavour

• Working with high-hydration dough with confidence and intuition

• Shaping ciabatta for its signature wild, open crumb

• Understanding preferments - this unlocks the full world of Italian bread baking

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Skill level: Beginner to Intermediate 
Duration: 4 hours
What to bring: Apron, container for your preferment, notepad and pen
Price: $110
 

Includes: 

• Coffee, tea, wine, simple lunch

• all ingredients

• your own baked ciabatta

• prepared preferment to take home

• recipe guide

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