Portarlington Bakehouse
A wood-fired oven dating back more than 100 years forms the heart of Terry Christofi’s Portarlington Bakehouse, a cosy little café/bakery on Victoria’s Bellarine Peninsula.
Overlooking Port Phillip Bay, the Bakehouse occupies the site of the coastal town’s original bakery, built in 1882. Last used for bread baking in the 1950s, it was not until Terry’s arrival in Portarlington almost two years ago that the bakery’s oven was relit. But despite five decades of neglect, the century old oven continues to churn out some of the best tasting pasta dura loaves you’re likely to come across. It’s a flavour, Terry firmly believes, that only comes with traditional wood-fired cooking methods.
“The whole idea when we opened this café was to get back to basics, especially with bread. Just flour, water and salt, no premixes, and of course the wood oven,” Terry explains. “I think even if I was to use the same method but cook in an electric oven, then I would be getting a different bread.”
Standing in among trays of freshly baked meat pies, apple shortcakes and steaming, fragrant loaves of bread, it’s hard to disagree. Of course like all the good things in life, nothing comes easily and working out the mechanics of the ancient wood oven was, well, challenging to say the least.
Unlike today’s modern wood-fired ovens that operate with wood burning inside the brick igloo, a separate firebox heats older style models; the oven’s 27,000 bricks then capturing and retaining the heat in order to slowly cook what’s placed inside. But it would take a fortuitous meeting with an out of work Tasmanian baker before Terry was finally able to solve the puzzle.
“When we bought the café it took six months of renovating to get it in order and the only thing we didn’t have to repair was the oven,” Terry pauses then laughs, “all we had to do was find out how to use it! Luckily for us Steve (the Tassie baker) came down and showed us it was just a matter of lighting and cleaning it.”
Eighteen months down the track and the proof of Terry’s team of bakers is very much in the pudding – or the savoury scrolls, as the case may be. So with the café now bustling, what would be the Portarlington café owner’s greatest fear? “My biggest worry at night is that the oven will fall down,” he admits, only half joking. “In fact the boys rang me at 3am the other morning to let me know that an entire brick had fallen from the top.”
But so far the chimney is still standing and Terry’s business philosophy (”addict them on the coffee and they’ll keep coming back”) appears to be working. During the morning locals stream in - some for coffee, some for a plate of fresh-cooked lasagne and some just to sneak one of the decadently rich looking cakes or slices.
As for myself, I leave arms piled high with fresh breads and rolls straight from the oven. On the house, Terry insists. And who am I to argue?