Insch baker Culinary Kiwi Bird wins twice at Scottish Bread Championships
A BAKER well-known in Huntly has scooped two national awards.
Anne Keenan of The Culinary Kiwi Bird received her honours at the Scottish Bread Championships.
Ms Keenan, based in Insch and formerly of Honesty Bakehouse Huntly, won overall Reserve Champion for her Beremeal Sourdough Boule out of over 120 entries.
Her boule had previously taken the Gold Award for bread made with Scottish-grown and milled grain.
The classically-trained chef also took home a Bronze Award for her Dark Danish Rye and Spelt Sourdough, with Pumpkin Seeds and local Oat Stout.
She achieved the feat in the "enriched sourdough bread with added natural ingredients” category.
The award ceremony was held at The Bowhouse in Fife on Saturday, February 25.
Chef Ms Keenan made the shift to bread making during lockdown.
Previously based at the Honesty Bakehouse, she set up her micro-bakery at her Insch home after landlord Deveron Projects decided to repurpose the building.
Achieving the success so soon after restarting her business felt "incredible", she said.
She said: “To have achieved recognition at this level is incredible given my wee business is less than a year old.
"I was competing against the best real bread bakers in Scotland for whom I have such regard and I am so honoured to have had my work recognised.”
Ms Ritchie specialises in sourdoughs using primarily Scottish grown grains, real breads and viennoisserie.
Originally from New Zealand, she moved to Scotland in 2006 when she worked in the subsea industry.
Looking to change careers in 2018, she graduated as a classically trained Chef from the Tante Marie Culinary Academy in Woking, Surrey.
She sells her baking at farmer’s markets across Aberdeenshire and Moray most Saturdays and takes orders for collection from Insch on Fridays.
