A Lot on My Plate with Cameron Matte.
As part of my monthly newsletter, I will be sharing short interviews with friends and creatives who have a lot on their plate. Everyone has been through a lot in recent times, and I wanted to check in and see how they're going, if these trying times have changed them or their relationship with their work, what good things they're enjoying and doing and most importantly, what they're eating.
Interview #12 is with Cameron Matte of Cams Bread who has been making and delivering bread from his lovely family home in Eltham of late. An exceptional bread maker and a lot of fun, Cam is also a keen skater and a Dad to baby Cosmo. I'm super happy to have Cam on board for this months interview. If you haven’t tried Cams Bread, I highly recommend it, some of the best in the biz. Also, his sourdough crackers are chefs kiss!
Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got into bread making?
When we had our first ever lock down in Melbourne March 2020, I was working at Cathedral Coffee in the city, which closed for the following months, so I was at home with my partner Taylah, who initially wanted to start making bread, I was happy to keep buying bread from the bakery, but she started making her starter and a few weeks later pulled out the first loaf of bread from the oven and I was hooked! I took over and got really obsessed, reading books, watching youtube videos etc etc. I wanted to master sourdough!
How have events over the past 18 months or so impacted your outlook/practice/focus?
The past 18 months have hugely impacted everything in my life! My son Cosmo was born, I was forced to stop working as a barista, got hooked on baking, realised I could pursue a career in baking (which had never crossed my mind), started baking school. I had so much free time during the lockdowns that I just baked so much, we couldn't consume that much baked goods and I didn't want to waste it so I would give it to friends, who would say I should start selling it. A few things fell into place which got me to where I am now!
The old adage goes, some eat to live, others live to eat. Where would you place yourself?
I definitely live to eat, I think about food all the time, when i'm awake and asleep.
How do your cooking habits change when you are busy/stressed/tired?
Taylah and I cook pretty similarly to normal when we're busy/stressed/tired. Making sure we know what we are having for the upcoming days/week is key to being organised. You have to do that to make sure you have all the ingredients ready and to make sure you have enough preparation time and also to do things ahead of time to make life easier. We eat really early around 5/5:30 because eating dinner as a whole family with our son Cosmo is really important for us, so it's a little routine we have gotten ourselves into. We really enjoy cooking and our days are really revolving around mealtimes but if we're strapped for time and unorganised or its the end of the week with random veg left a pretty quick tofu and veg stir fry with quinoa is our go to-lazy-unorganised meal or frozen leftovers from meals prior.
Have you learned to cook anything new during lockdown?
So many things! I've learnt to bake sourdough loaves and other sourdough products! aside from that we have a pretty extensive collection of cook books we make new things out of regularly, at least once a week we make a new meal that we haven't made before to keep things exciting. One thing we use regularly is your galette recipe but change up the filling, we got really hooked on that when we realised it was so easy and yum.
What are you most looking forward to when we come out of lockdown?
Seeing my family and eating and drinking again with friends!
What is the first cafe/restaurant/bar you’ll go to when it’s safe to do so again?
Definitely Cathedral Coffee in the Nicholas building, its my old work that my friend Will Murray owns, its a cafe during the day and a natural wine bar at night, my other friend Denny Baring makes DELISH small plates there at night times! Would recommend! If you're able to visit the city at the moment they've turned it into a cafe/deli/natural wine bottle shop during lockdown. I miss working there <3
Could you share with us some of the music that’s been getting you through the past few months?
I've been listening to Thomas Grey, Liam Ebbs, Guassian Curve and anything Neil Young has ever released.