Bread-baking tips for beginners, from a former opera singer turned award-winning cookbook author

A classically trained opera singer wanted to become a baker, and King Arthur Bread Company rejected him.

He applied again. Same answer.

Three strikes and… you’re in!

On his third attempt, former opera singer Martin Philip got the job. He had convinced one of the country’s oldest baking companies to hire someone with hardly any professional baking experience.

“They took a chance on me in 2006,” Philip says. “And I think it paid off.”

In October, Philip co-authored the company’s first-ever cookbook entirely devoted to bread: “The King Arthur Baking Company’s Big Book of Bread: 125+ Recipes for Every Baker,” by Jessica Battilana, Martin Philip and Melanie Wanders (Simon Element, $30).

Among the recipes in this book are some classic holiday treats, including a caramelized apple and honey challah, the “most-chocolaty” babka and King Arthur’s twist on a traditional German stollen.

The book promises it will “make any newbie a confident baker while expanding the skill set of experienced bakers alike.”

Philip knows a thing or two about that transition. The award-winning cookbook author sat down with us recently to share recipes and bread-baking tips and discuss his path from Opera San Jose in California to King Arthur Baking Company.

Q: Take us back to your time in San Jose, California.

Philip: Me and my wife were trying to do opera and concert work and singing all over the Bay Area. San Jose in the early ‘90s was relatively affordable. It was rough, but we had a three-bedroom for $800.

My wife is still singing, but in the early 2000s, I was basically like, somebody has to have a real job. We wanted to have kids. Singing is a real job but often doesn’t come with benefits. Someone has to do that. I was the guy.

Q: So you moved to New York and got a job in investment banking. Then what happened?

Philip: You sort of realize that being in that place, where all you’re doing is trying to survive, it sucks. I had the luxury of saying, “What if I could do something that is more connected to my heart?” I was able to be a career-changer. I wrote a book about it, “Breaking Bread: A Baker’s Journey Home in 75 Recipes” (Harper, 2017).

The arc of the book is movement from a place of disconnection, literally, physically. I went from bottoming out, the difficult time it was in New York City after 9/11, to try to find something to connect to. I went back to what I grew up with, which was baking.

Q: How did you convince King Arthur to hire you?

Philip: Coming from classical music, where you practice every day, you have a connection to craft and understand showing up every day to work. I applied that to baking. I also took a bunch of classes, read everything I could.

With passion, the sky is not the limit. You don’t know what you can do if you’re really committed and hungry.

Q: What was your first job at King Arthur?

Philip: I was baking four days and driving the delivery van one day. It was a big shift from living in Manhattan.

The first morning, I was terrified. I realized quickly that not only had I been thrown into the deep end, but I wasn’t going to get out anytime soon. It would take me time to learn this craft.

But there was a loaf we’d make two days a week, a simple pan loaf. And I always felt that was the first thing I could actually do. Any time we got to that moment in the day, I could really breathe for 10-15 minutes before I went back to shaping baguettes or falling on my face again.

It was hard. I never had panic or that much anxiety before.

Q: Not even on stage?

Philip: I never stressed about singing. I think that’s because when you get to a point where you’re on stage, 99% of the time, you’re very well prepared. You’ve rehearsed in the practice room.

When you’re learning a new craft, the practice room is right there. You can’t go off by yourself and woodshed it. There’s not much of a horizon line. You’re always moving towards something but there’s no real finishing.

The bread I make one day might be good, rarely perfect, and rarely are you fully satisfied. Every once in a while, you come to a resting place where you say, “That’s pretty good for today.” With learning it’s the same thing. It’s a gradual process. You realize more and more what you don’t know.

Q: How did your career evolve at King Arthur?

Philip: I spent 13 years in production baking, early mornings, then transitioned to working in wholesale, doing technical work and consulting. Now I’m a baking ambassador, writing books, doing video work and making a lot of recipes.

Q: What are the modern challenges for people getting into baking?

Philip: It’s a great time because there’s lots of great resources. Our books have QR codes; you can click on it and see how to mix, how to shape, etc. There’s never been more content.

When I started baking in the late ’90s, it was hard to even find a baking book with pictures in it. It wasn’t even a thing. Now you can go on YouTube and spend a lifetime there learning how to shape baguettes. We have this incredible treasure of content.

But the other side of that is, because of Instagram and other image-forward baking resources, the self-judgement can be very difficult.

I feel like people are always afraid to bring me what they’ve baked. If I’m doing a book signing, someone will be gutsy and bring a loaf for me to try. And I’m just cheering for them, like, “Hey, chill out a bit, you’re doing a great job. Look at this beautiful loaf that is delicious, can sustain you and those around you. It’s a gift to yourself and others.”

Q: Any tips for new bakers?

Philip: Start with an accurate measure of ingredients by using a scale.

We wrote all the recipes leading with weights and grams. The reason for that is, if you and I and 100 other people scooped a cup of flour, every value would be different, if we weighed the contents. But if I said, “Put 120 grams into the mixing bowl,” that’s one cup of flour. You’re going to do it, we’re all going to do it. Accuracy, first and foremost!

The next tip is just some attention to the temperature of ingredients and water temperature. Bread is a fermented food. Fermentation rates wildly based on the temperature of the dough or substrate. If the dough is 96 degrees, it moves at a certain rate; if it’s 66 degrees, it’ll move a lot slower. With fermentation it’ll keep it in that Goldilocks zone, where it’s fermenting in the mid-70s.

I’m encouraging people this time of year to make sure they’re nurturing fermentation, protecting the dough from ambient conditions and making sure those yeast and sourdough cultures are coddled and nurtured.

Q: Do you bake at home?

Philip: Often. And I do my King Arthur work at home. There’s a lot of baking for that.

Q: If I’m a new baker, what’s the first recipe I should try?

Philip: The challah is not too difficult. If someone wants something a little bit fancier there’s a Japanese milk bread. It’s a chocolate milk bread. If someone is looking for something else chocolatey, I wrote a chocolate-orange sourdough loaf. You make your own preserved oranges.

And there’s a really good everyday bread, a whole wheat pan loaf with a little honey and warm milk, wheat germ on the outside, just a great, no-fuss, “I made bread, now come have a slice.”