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A chef celebrates the joy of savoury baking over sweet – think sausage rolls and pork pies instead of cakes and cookies

A lack of publications on savoury baking drove chef and baker Michael James to author All Day Baking – a celebration of all baked goods that aren’t sweet

Recipes featured that are ‘fitting for any occasion’ range from Cornish pasty tarts and fish pie to sausage rolls, breakfast buns and pork pies

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Chef and baker Michael James is celebrating the joy of savoury baking in All Day Baking, such as this recipe for pear and black pudding breakfast galettes. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Published: 2:30am, 22 Nov 2021Updated: 3:56pm, 1 Jun 2022

When it comes to baking, it’s usually the sweet creations that take the cake. Most of us can remember the sweet treats we had on special occasions while meat pies, pasties and sausage rolls are considered more ordinary – something a busy housewife can churn out to feed her hungry family.

Michael James, who with his wife, Pippa, wrote The Tivoli Road Baker (2017) – named after their Tivoli Road Bakery, in Melbourne, Australia (which they sold in 2018) – writes in the introduction to All Day Baking (2021): “There are many beautiful books on sweet bakes, but it’s harder to find one that focuses entirely on savoury bakes.

“Savoury baking is practical and useful for our everyday lives. It’s a great way to highlight vegetables and celebrate the joy of eating seasonally, while referencing great baking traditions. We are craving comfort and sustenance in an increasingly uncertain world, and savoury baking provides both of these.

“This is a style of cooking that stretches our creativity at the same time as being deeply soothing. It has almost endless scope for variation and visual flair and is fitting for any occasion.

The cover of James’s book. Photo: Jonathan Wong

“Being rooted in tradition, savoury baking provides a profound sense of connection with place. Some bakes help form the identity of the villages from which they came, like the famous Melton Mowbray pork pies. Being from Cornwall, savoury baking is ingrained in my history and culture.