'Just the right amount' of award-winning bread at Lagom

Lagom Bakery has had another ripper year at the Wollongong Baking Show, taking out the Champion Loaf of the Show award.

Brinley Kettle and Jon Reeves had both started making and selling sourdough bread during 2020 – Brinley using a friend’s Mollymook restaurant, and Jon from his kitchen at home. They quickly established a following and decided to team up. By the end of the year they’d opened the roller door at their own venue at Burrill Lake.

Despite the fact they started during the COVID-19 lockdown sourdough trend, Jon said they were actually tapping into older traditions.

“Sourdough isn’t a fancy, special occasion food. It’s the kind of bread you can have every day. There are real benefits to going back to the old way of doing things. People always used to ferment things and eat seasonally, preserving the bounty to have throughout the year,” he told Region.

“The slower you go with a ferment, the more beneficial it is to your gut and immune system and the more easily your body can digest the wheat and gluten.”

Lagom is a Swedish word that means ‘just the right amount’, which encompasses the ethos of the bakery. Their logo is based on the topographic lines of nearby Didthul (Mount Pigeon), but they also enjoy that the lines are reminiscent of flaky pastry.

Customers often compare their sourdough baguettes to those found in Paris, and the team were stoked to take out not only top spot in the Crusty Baguette category, but also to win Champion Loaf of the Show at the Wollongong Baking Show this year.

Last year Lagom’s much loved fruit loaf won the Champion prize, so it’s exciting for the team to now have two award-winning loaves. Their cheese and jalapeno sourdough loaf took out the top spot in the Savoury Bread category, which they won last year with their olive and herb loaf.

“Now we’ve won two years running, I’ve been joking that we have a title to defend!

“It’s just really great for our team to be recognised for their hard work.”

The bakers only make the cheese and jalapeno loaf a couple of days a week and have a loyal following of locals who drop by especially to stock up!

The team at Lagom use sustainably sourced ingredients wherever possible, with the pork from their sausage rolls coming from Martin’s Ridge Farm and coffee from Moruya’s Guerrilla Roasters.

They source most of their flour from organic grains supplier Wholegrain Milling in Gunnedah, and Jon says they often source produce from the community.

“We just had a local gentleman drop in a whole load of citrus, and we’ll do a call out on social media every now and again for people to bring stuff in and we’ll swap it for bread, or coffee or store credit.

“A mate that I play soccer with had about 80 pumpkins so we were making pumpkin bread, pumpkin pies, pumpkin salads … just leaning into the seasons.”

In addition to the bakery and cafe, the business also has a thriving base of wholesale customers and is planning to grow its wholesale operation into Batemans Bay in the coming year.

The Wollongong Baking Show is one of several baking shows run by the Baking Association of Australia.

Lagom is located at 98 McDonald Parade, Burrill Lake, NSW.
It is open from 7 am to 4:30 pm Wednesday to Sunday.
Find out more about Lagom and follow it on Instagram.