54 GOURMET TRAVELLER
Igor and Ludmilla Ivanovic’s sourdough starter was born
in Boston. They brought it with them when they came
to open a bakery in Sydney in 2008. A decade later it’s
a product of its place, populated by local yeasts and
bacteria from the Bronte air, and from the hands of the
people who work it every morning. “It’s not about how
old it is,” says Igor, “it’s about how you’re managing it.”
Iggy’s makes bread, but really it starts with people.
Milos, a former electrician from Belgrade, for example,
has worked here for five years; Linda, a trained pastry
chef from Indonesia, has been here seven. The rest
is an obsession with detail: stringently filtered water,
stone-ground and roller-ground flour from Wholegrain
Milling, mineral-rich Himalayan salt. These ingredients
are mixed with a portion of the starter to form the dough,
which is packed into tubs and left to prove, the times
scribbled onto the side of stainless steel equipment.