Business founder and publican named baker of the year at industry awards

THE founder of a bakery in Stoke Row has been named “Baker of the Year”.

Tona Erreguin, who is also head baker of Imma the Bakery based in the Van Alloys Industrial Estate off Busgrove Lane, scooped the award at this year’s Baking Industry Association (BIA) Awards.

The results were revealed at a ceremony at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London on Thursday last week.

The award is regarded as one of the highest individual honours in the British baking industry and Mrs Erreguin has been recognised for both her technical skills and passion for the craft.

Judges praised the quality of her produce as well as her vision and community spirit.

In their comments, they highlighted the “quality and finish” of her array of sourdough loaves and pastries, noting that Mrs Erreguin is the “driving force behind the bakery’s success”.

The award was sponsored by Brook Food and Bakery Equipment which, coincidentally, is the supplier of the bakery’s oven, “Burnard”. Mrs Erreguin, who grew up in Mexico, had previously opened a fine dining restaurant called Imma Restaurante before moving to the UK.

She launched Imma the Bakery, named after the Hebrew word for “mother”, three years ago.

It is not her only venture in the village and in July this year, along with her wife, Aya Fibert, and business partner, Toby Boyes, she took over the running of the Cherry Tree pub, also in the village. The 400-year-old Brakspear pub was previously run by Dan and Natalie Redfern, who now run the Red Lion in Woodcote.

Mrs Erreguin said that her work is guided by the oath to “keep baking no matter what, to be better today than yesterday, to generate community, and to constantly reinvent ourselves”.

This latest accolade follows another victory for the bakery when its Oxford Country Loaf won the plain sourdough category at the Britain’s Best Loaf awards in April last year. Mrs Erreguin said she was “honoured” and “humbled” by the award. She said: “This is a testament to the hard work and passion of every single team member at Imma the Bakery.

“Our goal has always been to create soul-touching baked goods for our local community with the most local products we can get.

“We are committed to constantly improving and even aspire to complete the entire production chain, from growing our own grain to milling it to baking it, all ourselves.”