Natasha Tatton waited until just the right moment to break it to her husband, Ed, namesake of Whistler’s award-winning vegan bakery, BReD, that one of the world’s biggest publishing houses wanted them for a new cookbook.
It’s not that the artisan breadmaker was against the opportunity offered by Penguin Random House to share his recipes with the world—he simply didn’t know when he’d find the time to do it.
“Natasha actually received the email when we were heavily understaffed and I was working double shifts, from 4 a.m. to 7 p.m., so huge days, and she didn’t tell me immediately,” Ed recalls. “She had to pick her moment carefully—and she did. It was one of those things where we couldn’t say no. I’ve wanted to work in a bakery and write a cookbook since I was five, so you just have to say yes and somehow make time.”
And make time they did. The culmination of a year’s work, BReD: The Cookbook features 100 plant-based recipes, from Ed’s famous naturally leavened sourdough loaves and small breads, to a wide array of baked goods, and dips and spreads to compliment the breads. True to the Tattons’ long-held commitment to sustainability, the book also offers discard starter recipes to further zero-waste efforts, and step-by-step instructions on making and maintaining a sourdough starter.
Loyal customers of the Creekside bakery will recognize the familiar staples along with some new recipes the Tattons perfected just for the cookbook.
“All our classics we have at the bakery are in there: cinnamon buns, cookies, country sourdough, our bestselling loaf,” Ed says. “it’s about 50-per-cent bread-based, but there are also things in there we don’t sell, like this really nice pita bread, donuts, some cakes, and then things to go on bread: dips and spreads. It really enabled us to look outside and be creative with not just what we wanted to sell, but the things we wanted to make at home as well.”
It’s been a banner few years for the plant-based bakery, all while its owners have had to contend with the inherent challenges that come with operating a food-service business in Whistler. In 2021, the Tattons won Best Young Entrepreneur at the Small Business BC Awards, and the following year, they achieved official B Corp status, a global certification that means a business has shown high social and environmental performance, among other standards. They were also featured in Forbes at the height of the pandemic (and society’s collective lockdown sourdough obsession), which is how they first landed on Penguin Random House’s radar. For several months, the publishing firm kept a close eye on the bakery and its growing social media following before eventually deciding to approach them about filling an underserved niche in the cookbook market.
“There is a lot of vegan cookbooks out there, but not a lot of cookbooks in plant-based baking,” Ed explains. “It helped that sourdough had a massive boost in popularity during the pandemic.”
The cookbook has some big names co-signing it, too. Endorsements came from James Beard-winner Chad Robertson, of Tartine fame, whose cookbooks can be found in any self-respecting baker’s library; sourdough wizard Maurizio Leo, author of the New York Times bestseller The Perfect Loaf; and Angela Liddon, bestselling author of the wildly popular Oh She Glows vegan cookbooks, among others.
“All these people, they’re heavy hitters in the baking world,” Ed says, adding it was “humbling and surreal” to get the sign-off from so many big names.
Needless to say, the Tattons have come a long way from what started as a word-of-mouth weekly bread club out the back of Alta Bistro, where Ed previously worked and honed his ambitious sourdough recipes, before the couple opened their brick-and-mortar space in 2019.
“I think it’s really important to remember where you’ve come from to know where you’re going,” Ed says. “It’s all grown very organically. We opened the bakery and went all in with that and with the cookbook, but it’s not luck. This has all come from me and Natasha working hard and devoting our lives to it.”
Learn more at edsbred.com/product/the-bred-book.
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