EP 81: Chef Check-In with Victoria Feldman: Sourdough, & Growing a Baking School

Welcome back to another Chef Check-In on the Voice4Chefs podcast! Today, we reconnect with Victoria Feldman, founder of Canterbury Baking School in England, to catch up on her journey since our first conversations in Episode 27 and Episode 28. Victoria shares how her school has evolved, the impact of the pandemic on her teaching, and how she embraced the digital world to grow her business. She also opens up about overcoming imposter syndrome, the power of showing up authentically online, and her passion for sourdough and gut health. If you’ve ever wanted to master the art of sourdough or explore the deeper connection between food and well-being, this episode is packed with inspiration and insights!

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

✔️ How Canterbury Baking School has grown and evolved over the past 12 years

✔️ Victoria’s experience teaching sourdough and gut health online during the pandemic

✔️ The power of showing up on social media and how it changed her business

Resources & Links:

🔗 Learn more about Canterbury Baking School: www.canterburybakingschool.com

📣 Follow Victoria on Instagram: @canterburybakingschool

🎧 Listen to Victoria’s first interviews on Voice4Chefs:

• Episode 27

• Episode 28

Join the Conversation:

💬 What’s your biggest takeaway from today’s episode? Share with us on Instagram @Voice4Chefs or leave a review on Apple or Spotify Podcasts!

Season2

Transcript

Mchael Dugan: 0:52

So I want to welcome everyone to Voice4Chefs and our next chef check in and decided to do this a while ago. I wanted to reach out to the people that really started voice for chefs and all our guests. And if you haven't and don't know Victoria, you'll get to know her now, but also I want to make sure. That you take a look at episode 27 and episode 28, because that really does a deep dive into Victoria, who she is and everything about her and her amazing cooking school and her. Chef journey. So I want to welcome Victoria Feldman to our show. Welcome again, Victoria. So excited that you're here coming all the way from Canterbury, England. Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Victoria Feldman: 1:40

Oh, hi, and it's a pleasure to be back. So nice. Michael, that you've invited me back. Yes, sir. I have a baking school in the UK, Canterbury Baking School. I believe we're in about our 12th year now. Oh wow. And, yes, it's gone crazy. it's really evolved and changed, which is so exciting for me. And as things have changed, I've had to embrace, These new adventures, but it's been an absolute, yeah, a privilege to, to actually go to different countries, meet different people and share my love and my expertise, but also learn from other people. So for me, it's been amazing. I. Do hold workshops at Canterbury Baking School. this is for anybody who's interested in attending our workshops. I also train chefs and bakers, and our specialism is in sourdough. And really the ethos of the school is about the impact food has on your health. And, so. It's possibly quite a niche that, I offer, but it's been full all the time, which is absolutely lovely. I've had the privilege of going in a few different directions and yeah, I'd love to share and tell you. What we're up to at the moment.

Mchael Dugan: 3:29

That's amazing. And we're going to talk about that along, along reviewing or looking back at your journey. And again, there's a very detailed Two part series about Victoria. When we first met, we met on clubhouse and you know, now that we're thinking about clubhouse, so clubhouse for everyone that's listening, it still exists, it's not as prevalent as it used to be, but it's how I met Victoria. It's how I met a lot of people in this organization or this club called food is religion. And Victoria was holding these. Classes about gut health and sourdough and just her passion just came out with how much and how passionate she is about sourdough and, and baking healthy. And so I reached out and asked her if she'd interview, we had just the greatest time and I have followed you ever since then. I always am looking at what you're up to and I'm so excited to share that with our audience. So, so tell us a little bit about, Along your journey, what happened after the pandemic? Because when we interviewed, I remember it was crazy. It was chaos. You know, a lot of restaurants are closed. People were just picking up takeout. Your school, I think was closed and you were doing online classes or you're doing a lot of exploration in media, which was fascinating, but at the same time, you didn't have people coming into the school, but now that the pandemic has winded down, what's, what, what have you done since then? Okay,

Victoria Feldman: 5:06

so during the pandemic, I did close everything and, I decided to do free online demonstrations and I got lots of people coming in and we would just go through the sourdough journey together from beginning to end and we'd do this over a few days and it was wonderful. people was just so enthusiastic and so that was something so I, I suppose in a way I was sharing my knowledge and my skills but also by doing this people begin to trust you and begin to know you and without realizing I was sort of getting myself online. I also needed to learn a little bit more about running my business and also how to market myself, how to show up on social media. And, I actually found the most amazing person, Jonathan Howard, and he, he was on Clubhouse and I reached out to him in one of his rooms and I remember He said to me, Well, what do you have trouble with? Well, what, what is the difficulty you have? And I said, well, I never go live on Instagram. He said, okay, as soon as this room finishes. I'm going to meet you and we are going to go live together on Instagram just for a few minutes. And I thought, okay, I'm game for anything. I love

Mchael Dugan: 6:58

it.

Victoria Feldman: 6:58

So literally, that's what happened. He invited me on Instagram and we were live and maybe it was 20 minutes, but it went so quickly. And he just asked me questions and I was able to answer. And I did

Mchael Dugan: 7:15

it. Yeah, that's amazing. I've

Victoria Feldman: 7:17

done it. What, what is the problem? And I joined his I think it was signature challenge and his membership.

Mchael Dugan: 7:26

Anyway,

Victoria Feldman: 7:26

I joined and I think it's about four years later. I'm still doing things with him. I'm, I'm still sort of in his groups and his guiding me and leading me and The most important thing that he's helped me with is to show up as myself. I'm now so comfortable that I don't worry. And see,

Mchael Dugan: 7:53

that is truly amazing. Victoria, that is fantastic. You're

Victoria Feldman: 7:59

conquering

Mchael Dugan: 8:00

imposter syndromes for those that are listening. We all have these things in our head. I had it when I launched the podcast. I'm like, people are going to think it's stupid. They're not going to, they're not going to respect it. They're going to be haters out there and all these things. And I found the direct opposite. You know, I found that I connected to so many amazing people, audience members and guests, and my family was listening to the podcast from day one. My brother's in London, by the way, and he's listening to it. He'll listen to this episode. I guarantee it. So shout out to Bob. He's doing amazing things. He's going to be in London for a while. So I'm going to try to encourage them to come down and visit you. Actually. You stay in there for a few months. So I'm like, Hey, you got to go, you got to go meet Victoria.

Victoria Feldman: 8:45

I'm sure we can meet up. London is not very far from me at

Mchael Dugan: 8:50

all. But anyway, imposter syndrome is such a tough thing for so many people and it's wonderful that you embraced it. And

Victoria Feldman: 8:59

what has helped me is that when you're online, you show your vulnerabilities and it doesn't matter. And I realized that people have bought into me as I am. I don't have to try and be anybody else. And that gives me the freedom. To do my teaching and what I love without worrying about, are people going to agree? It doesn't matter. As long as I know what I'm talking about, that's all you, that's what you need. You have to have good foundations. So yes, I think that was a very big part of it. And also, I was linking up with. Jason Hodge, who I also did.

Mchael Dugan: 9:50

Oh, yeah.

Victoria Feldman: 9:51

Religion with. We did healthy eating rooms together and he gave me a lot of advice about business, how to run it and so I use this time and I did a lot of research into gut health and I wrote about 100 recipes which the idea is for me to put into a book. So I kept myself very busy and active, but by doing, my live free sort of workshops. It gave me more confidence and working alongside with these other mentors that really helped me, just to go forward. And as soon as the pandemic, we could open, we had all our visors and everything. And, and we opened and then soon we didn't need the masks, et cetera. And. thing has just built. And I also now delegate. I have people in my business who do the things that I'm not good at, but I know, or you

Mchael Dugan: 11:03

don't want to do,

Victoria Feldman: 11:05

but I know I want them to do now. So I have more of a control and a hold over the business and it makes it much easier for me.

Mchael Dugan: 11:17

Oh, I love that. Oh my gosh. So what's going on right now. In the moment with your cooking school, what kind of, give us kind of an idea of what it's like to come to a class, what classes do you offer? what's, what's shaken up there?

Victoria Feldman: 11:31

well, one thing is we're going to move to bigger premises, so I'm. sort of already started looking, so that's exciting. so if you come to our classes, we work a lot with heritage grains, which are ancient grains. And, I have six little Stone mills. And what you would do is you would mill your own grains to make your own flour. And these will be heritage grains to make whether you're doing sourdough, basic bread, bagels, pizzas, pasta, etc. So that would be the first thing you would do. And we talk about the benefits and the why, why we do what we're doing and how to get the best nutrition from what you make at the school. And everything is hands on and The idea is that I want to give you the confidence and to work with your hands and to feel the different stages of how the dough should be so that you can go home and replicate what you've learned. And we make the workshops very fun and I do private but I do small groups as well.

Mchael Dugan: 12:57

That's incredible. You know, your energy is a lot like mine. So I'm very. Aware and connected to it and when you have someone as a teacher or a guide that has the kind of energy that we have, it's infectious and I mean, literally people feel empowered to do something and it's a. It's like a superhero power in my book and you have that so if any was listening and wants to come online she has online classes sometimes and you know or if you're in Canterbury or near there you got to go check out her cooking classes and her school and you got to meet her so as we go along you've also expanded a bit with video right you're doing some online classes is that

Victoria Feldman: 13:42

I have actually had Some videos done of my classes and they're going to be available. I've just got to get around to editing them. But, I'm, I've now started using Chatter.

Mchael Dugan: 13:58

Okay. Tell us about that. Yeah.

Victoria Feldman: 14:01

An app which is being tested at the moment. Okay. I believe it's going to become public very soon. And the reason I love this app is because I can do it visually like I am at the moment. So when I was on Clubhouse. It was quite difficult sometimes to, describe the state of the dough, how it should look, but now I do food demonstrations and I have started up my own channels, and I have, a Canterbury baking one, school one, but the one that I'm using As an introduction for people to get to know me is Keep It Simple Sourdough and that's going to be the title of the book that I'm writing as well. Oh, I

Mchael Dugan: 14:53

love it. I love it. So, I've

Victoria Feldman: 14:55

started that channel. I also want to get a forum of chefs together. to cook together and talk together and compliment each other.

Mchael Dugan: 15:06

Are you going to do this online or in person?

Victoria Feldman: 15:09

No, I want to do this on chatter.

Mchael Dugan: 15:12

I may know some people, some of my guests, I mean they would be thrilled, absolutely thrilled. That would be

Victoria Feldman: 15:17

perfect. and I'm, yes, and also I do an Italian culinary retreat with Chef Curzio. Yes. And I also want to showcase some of the food. Together, online and for people to see in our channels. on Chatter to actually see us making pizzas and pasta, etc.

Mchael Dugan: 15:42

Oh, wow. So,

Victoria Feldman: 15:44

yeah, I, I do like this app and I'm looking forward to when the general public can, can access it. But the fact for me is that it's visual and I can. Yeah, set up everything. I'm also going to be doing some in the baking school and showing people what we're up to, if we're making bagels or just sharing what I'm doing. so it will also be shown on different platforms as well, I believe. So I can do it onto my YouTube, etc.

Mchael Dugan: 16:23

That's amazing.

Victoria Feldman: 16:24

I'm excited about that.

Mchael Dugan: 16:27

And you mentioned to me Italy, you also mentioned Greece. Can you tell me a little about Greece?

Victoria Feldman: 16:32

Oh, yes. So, the last few years, I think I've been to maybe six different countries. Okay. And Greece was Interesting. I believe somebody saw me on Instagram. Oh, okay. New or he was a relative of this baker.

Mchael Dugan: 16:53

Oh my gosh. I love it.

Victoria Feldman: 16:56

Costos in Greece in a little place called Vista. on the mainland upper up the mountain I believe and I happen to be on holiday, in Greece, and he was also on holiday at the same time. His relative said, Hey, I saw on Instagram, she's where you are. And literally, I got a phone call, can we meet for supper? And we met. And it was wonderful and he is a baker and he's a very good baker but he wanted to start a school and he wanted to sort of find out how he could do it and he'd been following me and so he invited myself and my husband who was with me on holiday and we went to visit him at the baking school and now he, He has a school. So it was my privilege to be able to support him and.

Mchael Dugan: 17:55

Oh wow.

Victoria Feldman: 17:55

Just help him. And he was showing me the wonderful traditional things he made and really it was a wonderful collaboration. And whenever I have the opportunity, I think, I think it's now three times I've been and we've done sourdough bread together, et cetera. I love it. I, I go to Greece and spend time with him and his family. So, that was a wonderful experience and that was just from Instagram.

Mchael Dugan: 18:28

Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh.

Victoria Feldman: 18:30

Which is quite incredible. And Yes, I've, I've been to, Trinidad. That's right.

Mchael Dugan: 18:38

Tell us about that. That's really cool. That's in the Caribbean, right? In the Caribbean.

Victoria Feldman: 18:43

Yes. Yeah.

Mchael Dugan: 18:44

Okay.

Victoria Feldman: 18:44

So, I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but I was so excited and it was somebody who'd known me from quite a while ago and connected and possibly I think they saw me as well online and, It was a group of people who came together. And when I got there, I realized, I thought it was a co op, but it was a group of churches. So they came from Trinidad, Tobago, and I think Grenada. And, we possibly about 80 people for the week of health messages. So for

Mchael Dugan: 19:24

me,

Victoria Feldman: 19:25

I was there to, do workshops and talk about why we eat the food we eat and teach them how to make sourdough pasta, all sorts of things. And they also taught me how to do their traditional roti and all sorts of delicious food. But, uh, for me, it was the highlight. Uh, It was just wonderful to be surrounded by such beautiful, enthusiastic people. They welcomed me and, and they just had such joy and love. And, and, I had the most wonderful time and I had about, I think, eight. women who were like helping me in the kitchen and and we had a whole room set up and everybody who wanted to participate came and and cooked with us and we all ate together it was a real joy for me. That was lovely. And what happened recently, I went to Grenada, which was for a little break, and

Mchael Dugan: 20:40

when

Victoria Feldman: 20:40

you fly from Gatwick, you have to stop at Grenada, they refuel, and I met a woman who was stretching her legs, and it looks like I might be going to St. Lucia now. Oh, I'm jumping ahead. I'm so enthusiastic.

Mchael Dugan: 20:59

No, no, this is perfect cuz I was gonna ask you about that. So, yeah, tell me about the woman that you met and the conversation. She

Victoria Feldman: 21:06

just asked me, had I been to the Caribbean before? And I said, I've actually been to Trinidad. And she said, that's awesome. Unusual because that's not a really a holiday destination.

Mchael Dugan: 21:18

Mm-hmm. Victoria Feldman: Tobago is, I said, my, my friends took me for a nice little short little holiday in Tobago. and I told her what I did and she said, oh, I have a wellness center. And, I'm look, looking for somebody would be wonderful. with the health and the food. So it's only a very little thought now, but we're meeting on zoom this week to look into it further. But I think

Victoria Feldman: 21:50

what is wonderful for me is these opportunities keep coming and I just embrace them and if they work out. Absolutely wonderful. But yes, I will put energy into this and if it happens, it will be amazing. But yeah,

Mchael Dugan: 22:10

I'm sure it's gonna happen.

Victoria Feldman: 22:11

Yeah,

Mchael Dugan: 22:12

you have amazing karma, but you put it out to the universe, you know, and I really believe in that and I feel it from people and I really feel that from you. You have this Sense about you that I'm sure when people connect to you, they want to collaborate with you like immediately. That's why I'm saying I want to connect you with some very special people for Chatter because they'll just be so thrilled to work with you and collaborate with you and learn about it and you know, that will be amazing. so as we're wrapping up, you talked a lot about your, your travel and your adventures. I love that you're doing all these different collaborations around the world, not just in person, but online. And there was one other thing though, I know you're involved in. Can you tell us about the work that you're doing with autistic children?

Victoria Feldman: 23:05

Yes. This, this, again, is. is a privilege. It's very special. I have a school that, comes to me, and I have maybe four, five, five children at a time, uh, ages 11 to 18. and Yes, it's taking them out of their comfort zone.

Mchael Dugan: 23:34

Oh yeah.

Victoria Feldman: 23:35

Building trust in me and working with them. We're not just making cupcakes and biscuits. We're making pizzas. We're making pasta. We're making bread. We're making absolutely beautiful things and, and it's just so lovely. over a six week period to actually see how their confidence grows and we have the staff that come along as well and they they also are amazed at how much they are using their hands and becoming I mean their concentration span is incredible it started off as a very little Which was fine and they could bring their own sandwiches and, and sit and not participate, but it's now become that they concentrate for such a long time and they're so enthusiastic and they're asking me about what they can do next time and, and they're joining in from beginning to end. And then we sit together and we eat the food that we've made and, Yes, so I am so enjoying this.

Mchael Dugan: 24:59

I love it. And just so you know, I have a couple cousins that are autistic. I have a nephew that's autistic. So it, this really hits home that you're providing this safe space for them to create, to collaborate, to feel confident and gain new confidence, you know, in, in cooking and baking. That's incredible. I mean, that, that's just incredible that you're doing that. so anyway, as we wrap up, is there anything else that you want to talk about, any message that you have, anything you want to share about what you do and, and what you're doing?

Victoria Feldman: 25:38

So, I, I think for me, what has been important has been to not give up.

Mchael Dugan: 25:46

Yeah.

Victoria Feldman: 25:46

To, to, I've, I've started knowing My subject matter very thoroughly to be able to teach, which is something I've done for so many years and to know how to do the bread and everything that I do and putting those two together. And at the time I didn't realize that this was not enough to run a business. So now. I've put the whole package together. And I think the most important thing is to stay true to yourself, to keep your ethos, to, to sort of build that structure that is so firm and strong in the middle. And once you have that, then you can branch out in different avenues. And I feel that the business has sort of grown and I'm embracing, as I mentioned earlier, everything, every opportunity that comes. I'm just taking it and I've, I've been able to travel to so many different countries and meet. wonderful people. And I, I just hope this continues and already this year, there's a possibility of three other countries. So

Mchael Dugan: 27:11

I

Victoria Feldman: 27:13

take it step by step, but, and also to be confident to be yourself. So when you run your business, you have the ethos that you want and those around you embrace that. And you can really, Just have the freedom to enjoy what you do and to continue growing and learning because You can never become complacent. Well, I can't and stop all the time. I want to become, I strive to get better perfection. I don't see I can ever reach it, but I keep going and I am what I am at this moment of time. And, I'm loving every opportunity. And the, also the thing that has been lovely is that I have some now. Grown up almost Grandchildren who actually I have an 18 year old and a 14 year old Oh, wow, and they come and they help me on my weekend workshops And that has been so lovely that they can sort of have their first job with me learning how to communicate, you know to the customers and The customers love it and I love having them with me. So that's also been very special for me.

Mchael Dugan: 28:45

That's amazing, Victoria. you know, lastly, as we wrap up, I want to say you are such an inspiration to me. There are so many times I was going to give up. I was going to say, okay, I'm, I'm done. I've, I've been doing this many episodes. I'm getting tired, but then I see you post something. Or I see you're doing something or we have this conversation and I just feel so inspired to keep going, you know, so I want to thank you for that. And then of course, finally, how do we find you? What's an easy way that we can get you? I'll put a couple links in our show notes, but I want to make sure that people can reach out and find out what you're up to.

Victoria Feldman: 29:21

Oh, thank you. So yeah, The website is CanterburyBakingSchool. com and I suppose my main platform at the moment is Instagram. yeah, I do use Facebook. I'm hoping to, get more YouTube things happening, especially on Chatter. So, I'm known as Chef Victoria and my channels are food, but Sourdough Keep It Simple is the one I'm using mostly, but They will, I will be, Canterbury Baking School on YouTube as well. I'm gonna build up a lot.

Mchael Dugan: 30:04

Great, great. again, thank you, and I'm gonna, I'm gonna wrap up. Everyone, thanks for listening, and you definitely gotta follow and stay connected to Victoria for inspiration, for great cooking tips, and check out some of her classes. And if you are anywhere near London, you gotta go see her. And tell her that Voice for Chefs sent you because I would love to know that that connection happens.