Do Wild Baking

'Staying in the house breeds a sort of insanity, always' – Henry David Thoreau


Cooking outdoors can be a challenge – building your own fire for starters – but the rewards are great: a hearty stew eaten under a starlit sky; grilled mackerel on the beach; ash-baked flatbreads plucked from the glowing embers, torn and shared.


Tom Herbert, a fifth-generation baker and true advocate for this way of life, makes it easy. Armed with your hero ingredients, essential kit, and some kindling, you’ll be inspired to leave the kitchen for an outdoor adventure – even if it’s mere miles from home.


In Do Wild Baking over 50 delicious recipes – from Beer Bread to Hot Smoked Salmon – are grouped by location: Beach, Mountain, River and Forest. And if rain prevails, most can be recreated at home.


This is a call for a more relaxed, inclusive style of cooking and baking. It’s not just about delicious meals shared, but the conversations ignited, the senses reawakened, and above all, the memories created.


Tom is a fifth-generation baker on a mission to revisit the sheer awesomeness of grains when it comes to taste, nutrition and impact. Tom is one half of TV’s Fabulous Baker Brothers. He started baking at the Hobbs House Bakery but more recently has baked with RCK (Refugee Community Kitchen) in Calais and Ujima Bakehouse in Kenya. In addition to baking, he also teaches, writes, presents, and mentors. As an ambassador for the development charity Tearfund (tearfund.org), for whom he has baked around the world, he helps to give people a hand up by sharing skills and knowledge. His dream is to one day be able to bake in space. Tom has been married to Anna since they were very young; they now share their life together with four children.


“Tom is one of the most generous and soulful cooks I have ever met. He makes cooking dinner outside on a fire, or baking amazing bread, seem natural, seamless and most of all easy. Simple ingredients become incredible family meals. Tom's cooking is inclusive, inspired, spirited and downright delicious. I’ll be cooking from this book for years. I can't wait to get outside and try them.” Anna Jones, author of A Modern Way to Cook


“When you spend time outside life is better. When you add great food, simply cooked and shared, it’s unforgettable. Tom has mastered this art and now you’ll feast in the wild too. Sharing food cooked over and in a fire with Tom has been a highlight of my year. Mussels have never tasted so good!” Alastair Humphreys, author and adventurer