Guess what Bake Off Paul’s brother does to earn a crust...
TO millions of Great British Bake Off fans, Paul Hollywood is the king of bread and pastries.
But there is another Hollywood equally devoted to creating perfect loaves, rolls and scones – his younger brother Lee.
While Paul enjoys the glamour of television cookery, entertaining the nation with his often brutal assessments of contestants’ creations, Lee works 13-hour days (and nights) making speciality bread and pastries by hand.
His business, Born And Bread, is based in a warehouse on an industrial estate on the Wirral and supplies hundreds of artisan loaves, baguettes and brownies to hotels, restaurants, delicatessens and football clubs across the North-West each week.
Yesterday Lee, who at 45 is five years younger than his famous sibling, joked: ‘I’m the grafter of the family, Paul’s too busy with Bake Off. The last time he made a proper loaf was about ten years ago!’
He added: ‘Our Paul and I are very close and I watch Bake Off when I can, but it’s
‘I’m the grafter of the family’
mainly on catch-up (television) because I’m always here. I came in today at 7am and I will still be here at 8pm tonight.
‘We bake through the night until 6am, then we’re usually back in again at 7.30am. We’re only closed for an hour-and-a-half every day.
‘When we started the business I was working all night, then getting my suit on at 9am and going out to talk to restaurants and hotels to sell them our bread. The first three years were a blur, I was working 18-hour days.’
Like Paul, Lee spent his childhood watching and learning his craft from their father, who had a string of bakery shops across the country.
He added: ‘It’s in our blood. My father was a baker, my uncle was a baker, we spent every weekend with our dad in one bakery shop or another. I started helping him in his shops.’
By then Paul was head baker at Chester’s five-star Grosvenor Hotel. When he left his younger sibling took over and was later lauded by food critic Egon Ronay for having the best hotel bread trolley in the country.
Lee was later poached by the prestigious Cliveden Hotel in Berkshire, before eventually moving back to Wallasey, where the Hollywoods grew up, because he was homesick.
It was then, aged around 30, that he and wife Andrea, also 45, decided to start their own bakery. They employ around 20, including 15 artisan bakers, creating up to more than 300 speciality breads and cakes every day.
‘I love my job, I still bounce out of bed every day,’ Lee said. ‘It’s hard physical work, kneading the dough, making the loaves. But I love getting my hands dirty, I couldn’t sit in an office looking at a computer all day.’
He admitted it had not always been plain sailing and the couple, who have two sons, considered giving up eight years ago when he was struggling to find good bakers. But now Born And Bread is doing well, supplying restaurants, cafes, delicatessens, racecourses and Liverpool Football Club.
Lee, who has another brother, Jason, 28, a headmaster, is happy to leave the TV career to Paul. ‘Here in the bakery is where I am happy,’ he said. ‘I wouldn’t want to leave.’
And does Paul help out in the bakery when he visits? ‘Not likely,’ Lee joked. ‘He just pulls up outside in his Aston Martin and beeps his horn!’