Most sourdough bakers are trying to solve the wrong problem

They jump between recipes, videos, and conflicting advice, trying to figure this out. But the real problem sits deeper.

They buy new flour, nudge the hydration up, then down, blame the recipe, then watch another video, hoping it finally explains what the other ten got wrong.

They keep searching because everyone else seems to have worked it out. The feeds are full of perfectly sprung loaves with honeycombed crumbs, so surely the answer's out there somewhere, and they just haven't found it yet.

And so they lose hours, days, whole weekends to the search, putting in serious time, guessing, trying to fix what they think went wrong, not what actually went wrong.

But guessing is expensive, because the answer doesn't come straight away. It comes a day or two later, when the next loaf comes out of the oven.

This isn't progress. It's a cycle.

And it adds up: the flour, the electricity, another weekend gone, and nowhere to go but back to the start.

And it doesn't matter whether you're wrestling a starter, following a recipe, or trying to design your own. You can't fix it by blaming the flour, watching another video, or reading another blog.

If that sounds familiar, it isn’t because you’re not capable. You’ve just been trying to fix something you couldn’t clearly see.

You can’t fix what you can’t see

When a bake goes wrong, you need an answer. Usually, that means going back to the recipe, watching another video, or reading another blog post.

And good content can absolutely teach you a process. The steps, the method, the technique. There is real value in that.

But teaching a method and diagnosing your own bake are two very different jobs.

A video can't diagnose, and I say that as a baker making videos.

I don't know how warm your kitchen was. I wasn't there when you chose your flour, fed your starter, or judged the bulk.

I wasn't there for the decisions the recipe couldn't make for you.

And that's the catch.

So when things go wrong, more information isn't what you're missing. You need to understand what happened, where your bake broke down, and what to adjust next time.

This is when the guessing stops

When you learn to read your own bake, the guessing disappears. You stop wasting time, money, flour, and weekends trying to fix the wrong thing. You know what happened, what to change, and how to move forward with confidence.

The endless searching stops. No more hunting for an answer that was never going to be in another video.

The guessing stops. You're not changing things blind anymore, hoping this time it works. Even a loaf that falls short isn't a dead end now. It tells you something.

Every bake moves you forward instead of leaving you back where you started.

And finally, you can stop scrolling and feeling like you're the only one who can't do this. Because now you understand your own bake. You can see what's happening. You can make those loaves too.

That's when sourdough stops being something you copy, and becomes something you own.

Where I come from, guessing doesn’t work

I started making sandwiches until the head chef brought me into the pastry section and taught me something that changed everything: guessing doesn't work.

In pastry, everything is measured. Everything is timed. A formula either produces the same result every time or it doesn't, and "it sort of worked" isn't good enough when it's going out to a packed restaurant.

And it had to work whether I was there or not. Other chefs had to follow my formulas and get the same result without me standing over them. Nothing could rely on feel or luck. Every step had to be understood, written down, and repeatable.

You don’t gamble. You design and test the process until it’s repeatable.

Later, cooking on yachts and then as a private chef, I had to hold that same standard in kitchens I'd never seen, with different equipment and whatever ingredients were available. The setup changed constantly. The approach couldn't.

So when I came to sourdough, I already knew I wasn't going to fix it by chasing another recipe. I mapped it out the same way I would in a professional kitchen.

Design, bake, diagnose, refine.

How we remove the guesswork

So I built Sourdough Unchained, a place to learn this properly, with people who've got your back.

You learn to control and analyse the key links in the fermentation chain: starter strength, bulk fermentation, proofing, dough-to-basket fit, and how to maximise oven spring. All without guessing.

Then I'll show you how I develop recipes, so you can follow the process and learn to build your own, shaped around the flavours you want, the nutrition you care about, and whatever's in season.

You'll never be baking alone. You can share your bakes, ask your questions, and get real feedback from me and the other bakers, every step of the way.

That’s the feedback loop most home bakers are missing. And it's the reason bakers who'd all but given up are now baking with confidence.

What changes for our bakers

This is the system

The five-step Sourdough System

1. The Starter Rehab: Take your existing starter, whatever state it's in, and get it fermenting at full strength.

2. The Dough-to-Basket Calibration: Match your dough to your basket and set your formula up so volume tracking actually works when you come to proof.

3. The Fermentation Chain: Volume tracking takes the guesswork out of every stage, starter, bulk, proof, and cold retard, so you read fermentation as one connected chain.

4. The Reboot Process: Strip the bake back to the fundamentals. A clean formula, balanced for hydration and flour blend, that maximises oven spring and produces a well-structured crumb.

5. The Sourdough Clinic: Troubleshoot your own loaves by watching me diagnose real member bakes, step by step. Real bread, real problems, fixed in real time, the bakes a video could never solve.

Recipe Development: You'll sit in on the formulas I'm designing, see how a recipe comes together, and learn to dial a loaf in until it's exactly what you wanted. You'll also get your own copy of Magnus 5, the calculator I use to design every formula and track every bake. Once the foundation is locked in, you can start building your own recipes. 

The Sourdough Lounge: Share your bakes, and get feedback from bakers who've stood exactly where you're standing. Get help at every stage.

The Sourdough Lab: Once a month, we go live. I share the new recipes I'm testing and take you deeper into how they come together, the thinking most bakers never get to see. You can show your own bakes, ask me anything you're stuck on, and get it worked through there and then. Can't make it live? Every session is recorded, so you never miss a thing.

It all lives in one place, and you can get to it on desktop, tablet, or phone, whenever it suits you.

Is Sourdough Unchained right for you?

Probably. But let me be straight about a few things, so you can decide for yourself.

"I don't have the time to bake that often"

It's not how often you bake, it's what you learn from each one. Without structure or feedback, you can bake for months and keep hitting the same problems. With it, every bake compounds, and your intuition improves. That's when baking once a week, or twice a month, is all it takes.

"I'm not experienced enough"

I was a chef, and it didn't save me from years of guesswork. Rachael is a professional pastry chef, and sourdough still tripped her up. What changes things is the process and the feedback, and those are yours, whatever level you're starting from.

"I'm worried I won't keep up"

This isn't a race, so can't fall behind. You take what you need, at the pace that suits. Sourdough should fit your life, not the other way round, and so does this. The foundation comes together faster than you'd expect, and you build from there.

"I've failed so many times. Maybe it's just me"

It's not you. The bakers whose feeds you've been following aren't more talented. They can just see what's happening, and right now, you can't. Every one of your failures came from trying to fix a problem you couldn't see, and no one can do that. The difference was never talent. It was being able to see. And that's exactly what you've been missing.

And who isn't this for?

If you're after a quick fix, this isn't it. It takes effort, and I'd rather say so now. This is for bakers who want to understand what's actually happening and want to bake. If that's you, you'll fit right in.

Ready to break the cycle?

Every time a bake goes wrong, there's a cost.

Not just flour, electricity, and wasted ingredients, but stress, frustration, lost time, and another evening spent trying to patch things together with fragmented advice.

And if you keep trying to solve it the same way, the same cycle will be waiting for you at the next bake.

Or you stop guessing. You learn to read what's in front of you, and you start baking loaves you're proud of, on purpose, again and again.

Let’s break that cycle now. Join me now, inside Sourdough Unchained.

Choose your membership

If you’re ready to stop guessing and start baking loaves you’re proud of, choose the option that works best for you.