Teaching you how to bake it better one pastry at a time
Meet Matt Adlard, a self-taught pastry chef and author. He hails from Norwich, England, where food was a significant part of his family life. His father, being a Michelin star chef, definitely had both delicious dishes and learnings to share. Despite this, Matt didn’t develop an interest in cooking until his early twenties. Instead, he went into advertising. Tired of the long hours and looking for a fun hobby, he later found his calling in baking. He learned how to bake through trial and error by watching YouTube videos.
In the beginning his endeavours resulted in burnt cakes and soggy pastry, but he didn’t give up. He watched online tutorials and tried every recipe he could imagine. After a couple of years, he gained confidence and started a blog, Topless Baker. There he shared videos and recipes as well as his upper body covered only with an apron. His body and baking soon became well-known across the world.
Today, Matt Adlard is one of the most popular baker influencers with over 1 million followers on Instagram. While he has numerous of tutorials and recipes on YouTube, he doesn’t post any new videos there but refer to his Instagram and his online baking school called “Bake it better“, an monthly subscription where you get exclusive access to recipes and videos.
Matt’s content is diverse and engaging. His Instagram followers are welcomes to follow his creation process, often with a lot of trial and error and he shares a lot of lessons learned along the way. His transparent and easy-going approach makes him a joy to follow. It’s also clear to see that he puts a lot of effort and time in to making the recipes as good as possible before he publishes them to the public.
One of Matt Adlard’s most popular recipes is his “Ultimate Chocolate Eclair“, his take on a luscious chocolate crème pâtissière, topped with a chocolate glaze and chocolate crumble. It’s a foolproof choux pastry recipe that prevents any nasty cracks, which normally is the eclair makers worst enemy.
Matt’s journey is inspiring. He turned his hobby into a successful career. He shows us that it’s never too late to follow your passion. And most importantly, he makes baking fun and accessible to everyone.
