I came to the realisation on Sunday that I’ve perhaps been worried unnecessarily about eating too much bread. I have always loved bread, but after Sunday I have a new found appreciation thanks to 3 generations of knowledge from a hard working Italian family.

image via @salvatores_son on Instagram

Cesare Salemi is the definition of a great Australian business. The type of business that is the backbone of our economy and culture. Cesare’s latest offering Dust Bakery at the much talked about Tramsheds Harold Park is a perfect example of what hard work and passion delivers. By the way, I’ve been told the word ‘passion’ is cliché and I absolutely disagree. I loving listening to people talk about what they love, when you love something, you’re passionate about it and that’s that.

Back to the Tramsheds which opened around 4 weeks ago. Many of our friends had already visited and had sprayed photos across Facebook and Instagram, I was intrigued so we took advantage of Sydney’s light rail and headed to the inner-west from Potts Point.

“You may or may not know this but on Sunday’s in NSW you can travel anywhere by train, bus, ferry or light-rail for $2.50, capped, all day! I only discovered this two weeks ago. I think we’ll head to the Blue Mountains for lunch one Sunday soon. Why not!”

The Tramsheds culinary offering is as diverse as the overall design and architecture. It reminds me of a busy vegetable or flower market with all the vendors and buyers engaging. It appears to have been designed to bring the customer closer to the restaurateurs and chefs which ultimately provides a deeper and more meaningful dining experience. I for one love eating at a bar setting and if there’s a bar that runs along an open kitchen that’s where you’ll find me. I love watching the controlled chaos and the preparation in the kitchen.

“It’s the chefs version of Wall Street and instead of shouting out numbers and market movements, the chef’s are frantically creating and churning out dishes from the menu’s they created from the heart.”

This leads me to our experience at Dust Bakery. The Tramsheds is a busy place and if you are going for lunch or dinner I recommend making a booking otherwise you’ll need to wait. We walked past Dust around 12:30pm and were greeted with a very inviting smile by one of the hosts, I also spied a Negroni Cocktail on the menu which helped sway my decision to take a table for two, at the bar of course. That’s right, a bakery with a bar and a cocktail on the menu, two actually.

At the entrance to Dust you can see the stone mill through the glass walls, and if you’re there early enough you can see the bread making in full swing. The on-site mill is one of the first in Australia and was handmade in Austria specifically to meet the needs of Dust. Owner Cesare and his team grind all flour used on-site from scratch.

We were seated at the bar right next to the gigantic brick pizza oven. It’s pretty impressive and I don’t think I have ever seen one quite this size. The menu is what I would call a perfect menu, the selections and flow just make absolute sense. It reads as one.

While we browsed the menu I got chatting to one of the chef’s. We chatted about the menu and he very kindly gave me some great tips and explained the differences between the pizza’s. He knew the menu back to front and you could sense a feeling of pride. As I looked around I could tell that all the staff were having a great time. Any restaurant with happy dedicated staff will guarantee its success. Service is everything. 
As it got busier owner Cesare appeared in front of us to accelerate the pizza dough making process. The orders were coming in thick and fast and Cesare was making pizza bases faster than a machine. One thing I noticed was the grains in the flour, you could almost see every piece of flour.

We ordered a white based pizza with pork and fennel sausage and broccolini, a warm beetroot salad with goat cheese and pistachios and a bottle of Pinot Gris. It wasn’t long until we started chatting to Cesare about his new venture.

Cesare summed up in 6 words what Dust is all about…

“Bread is broken. Let’s fix it.” he proudly told us. 

The flour used at Dust takes over 40 hours to make and taking the time to produce a quality product is at the absolute heart of the operation. It’s about changing what flour is and the way in which we use it. When Cesare’s father and grand father were making bread they would apply the same care when selecting the grains. These were the good old days when they would deliver fresh, healthy bread to over 600 homes across Sydney. Over the years with mass manufacturing bread flour has become dense and difficult to digest. At Dust, through years of research and great bread science, Cesare has created a product that is easily digested, very light and very very tasty. Bread that is so pure you can taste the wheat fields.

Dust aims to re-position bread at the rightful heart of our tables, meals, families and lives, and re-define the perception of flour. I say with my hand on my heart that this re-positioning is well and truly under way. Congratulations to Cesare, his family and team on this wonderful venture.

Open daily for breakfast, lunch and dinner, every menu item has bread at its core. Dust will serve a selection of fresh made schichiatta from the wood oven, stone ground, slow fermented wood fired pizzas, as well as cakes, pastries, and their very unique selection of breads.

Visit Dust Bakery at www.dustbakery.com and follow them on Instagram.

Are you a fan of the Tramsheds Harold Park? I would love to hear about your experience and favourite venue.