Singaporean baker Ewan Irwan introduces Malay rock music to a medieval French village

In the quiet hours as early as two in the morning, in a medieval village of Saint-Robert in central France, classic Malay rock music routinely fills the air of a small fournil, a traditional French bakehouse. 

Streaming through the windows, glam rock tunes of Malaysian bands like the legendary Wings and Search accompany baker-owner Ewan Irwan as he starts his day making tubs of dough that he will eventually bake into some of the best bread the village has come to know. 

“Slow rock is very nostalgic, and it brings me back to my past,” he shares of his playlist. “I love it.”

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Without fail, Ewan tunes in to the strong drum backbeats, tight bassline and memorable vocals of the genre that he loves as he pours his heart into a craft that he has spent close to 20 years perfecting.

The intro

Previously a cog in the engineering sector, Ewan packed up everything of his life in Singapore and took a chance on France, emigrating with his ex-wife Sophie to start their family. The gamble found him a second home in a village that has been officially designated as one of France’s “Most Beautiful Villages” and acquainted him with the art of bread making the French way. 

“In French culture, bread is a daily necessity,” he explains. “I fell in love with baking because the bread industry here, with the passion the bakers put into their products, is on another level.” 

Twenty-two years since moving, 18 years since enrolling himself in baking school and taking over the fournil that he runs to this day, that love has only grown deeper despite the back-breaking work.

Five days a week, Ewan repeats the same quiet ritual: 15 minutes of flour, water, and salt turning slowly in the mixer; an hour and a half of patient resting; a few deliberate rotations to strengthen the dough; and another pause before he divides, cuts, and shapes each piece, readying them for the oven.

In the case of his sourdough bread that has been raved about incessantly online by locals and tourists alike, an extra two rotations are crucial. 

Ewan makes his sourdough with a dough recipe of his own that contains 85 to 90 per cent water; the extra few seconds of rotation will help keep the dough intact. The result of the higher water content is softer dough that is trickier to handle but bakes into an airier interior, a richer colour, and a more lactic flavour.

The crescendo

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At 4am, when exhaustion begins to creep into his bones, Ewan switches to hardcore rock and punk. The more aggressive sounds of American underground bands like Snapcase and Shelter, as well as Singaporean ensembles like Stompin’ Ground and Indonesian hardcore band Defy, inject new energy into his routine as he fires up the ovens — both electric and woodfire. 

“My woodfire oven takes another hour and a half to heat up. It is one of the biggest in the region at around 20 sqm,” he tells. 

Heavy guitar distortion echoes the sound of the flames in the furnace while intense, aggressive drumming matches the speed of the adrenaline pulsing in Ewan’s veins.

While he’s finishing the first batch of bread, he must not forget the viennoiseries — the breakfast staples of croissants, pain au chocolate, and other cakes and bakes that also come from his own pastry lab.

As the firewood rises in the electric oven, it needs to be refilled every seven to ten minutes to maintain a constant temperature for the woodfire oven where his baguettes and loaves are baking. 

“I’ll be running here and there between shaping bread, preparing pastry and topping up the firewood,” he regales. “It’s non-stop, even if my fournil is very small and cute.”

The outro

Thirty-five minutes later, the first baguettes emerge, ready to be swept up by the steady stream of loyal customers that come the moment the bakery’s doors open at 7am. This is also about the time Sophie, with whom he still works alongside to run the bakery, comes in to oversee sales and administration. 

The playlist at this hour turns to world music, calming their nerves with the likes of traditional Indian music underscored by the sitar and tabla, even some qawwali devotional music from Pakistan. 

“There’s a rhythm to my working style,” he observes. “The pace of my music follows the ambience of the working period.”

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His favourite song of all is the one that is the same music to all bakers’ ears — the first crackling of the bread crust when it is removed from the oven. Being pulled from the hot oven into the cooler room temperature, the bread settles and its crust sings a delicious, edible harmony of its own.

“It’s the best satisfaction when you get the same result every morning upon removing the bread from the oven,” he shares. “When you can hear the thing start to sing, you can just sit down and listen to it. It’s therapeutic. Unfortunately, sometimes we have no time because when you take some out, it’s time to take them all out.”

Le Fournil de Saint-Robert - SARL IRWAN is located at 11 Rue Edouard Blanchard, 19310 Saint-Robert, France