Barbers Brilliant Baking
Commitment and dedication to his craft have led Anthony Barber to cap off his final apprenticeship year with another tremendous accolade. This week he was awarded South West Metropolitan TAFE Apprentice of the Year. These Awards recognise the achievements of students from across the South West TAFE training courses.
Anthony is in his third and final year of a dual Bread Baking and Pastrycooking Apprenticeship with Miami Bakehouse. He began his career at Miami with a novel approach. Starting in the packing area, he worked evenings packing the daily baking, ready for delivery to Miami’s Bakehouses. At this time of the evening, bread is being prepared and Anthony took a keen interest in this area of baking, eventually helping out on the bread team as a baker’s assistant. Not set on any particular career path at that time, he decided to take a job offer in a completely different industry.
“I first started work with Miami Bakehouse back in 2017 as an all-rounder bakery assistant. I left for a short while to try other things and returned to take up my apprenticeship three years ago,” Anthony explained.
“I really enjoy food and cooking and I’ve had terrific opportunities at Miami to work across all areas of baking. Right now I’m involved in developing savoury recipes which is so interesting.”
Miami Bakehouse has trained more than 17 apprentices in what has been a dual Apprenticeship of Bread Baking and Pastrycooking. The breadth of Miami’s product range means that apprentices get excellent opportunities to develop their skills in all areas of baking.
Co-owner of Miami Bakehouse, David Palmer explained that training is so important for the continued development of the baking and hospitality industries in Western Australia.
“It is tremendous to see that government apprenticeship support is returning to higher levels for the industries that need it the most.
“Training is a very intense and expensive exercise when done well. It is always wonderful to see apprentices progress each year and achieve great results like Anthony has done.”
Anthony has always had a competitive streak and regularly enters the key baking competitions each year, including the Royal Food Awards and the WA Baking Industry Awards. He has a trophy cabinet with more than 25 state and national awards including the Most Successful Apprentice (Baking Industry Awards 2021 and the Most Successful Apprentice Exhibitor at the Perth Royal Food Awards in 2020.