Mike is a retired Chartered Accountant from England, and has held senior directorships of many companies, including finance, renewable energy, and food. He fell in love with sourdough bread in the early 1980's during the first of many trips to San Francisco, and spent many years experimenting with bread recipes from different countries before discovering the "Tartine" recipe which, ironically, was created in San Francisco!

Mike's wife, Lydia, hails from Nigeria and is multi-talented and very resourceful. She has an excellent command of English. She specializes in cakes and pastries but considers her baguettes to be better than Mike's.