Baker Brown Rises To Challenge

The Age

Saturday June 16, 2007

Jane Faulkner, Wine and Food Writer

ALL week, Greg Brown has promised that his tiny, unprepossessing Glen Eira bakery will finally open this morning with batches of freshly made loaves, muffins and tarts on offer. And all made by hand. It's a poignant reminder that he's lost none of his artisanal skill as a baker, despite a body afflicted by multiple sclerosis and a mind of failing memories.

Considering how ill Brown has been, particularly in the past four years since being diagnosed with MS but not properly treated, it's a miracle he has survived, with dark periods spent living on the streets of Sydney. He returned to Melbourne a year ago, and ever since has been on the road to improvement despite looking world weary beyond his 49 years.

For those who haven't heard of Brown, except for the chain of French bakeries he created in the 1990s that bear his name, he is still regarded as one of our finest chefs.

"There are great gaps in my life: events, people that I don't remember, months that I can't recall," he says. "But I remember everything about cooking, the dishes I made in my restaurants. MS has taken a toll on my life but it hasn't robbed me of my prowess of how to cook."

MS, a disease of the brain and spinal cord, affects people differently. Symptoms can include blindness, tremors, loss of balance, numbness, chronic pain and slurred speech; Brown has all of these, yet manages to quip: "I'm not drunk, just clumsy and I fall over all the time."

He notes that some MS sufferers apparently have unrealistic expectations, so opening up a bakery might appear foolhardy. Not to his sister, Debbie Roberts, though. "I have never been more proud of him than now. Most would just give up but to his credit, he doesn't want to. I know Greg's in a lot of pain but he's incredibly tough," she says.

"He is still wonderful and has all those qualities that made him great (as a chef and baker). His palate's still marvellous and his food knowledge amazing."

Brown is bankrupt and more or less penniless. This new business has only been possible with the help of his girlfriend, Agi. Hence the name - Agi's Bakery.

© 2007 The Age

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