Your friend has made things a bit tough for himself. That stuff looks pretty intricate and complicated. Choco-Cherry sourdough?! That Fendu crust looks good. Good advert though.

I suspect that producing a range and in quantity is pretty complicated ... particularly with sourdoughs etc, and of course there's coping with seasonal temperatures in the bakery etc But to be honest I'm suprised at how easy it is to produce bread I'd previously thought of as being difficult.

The only thing I've really not pursued is sourdough - too much of a palaver - but instead simply mature starters for a day or two. It's only 20 seconds work to mix a little yeast water and flour in a tumbler and leave it for a day or so to froth and mature and gives a flavourful but un-sour loaf.

I guess if you don't think about bread or yearn for really good bread all the time as I seem to - and that bread is inaccessable then it isn't really worthwhile.