Meet the Team: The Passionate People Behind Sprout Artisan Bakery

Rebecca Foley and Lutz Richter kicked off Sprout in the Food Connect kitchen in Salisbury in 2014, after the couple moved from Sydney to be closer to Foley’s parents. The following year, they made their debut at the Saturday Fresh Market in Rocklea, deep in Brisbane's southwest. And soon enough Sprout was supplying cafes and providores such as Merriweather, Sourced, Botanica and Felix for Goodness.

The growth has been slow and steady ever since. In 2018 Sprout moved its baking operations into a larger space on Commercial Road. In 2020, a wildly successful pop-up on Robertson Street in the old Jamie’s Espresso space led Melbourne based landlord Robert Zagame to offer Foley and Richter a longterm tenancy further up the hill on the corner of James and Harcourt streets. Finally, in early June 2021, Sprout opened its own permanent shopfront.

At the heart of the business is Richter’s three decades of experience as a pastry chef. He learnt the craft as a 14-year-old in his native Germany before working at The Clarence Hotel in Dublin, owned by Bono and The Edge from U2, and later being part of the wave of international chefs who arrived in Sydney for the 2000 Olympic Games.