How Oji House Built a World-Class Baking Studio With Vanrooy Machinery
Oji House is one of Melbourne’s most exciting names in artisan baking education.
Founded by French-trained baker Quentin Berthonneau, it is a professional studio in Preston dedicated entirely to the craft of naturally fermented bread and pastry.
When Quentin set out to build a space worthy of world-class teaching, he turned to Vanrooy Machinery to supply and support his entire studio. The result is an environment where serious bakers come to learn — and where every piece of equipment is built to perform at the level the teaching demands.
Industry: Artisan Bakery, Baking Studio
Location: Preston, VIC 3072
Their Vanrooy Equipment: Tekno Stamap Twin Arm Mixer, Escher M100 Spiral Mixer, Tekno Stamap 40L Planetary Mixer, Bernardi Miss Baker XL Pro Mixer, Mockmill 200 Pro Flour Mill, Gemm Retarder Prover Cabinets, Salva Sirocco Rack Oven, and a Hein Deck Oven.
Quentin Berthonneau’s story is not the usual one. Born and trained in a baking school in regional France, he moved to Melbourne at eighteen with little more than a trade and a determination to build something of his own. He found his footing in Melbourne’s vibrant baking scene and opened his first bakery in 2017.
But the life of a traditional baker — early mornings, late nights, weekends lost to the oven — eventually took its toll. Quentin began asking a question that many bakers never dare to: what if there was another way?
The answer came in 2020, when he developed his recipe for the perfect sourdough Shokupan. Naturally fermented, long-lasting and endlessly versatile, it was a product that didn’t need to be baked at three in the morning to be enjoyed at breakfast. It gave Quentin something most bakers struggle to find — a life outside the bakery.
That insight became a philosophy. If the right product and the right process could give a baker back their time, then sharing that knowledge with others was the natural next step.
In 2021, Quentin joined the École Internationale de Boulangerie in France — one of the world’s leading sourdough institutions — where he taught for a year while deepening his own understanding of fermentation science and sustainable bakery economics. During that time he was selected as a finalist in the French national panettone championship and represented France alongside the school’s founder at the 2021 Panettone World Cup, finishing fifth and sixth respectively out of 24 competitors.
After years of consulting and teaching across France and Europe, Quentin returned to Melbourne with a clear vision: to create a dedicated space where bakers could come to him. In June 2024, Oji House opened its doors in Preston — a professional baking studio.
Building a Studio Worth Learning In
Oji House is not a bakery in the traditional sense. It is a purpose-built education studio where professional and passionate home bakers come to deepen their craft across a range of intensive classes.
Every class runs across multiple days — beginning at 8am Monday and finishing around midday Wednesday — with participants working through eight to nine hours of hands-on baking each day. The emphasis throughout is on natural fermentation. With the exception of the traditional baguette class, every product made at Oji House is leavened using sourdough starters, spanning liquid and stiff cultures made from wheat, rye and rice.
To deliver that kind of teaching at a professional level, the studio needed equipment that could match it.
Equipment Built for Excellence
Quentin has been working with Vanrooy for 12 years across multiple businesses, a relationship that began through an introduction from Duncan Black, Vanrooy’s Director.
Having trained and worked in Europe, Quentin was already deeply familiar with the leading European brands that Vanrooy represents — and when he set up in Australia, continuing to work with those same trusted names was a natural choice. That shared understanding of quality and provenance has been the foundation of the partnership ever since.
Most recently, Quentin launched Oji House — a cutting-edge bakery school that is genuinely leading the way in natural fermented breads and pastries in this country. What he is doing at Oji House is unlike anything else available in Australia, filling a real gap in the industry and setting a new benchmark for what serious baking education can look like.
Oji House is a proud partner of Vanrooy Machinery, with the entire studio equipped exclusively through us. From mixing and milling through to proofing and baking, every piece of equipment was chosen to support the precision and consistency that Quentin’s teaching demands.
The studio’s mixing setup includes the Tekno Stamap Twin Arm Mixer, Escher M100 Spiral Mixer, Tekno Stamap 40L Planetary Mixer and Bernardi Miss Baker XL Pro Mixer — giving Quentin and his students the right tool for every dough, from delicate laminated pastries to high-hydration sourdoughs.
The Mockmill 200 Pro Flour Mill allows for fresh milling on-site, supporting Oji House’s commitment to working with the best possible ingredients.
Fermentation is managed through Gemm Retarder Prover Cabinets , while baking is handled across a Salva Sirocco Rack Oven and Hein Deck Oven — a setup that gives students real exposure to professional baking environments.
For us at Vanrooy, Oji House represents something we genuinely believe in. Quentin is not just a remarkable baker; he is someone using his knowledge to lift the standard of the entire industry. Supporting that work, and the bakers who come through his studio, is exactly the kind of partnership we value.
