Jimmy Griffin

The Art of Lamination is not only a book, it is supported, complemented and updated with an array of social media platforms. Jimmy’s YouTube channel http://www.youtube.com/c/JimmyGriffinbaking has videos of many of the aspects of the book. Jimmy’s website http://jimmyg.ie has a wealth of information on baking and lamination and his vibrant personal FaceBook page is updated daily. https://www.facebook.com/jimmy.griffin.378. In addition, he has Instagram accounts @jimmyg51, @theartoflamination and a FaceBook page https://www.facebook.com/theartoflamination/ dedicated to the book.

James, or Jimmy Griffin as he is more popularly known, is a sixth-generation master baker from Galway Ireland. He has forty years’ experience in the bakery industry, growing up in the family business. He is a specialist in viennoiserie, sourdough, bread and cake production. He is a regular visitor to France, speaks French and has visited France over 30 times. Jimmy regularly teaches and judges globally, and in recent times has demonstrated, been a member of jury or given classes in Brazil, Japan, Taipei, Iceland, Spain, France, Germany, Belgium, Poland, China, Morocco, Croatia, Italy, USA and Russia, and the UK to name but a few. He holds a Master’s degree in Food Product Development and Culinary Innovation and lectures to honours degree bakery students at the School of Culinary Arts and Food Technology, Technological University, Cathal Brugha Street, Dublin. He also works as an advisor and consultant to industry.

Jimmy grew up being competitive and as an apprentice, won many national bakery competitions. Later in his career, he represented Ireland and competed in the European Championships as the viennoiserie candidate three times; winning bronze at the Coupe D’ Europe de la Boulangerie 1997. He went on to coach the very successful Irish bakery team from 2002 until 2005. Jimmy has also been an international bakery jury member since 2001 for most of the world championships and world master’s competitions, the bakery Olympics of the industry. In 2016, Jimmy was appointed as president of the Jury at the Coupe du Monde de la Boulangerie in Paris. He regularly lectures and teaches overseas and has been involved with baking and competitions in most continents of the world. In 2015, he was also honoured by his Russian colleagues and awarded an Honorary Professorship of Stavropol University in Russia. In May 2019, he came out of competitive retirement to compete in the Coupe du Monde Chocolatine in Toulouse, France, taking the title of Vice-Champion du Monde Chocolatine for his creations in hand-laminated pastry at the event. He is very active on social media platforms, and regularly updates his pages with exciting recipes, procedures, and products.

Married to his wife Bogna, Jimmy has three children, Dillon (23), Janice (22) and Sophie (14) (2020). In addition to his test baking passion, Jimmy is a licenced fixed-wing pilot; an aerobatic pilot; seaplane pilot, judo blackbelt instructor, divemaster and a former marathon runner. He enjoys writing and his honours degree dissertation titled “An investigative study into the beneficial use of seaweed in bread and the broader food industry” has been viewed and downloaded over 6000 times. He is currently finishing a book featuring internationally acclaimed bakers’ recipes, a book on the history of the family bakery titled Fully Baked, and another book on Panettone and Levito Madre. He was honoured by Meilleur Ouvrier de France, Mr Christian Vabret in 2016 and inducted into the Elite de la Boulangerie International EBI by Christian in 2016 and met with the president of France at the time, Francoise Hollande at Europain in Paris. In 2018, he brought a team of young Irish bakery students to Paris, to participate in Festival du Pain at Notre Dame. He was fortunate to see this beautiful cathedral before its destruction by fire last year. Paris is his favourite city in the world.