Small artisan Chesterfield bakery run by husband and wife celebrates first birthday with accolade of awards
“We are very lucky that we have such wonderful customers who have have come back each week.”
A small artisan Chesterfield-based bakery has celebrated its first birthday after a successful year.
The Peak & Stone Bakery, launched by a husband-and-wife team Tom and Emily Martin, has had an amazing year, winning an accolade of awards.
In the independent bakery’s most recent success, Emily has been shortlisted as one of four finalists for the British Baker Rising Star Award - with the winner set to be revealed at a black-tie ceremony at London Hilton on November 25.
The award recognises the best up-and-coming talents in baking industry across the UK who have launched their career in the last three years.
Speaking about his wife’s success, Tom said: “We are absolutely thrilled. It’s an immense achievement.
“All four finalists deserve to be there and they are all winners just to be in that final. It’s highly competitive.
“Em left her career in education to help build mine up. To see her come along from helping me out a little bit to being a fully fledged professional baker in just three years is hugely rewarding.
“She's my wife, she's my best friend and I wouldn’t be where I am today without her.
“I'm really proud of her being in the final. She deserves to win, she has already won in my eyes.”
The recent nomination comes after a winning streak over the last six months.
Peak & Stone, launched in October 2025, was named best in two categories Britain’s Best Plain Sourdough 2026 and Britain’s Best Flavoured Sourdough at the British Baker awards in Birmingham in April – defeating over 250 loaves from across the country.
Organised by leading baking industry publication British Baker, the awards are considered the most prestigious baking competition in the UK with bakers judged across eight categories by a panel of baking industry experts.
More success followed with Peak & Stone scooping a 2-Star Great Taste Award in July for their signature Sea Salt and Rosemary Focaccia.
The independent bakery was also crowned the Best Artisan Food Producer in the Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire area in the Muddy Stilettos Awards and took the second place in Chesterfield Business Awards in the new business of the year category.
Tom said: “The time frame is ridiculous.
“To achieve so much in such a short space of time goes to show how the community of Chesterfield has responded to our little bakery.
“People absolutely love it and we are making a lot of noise.
“I am one of the most confident individuals and I I knew deep down that this was going to be a success.
“But if you would have told me we would have done everything what we have done up to this point in a year, I there’s no chance I would believe it.
“To achieve all this is just insane. It blows both of our minds.
“We are very lucky that we have such wonderful customers who have have come back each week.”
The bakery, which was launched on Emily’s birthday, was the couple’s dream for a long while.
Tom and Emily, who have two children, run Peak & Stone fully by themselves, balancing the art of running the business with having a family.
Tom, from Clay Cross, has 22 years of experience in baking.
He has won prestigious national awards including the Best Sourdough and Best Tin Loaf at the Craft Bakers’ Association Awards 2024 as well as the first prize for the Britain’s Best Loaf.
He has also been a finalist of the prestigious Baker of the Year competition both in 2024 and 2025 – making it to the top four bakers in the country two years in a row.
Emily grew up at a farm in Derbyshire, always enjoying baking and is now coming up with recipes for cakes and sweet baked goods for Peak & Stone.
Tom said: “Our social media has just blowed up these last few days because we've had a viral video after we did a collab with our neighbours Crooked Pickle.
“They’ve made some pickles for us and we used them to make Croque Monsieur and the video that we've done about how we make them just went viral, I’ve never seen anything like it on our social media.
“We have been doing sourdough pizzas once a month and they’ve been popular.
“But a month or two ago we had local food blogger Meats and Cheats who came in to do a post - and ever since we have been absolutely inundated by orders.
“It’s ridiculous how many pizzas we are doing now in comparison to a few months ago.
In the latest one that we've just done, we have we have no more space left in our fridge for pizza dough.
“We’ve had orders for 134 pizzas for October 30.”
Recently Tom and Emily were chosen to go to Italy as one of eight best bakers in the country, to learn how to make traditional sweet Christmas bread Panettone.
The Peak & Stone team brought back a 150-year-old Pasta Madre, a traditional Italian stiff sourdough starter.
Tom said: “They consider Panettone to be the Everest of bread making.
“They got Vincenzo Tiri, who is considered the best Panettone maker in Italy, to do come and do the course.
“He and his family are legends at making it and he gave us a little piece of his 150-year-old Pasta Madre. It's been in his family for three generations!
“That microorganism is now in our Chesterfield bakery and we are feeding it and in the next few weeks we are going to start make our Panettone production ready for Christmas.”
As the bakery has been grown in popularity, Tom and Emily count on invaluable support from their families who were there to help with anything from childcare to dish washing.
Tom said: “It's getting busier and busier.
“We're doing the majority of the production between me and Emily.
“We have incredible help from our parents who help with childcare and market stalls. My dad comes down here two days a week and helps us as a KP washing pots and geting things deep cleaned.
“We've got other family members involved too who are coming in to help because they can see how stretched we are.
“We how popular we are, we have plans going forward to move into a bigger unit - and we need some staff.
“Hopefully we will be able to start creating some employment for for people in and around Chesterfield. That's something to look forward to next year.”