An Irish construction worker who lost his job in the recession has baked the brown bread that Barack Obama will eat on St Patrick’s Day.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny is bringing 20 loaves of brown bread baked by Mayo native Simon Stenson to the White House this weekend for the US president and his family.
“I was out of work for two years, doing nothing,” said Mr Stenson, who was given a voucher by his wife Siobhán for cookery lessons at Darina Allen’s Ballymaloe House in Cork. He then went on a three-week intensive course after getting a credit union loan and decided to set up a small bakery in the kitchen of a pub in Ballyvary, Co Mayo, which his family had operated for generations but had closed down in recent years.
His Cherry Blossom Bakery moved to a new state-of-the-art premises last month.