From Bedside to Sourdough | Alumni Digest

From Bedside to Sourdough

In 2020, community health nurse Rachel Pardoe was raising a toddler and expecting a second child when sourdough baking became her creative outlet. "Instead of doom scrolling I started to look at content from other sourdough bakers," she says — and fell for decorative scoring. She now has more than a million followers and a debut cookbook, Sourdough Everything, published by DK.

Alumni Digest desk · from U of T Alumni News
Above: Rachel Pardoe with a basket of sourdough bread. Photo: Marianne Rothbauer

Pardoe graduated from Bloomberg Nursing with a BScN in 2012 and worked as a community health nurse in the Ottawa region. Her baking began in earnest during the 2020 pandemic shutdowns, alongside caring for a three-year-old and a baby on the way.

She teaches beginners to read visual cues rather than fixate on dough temperature alone; one of her panettone loaves took nearly six days to finish. Sourdough Everything also includes a chapter of discard recipes, from brownies to pancakes to pasta.

Pardoe has stepped back from full-time nursing but still works casually in community health, balancing her baking following with the profession she trained for at U of T.

Rachel Pardoe pictured with a basket of sourdough bread — Photo: Marianne Rothbauer

Reported from Nursing alum rises as a sourdough sensation with debut cookbook, by Rebecca Biason (U of T Alumni News, May 6, 2026).

More from the original reporting: alumni.utoronto.ca/news/nursing-alum-rises-sourdough-sensation-debut-cookbook

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