Newstead baker banks on customer honesty The wood-fired oven at Chester Street Kitchen. It's a simple system that offers honesty in baking with honour in paying. Local entrepreneur Damien Griffiths - owner of two other inner-city concerns, Limes Hotel and Alfred & Constance - thinks it will work. His Chester Street Kitchen in Newstead, which is ostensibly under renovation but with a fully operational wood-fired oven that supplies his other eateries, is offering loaves of sourdough and asking customers to name their price - literally. Each morning, except Sundays, the loaves are left outside for customers to take in exchange for money that they place an "honour box." It's a risk Mr Griffiths is willing to take based largely on the high quality of his product. "The only way to compete these days, against the mass-produced products, is to go back and do something by hand," he says. We don't use any additives, commercial yeasts and the like. More and more, people want to know where their food comes from, so when they come to Chester Street they'll be able to see and smell exactly where their starter cultures were raised and where their bread is being baked. The man behind the wood-fired goodness, Mr Griffiths says, is Phil Agnew - formerly a "hobbyist" and government worker who was handed his chance to bake full-time by the recent public sector cuts. "The guy's just passionate about bread," Mr Griffiths says, adding that the bakery was using Mr Agnew's fermentation starter, now 7 years old. Mr Griffith's team is in the process of extending Chester Street Kitchen into a cafe by day and cocktail bar by night. However, he would continue to offer customers the unique taste of wood-fired bread and hope that they "honour" the experience with a donation.