Bakehouse Has a Recipe for Success

Michaud launched Bakehouse 6 years ago

One of the few eateries in Hong Kong that is going gangbusters is Bakehouse, started by Swiss pastry chef Gregoire Michaud.

There are usually lines outside the original Wan Chai location, where young people are keen to have brunch or a sandwich along with some pastries washed down with coffee. Otherwise there's also a line for takeout, like loaves of freshly-baked sourdough bread, danishes, jam-filled donuts and the signature sourdough egg custard tart.

One fun fact is that Bakehouse sells between 18,000 to 20,000 egg tarts per day, which adds up to a whopping HK$91.25 million in annual revenue from those flaky egg tarts alone.

Even during the Covid-19 pandemic Bakehouse was busy with a 20 percent increase in business, but the bakery lost 60 percent of its wholesale business supplying bread and pastries to restaurants and hotels. Michaud had a tough time motivating staff during this period, but he just knew he had to keep going.

These days Bakehouse is extremely busy thanks to being featured in Xiaohongshu, a Chinese social media platform that has touted its egg tarts. Chinese visitors can be seen posing outside the bakeries with the aforementioned egg tarts or the coveted Bakehouse blue paper bag.

Because of the flood of customers, Michaud has said recently Bakehouse will double the number of outlets by the end of 2025, as well as expanding its main kitchen in Chai Wan.

Not bad for the former executive pastry chef at the Four Seasons Hong Kong, who traded his starched white chef jacket for a blue apron and has been non-stop ever since he launched Bakehouse six years ago. He also won over locals with his decent Cantonese, making fun videos with Chinese media.

He is also looking to expand Bakehouse across the border into China in the next 18 months.

"We will start by operating with a local partner, but we will be fully involved because we do not want to lose our quality and our integrity," Michaud said. "It's Bakehouse, but we also represent Hong Kong as a brand."

It's amazing to watch Michaud succeed with his vision and endless creativity in the kitchen. He's willing to try new things and knows local tastes. 

But yes those egg tarts. In Hong Kong, you have to try them, along with a bowl of wonton noodles, congee, milk tea, pineapple bun, roast goose, dim sum...

 

Hong Kong Deluged by Flooding

A bus submerged in the torrential rains that flooded HK

A few hours ago pictures and videos of the epic flooding in Hong Kong were posted all over social media -- the muddy waterfall pouring into Wong Tai Sin MTR station, vehicles plowing through water in the Cross Harbour Tunnel, a woman still holding onto her umbrella as she slid about 50 metres along a street, trying to grab onto the railing.

The city is still under a black rainstorm warning 14 hours after it was posted, with rain falling 158.1mm deep between 11pm and midnight last night, an unprecedented amount since records were kept in 1884. In total over 400mm of rain has fallen.

Needless to say today schools are closed, and most people are working from home as the black rainstorm warning is expected to continue until midnight this evening.

Wong Tai Sin MTR station deluged by water

Chai Wan seems to have received the brunt of the intense rain left over from Typhoon Haikui. The New Territories also suffered with the Shenzhen government giving very little notice to its Hong Kong counterpart that it would discharge water from the reservoir -- that knock-down effect left 15 minutes for residents in the area to prepare to evacuate.

So far there are no reports of fatalities, but residents are not impressed by the government's response, with the Chief Secretary Eric Chan Kwok-ki holding a press conference right now (2.30pm HK time) to report on what the authorities are doing together with the Security Bureau some 12 hours later.

Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu didn't make any public statements and instead published two social media posts urging people to stay safe. Hongkongers bombarded the comments section questioning why the government's response was so behind, compared to the preparations made when Typhoon Saola was approaching the city.

One commenter by the name of Veronica Law wrote: "Not everyone was on Facebook. Why wasn't even an SMS sent to residents in this kind of situation?" Another user named Emi An said: "Is the chief executive sleeping? Are you aware of the severe flooding out there?"

A shopping mall in Chai Wan flooded

At the press conference going on now, acting director of drainage services Chui Si-kay said Hong Kong's drainage system could not cope with the torrential rainfall, and denied that Shenzhen releasing water from the reservoir did not cause flooding in the New Territories, that it was all from the rainfall. 

One may never be quite sure what the situation was there, but for sure the city will have a lot of water and sludge to get rid of in the streets, in shopping malls, MTR stations, and people's flats. 

There are still questions on how the city's authorities and the Hong Kong Observatory did not prepare residents with the possibility of a deluge of rain...