Bakehouse Bakes up Success Story

Chef Gregoire Michaud with Bakehouse's famous egg tarts

Bakehouse is an extremely popular bakery that sells loaves of sourdough bread, pastries, cookies, sandwiches and doughnuts. Its most famous product is the sourdough egg tart, similar to the pastel de nata with its caramelised egg custard.

It was started 2018 by Swiss Gregoire Michaud, who quit his job as executive pastry chef at the Four Seasons Hong Kong. He first set up a wholesale business in 2013 supplying bread to hotels and restaurants before opening the retail bakery Bakehouse.

There are queues daily at the various locations

For someone who covers the food business it's been fascinating to watch Bakehouse grow from its first shop in Wan Chai to now having seven locations around Hong Kong.

A few days ago I caught up with Michaud and he continues to have a very humble attitude towards building his business and brand, and knowing full well that consistency is key.

The last time I talked to him was during the Covid-19 pandemic and he was having a hard time despite long lines at Bakehouse; the wholesale side of his business had completely plunged because hotels and restaurants did not order any bread, as hardly any customers dined out.

While retail sales at Bakehouse were doing very well, it was just barely enough to get by those few years. After the pandemic was over and borders reopened, sales bounced back very quickly.

Michaud said that the second most popular location after Wan Chai is Tsim Sha Tsui, with mainland customers passing through the area via the high-speed rail and thanks to Xiaohongshu, these visitors will go to Bakehouse and pickup not one box of egg tarts (six per box), but eight -- yes eight boxes of egg tarts. 

The flaky egg tarts are made with sourdough

But then someone on Xiaohongshu posted that if they wanted to skip the lines in Tsim Sha Tsui they should go to the Causeway Bay location.

There are even people in Taiwan who fly to Hong Kong specifically to stand in line at Bakehouse to buy the egg tarts and then get back on the next flight to deliver them to people who have ordered them online.

Some local residents have given up lining up for the prized egg tarts, saying because Bakehouse is trying to keep up with demand, quality has dropped...

Last year it was reported Bakehouse sold a whopping 18,000 to 20,000 egg tarts per day. At HK$12.50 each, that's a cool HK$91.25 million annually.

Quite amazing considering Michaud and his team were experimenting with some leftover sourdough dough to make egg tarts.

And they really are delicious. 

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...

 

Neighbourhood Bakery Opens

Cinnamon roll, plum pastry, croissant and pain au chocolat

Finally! A new bakery opened a few blocks from our home last week and it's already become very popular.

Called Bread Culture, the bakery used to be in Calgary, but the owners were burnt out and relocated to Vancouver. It's ironic considering Alberta is trying to entice British Columbians to move and take advantage of more job opportunities and affordable housing.

I tried to visit Bread Culture before it closed on Friday at 4pm and was shocked to find the shelves were completely empty. The staff said they were sold out long before so i said I would be back again -- earlier.

The next day I went back to the bakery at around 11am and was pleased to see an array of baked goods available, from breads to pastries and even choux or cream puffs.

I told the staff that I had come the day before and everything was sold out.

"Oh yeah we were swarmed by locusts," he said. "Two women came when we opened and took two big boxes of stuff."

Hopefully the bakery will enforce a rule that large orders need to be made 24 hours in advance so that the rest of us can at least try some items.

I was so excited by the selection of baked goods that I brought home a croissant, plum danish, a pain au chocolat and a cinnamon roll, as well as a loaf of sourdough bread.

Everything looked and tasted delicious, not too sweet. For the cinnamon roll we were advised to either heat it up slightly in the toaster oven or microwave to bring out the gooey-ness. I for one was delighted to eat a sourdough loaf again, after having eaten many loaves from Bakehouse in Hong Kong.

Maybe Bread Culture can make sourdough egg tarts too? Can't wait to try the choux pastry next time!