Taste of America

16/07/2014 14:15:12

The Hummingbird Bakery launched its first site in Notting Hill in early 2004, bringing ‘American goodness’ to London. Ten years later, business is still booming. Maria Bracken met Tarek Malouf, the founder

“The idea of setting up a bakery came to me in early 2002,” says Malouf who previously worked at ABC in their London Bureau before setting up the business. “My sister was living in New York at the time and we used to go and eat lots of cupcakes and traditional American goodies every time I’d visit her. It was on one such visit that I realised I wanted to open my own bakery to bring the authentic taste of American baking to London.”

He says his love for cupcakes comes from his childhood: “I’ve always been familiar with and enjoyed American baking. Having studied at The American School in London, I’d grown up with a great appreciation for the delights of American baking. I found that London, despite its vibrant food scene, offered nowhere that did American baking really well. So I decided to solve the problem myself and went about setting up The Hummingbird Bakery.”

There are now six London sites, with further expansion plans in the pipeline. “We are continuing to look for new locations in London and in urban areas around the UK for future branches. We are also working with our franchise partners in the Middle East on the launch of a third branch in Dubai. Our agreement with our franchise partners allows for launches across the whole of the Middle East but, just as in the UK, we taking things one branch at a time.”

Freshness and quality are also high on the agenda for the business, Malouf says: “One of our core principles is that every Hummingbird Bakery branch has to bake on-site to ensure products are sold fresh and so that we can bake to order. This means that the locations we choose for new branches have to be able to accommodate a full kitchen which does impose certain limitations. As we’ve grown we’ve also had to overcome certain logistical challenges to do with our supply chain and in maintaining consistency of product across all branches. These are typical challenges involved in scaling a business of our nature and, whilst we know we’ll have to adapt to meet these challenges as we continue to grow, we certainly won’t compromise on our values or the quality of our products.”

Talking of quality, The Hummingbird’s menu is entirely American inspired, using the best ingredients: “I regularly travel to the US to explore the latest trends in contemporary American baking to gain inspiration. As such, we’re always introducing new products, many of which make their first appearance in our cookbooks. Our menu encompasses the cupcakes, layer cakes, whoopie pies and tray bakes we have become renowned for together with a large selection of American style desserts such as cheesecakes and pies, which are available to customers by pre-order. We keep things fresh with our specials, which are limited edition cupcake flavours that we refresh every month. Currently we are running Key Lime cupcakes and Snickers cupcakes, both of which have proved very popular.”

It is the chocolate cupcake topped with pink frosting which inspired Malouf with the company’s branding colours: “These can be seen throughout all of our branches. Our iconic Red Velvet cupcake has also inspired the use of deep red velvet seat coverings in our branches. The cleanly expressed design of our branches reflects the indulgent yet unfussy design of our products.”

Malouf says 10 years on, the vision for Hummingbird Bakery remains the same and always will. “We aim to provide a warm and welcoming environment, filled with the wonderful aromas of home baking.”