Intro
Awesome Kitchen was set up in 2011 and prevailed suddenly during the Covid hard time. Its weekly revenue boomed ten times by then. As Awesome Kitchen gradually developed in the last ten years, Amanda, the business owner, has also grown from a chef into a successful self-taught baker. Her pure interest in bakery and light-hearted attitude towards success keeps her perseveringly trying out the perfect recipe.
Background
Amanda is a British-born Chinese who was brought up in a family running a Chinese takeaway. She started to help her parents with the business at the early age of nine. Under the great influence of her family, Chinese food is never a second thought when it comes to Amanda’s career path. Solely inspired by a colourful cookbook, Amanda commits to every item she makes with the simplest and purest feelings -- her love and care.
Inspiration and Development
To Amanda, turning from a chef into a baker is more about serendipity. Passion can always be lit up just at one moment, promptly and compellingly. A dessert cookbook from a friend sparked an idea in Amanda all of a sudden, “I never had the interest in baking. It just happened overnight that I wanted to bake. Then it went on and on and never stopped.”, she said.
All things are difficult before they get easy. Countless negative comments and complaints flooded out when Amanda first advertised her bakery on the Chinese Facebook community, where people believed they can purchase fresher and better ones from Chinatown. In the first few years, Awesome Kitchen barely had any customers. However, such a situation has altered during the lockdown period. Massive orders went flying. Amanda decided to leave her takeaway business and devoted herself entirely to Awesome Kitchen. It seemed Amanda seized her luck in such a difficult time, but her hard work and perseverance actually paid off.
The Best Recipe
“Wife Cakes” are one of most famous traditional Chinese bakes. Amanda has worked on the recipe over the years and finally made it with a new baking method. It now became Awesome Kitchen’s signature bakes. Always believe in ‘practice makes perfect’, which is one of the keys to Amanda’s success.
The extraordinarily proper sweetness and strong fragrance make Amanda’s bakes outstanding. For example, one of the ingredients, Pandan Emulco, is so pure that it makes the bakes smell different from all the other ones in UK bakeries. As for the coffee cakes, they capture customers’ taste buds with top espresso powder.
Pure and top ingredients, they are as simple as Amanda’s motivations and wishes -- the happy faces from customers and the incredible feelings that food can bring to people.
In the future
Awesome Kitchen is booming. Great business opportunities and some universities are waving at Amanda. For now, she is working hard and patient, making her dream come true step by step.
From all of us at 8pron
We want to thank Amanda for sharing her story and journey. She bakes with her passion and love, and she also brings us uniqueness and shows us different culture's food, sweets and pastry.
When we received the taster from her, including mooncakes, walnut & hazelnut cookies, and wifey cakes. I remember our office was ecstatic, especially for the wifey cakes. One of the shared office colleagues from Hong Kong said that the wifey cakes bring her so much memories and nostalgia feelings. She enjoyed it so much that she got some back home to her family to share; and said she couldn't find any good ones even in Chinatown.
We enjoyed our collaboration with Amanda and her Awesome Kitchen. We are indeed lucky to have known her and have the opportunity to share her small business journey with the rest of the readers.
You will find her tasty sweet treats, homemade food and more in Shrewsbury areas (SY), and you'll be happy to know that she does deliver all over the UK. Order homemade sweets from Amanda. Nothing is better than homemade.