In times like these, we all need comfort food more than ever. If you’re looking to indulge in some bread or pastries try some delicious from the best baker in Hong Kong.
Bakehouse is definitely one of the best options you can find in Hong Kong.
Why Did We Pick Bakehouse as the Best Baker in Hong Kong?
3/4 of our authors picked the Bakehouse as the best baker in Hong Kong! So that will be it, I love their egg tart the most, my mates love them all-day breakfast.
My mate’s girlfriend loves their blueberry pastries and croissants, the remainings are just not so into pastries and bread!
Best Baker in Hong Kong – Owner of the Bakehouse, Grégoire Michaud
Grégoire is raised in Valais, Switzerland, veteran pastry chef and master baker Grégoire Michaud cut his culinary teeth with an apprenticeship at a local bakery at the age of 15. Today, he helms an expanding enterprise that is feeding Asia’s love affair with artisanal bread.
After concluding an eight-year tenure as the Executive Pastry Chef at Four Seasons Hong Kong, Michaud decided to scale up his expertise in artisan production by opening Bread Elements in 2013, a centralized bakery providing sourdough and pastries to some of Hong Kong’s finest kitchens, while also offering consultancy services and turn-key baking solutions to hotels and F&B operators.
With artisanal bread growing in popularity and appreciation, he opened Bakehouse by Gregoire Michaud in Wanchai in 2018. A vibrant gathering space that champions craftsmanship and quality, the beloved neighborhood bakery is credited for nurturing the city’s appreciation of artisanal baked goods and sourdough loaves.
Following the success of its first location, Bakehouse opened its second location in Soho, Central in 2020.
Best Baker in Hong Kong – The Bakehouse
The whole concept behind Bakehouse is “Bringing people together over good bread”, provide the finest quality of European-style baked goods and sourdough bread.
We love that the bread of bakehouse are all handmade with the finest ingredients, and baked onsite everyday.
The artisan neighborhood bakery weaves time-honored traditions and methods in a range of sweet and savory creations meant to bring the inimitable comfort one only finds in the depths of bread.
Following the very successful first location in Tai Wong Street East, Wan Chai, which opened in 2018 and has since become a vital part of the community, Bakehouse opens its second shop, in SOHO by 2020. (5 Staunton Street, Central)
Best Baker in Hong Kong – The Bakehouse (Interview)
About Bakehouse and Grégoire
Why did you start the Bakehouse?
From the very beginning, it has always been our aspiration to make artisanal bread more accessible to Hong Kongers.
Growing with the community has been our greatest pleasure and we hope to further this appreciation of craft baked goods across the region in the years to come.
How did everything start? Why did you want to step into the bakery business?
My Grand-Parents were farmers, and I grew up spending a lot of time helping them. Everything we ate was homemade, we did not have many things from the supermarket.
When my Mother and Grand-Mother were cooking or baking I was always very interested to see what they were doing as I love eating. Then I wanted to learn how to do it myself so I could eat whenever I wanted! 🙂
Why Hong Kong? What makes you want to stay here and start the Bakehouse?
I worked in Europe, in America and I wanted to discover Asia. I sent my CV randomly to 20 top hotels in Asia and got a few positive replies including The Regent Hotel in Hong Kong.
I arrived in the summer of 1999 and fell in love with the city and its people. Bakehouse was the logical step of my career.
After having made my own company for wholesale bakery Bread Elements which supplies Hong Kong’s finest food and beverage establishments, I always wanted to be able to connect with the people of Hong Kong and bring them great bakeries.
Can you describe a typical day of your work life?
The typical day doesn’t exist in my world. The diversity of my days is very broad.
What I know is when I wake up and when I go home. The rest in between varies with activities such as product development, baking, visiting the Wan Chai and Soho shop to make sure everything is smooth, meeting clients, helping charities, speaking to suppliers, visiting new sites for our future stores, and so on, the pace is crazy, and I love it!
What is the best part of your work?
I think the best part is the satisfaction we bring to people, and even more so when it is children. I love seeing a kid biting our pastries and smile of happiness! This is the best feedback I could hope for.
The other best part is to walk into our bakery and to smell freshly baked sourdough bread, it brings back childhood memories.
What are the biggest challenges of your work?
There are many challenges, it starts with making sure we can have a steady supply of our core ingredients such as flour and butter.
We try to control the supply chain from start to finish and to that end we work directly with the artisan making these ingredients for us.
Another challenge is to keep training our team to ensure the highest level of quality and service; this is probably the biggest challenge, but we are lucky to have a great team with us!
What makes Bakehouse stand out from other bakery shops?
Our three operating principle are:
- Top-quality ingredients and recipes
- Freshly baked all day long and
- Affordable price
We stick to these principles and people recognize them. Many other bakery shops are doing either one of these 3 things, but not all 3 together.
What is the biggest difference between working in Hong Kong and Europe as a baker?
20 years ago, it was very different because we could not get much quality flour and the bakers in Hong Kong did not have the notion of highly hydrated sourdough bread.
Nowadays there is no problem; you can do the same quality bread as in Europe, no excuses 🙂
And if anyone tells you “the weather”, it is not a real excuse. All you need to do is bake things fresh!
Hong Kong Tips by Grégoire Michaud
And secret tips about Hong Kong? Like your favorite food, places to visit… or a great photo spot?
Hong Kong Travelling Tips
I live on Lantau Island and Tong Fuk beach on the Southside of Lantau is a great hidden destination for a day outing and picnic with a great loaf of sourdough. The beach is very quiet and beautiful!
Hong Kong Food Tips
Some char siu from Sun Kwai Heung in Chai Wan (near my working place).
The Best Baker in Hong Kong – The Bakehouse: Final Words
We really love Bakehouse’s production, their bread are affordable, tasty and comforting. If you love egg, make sure you try out their egg tarts!
Here are the details of the Bakehouse:
Website: bakehouse.hk
SOHO Bakehouse (Only Take Out)
- Opening Hours: 0700-1900
- Address: 5 Staunton Street, Central, Hong Kong
Wan Chai Bakehouse (Bakery & Café)
- Opening Hours: 0800-1800
- Address: 14 Tai Wong Street East, Wanchai, Hong Kong