About Ali’s Kitchen & Bakehouse

My journey began with a love for baking at a very young age. My Mum was a huge influence, she taught me lots of cooking skills and on leaving  school I went on to one of the top catering colleges in the country.  I always had a dream to have my own food business and in 2011  I fulfilled that dream when I took over a small cafe on the outskirts of Malvern, Worcs..  In November 2012, I opened a larger cafe in the popular shopping area of Barnards  Green.  Following a change in personal circumstances I moved in to a unit focusing on baking cakes for local businesses and outside catering.  However I missed the humdrum of running a cafe and when a commercial property near to where I lived became vacant I decided to convert it into a cafe/kitchen with the help of my son Jake who was also a chef and a keen baker.

 

Cooking and baking everything from scratch soon made the cafe a go to destination and Jake’s Sourdough Bread became legendary.  In 2020 Jake decided to relocate and had to give me a crash course in Sourdough Baking with the plan that if I could at least produce enough bread to keep it on the menu that would be enough.  

 

My first attempt was a disaster but after a while I was getting lots of fabulous feedback from customers and they wanted to buy whole loaves as they said it was the best sourdough bread they had tried.  In 2022 I decided to see what the experts thought of my bread so submitted my 65/35 (white/wholemeal&rye) sourdough bread to the Guild of Fine Foods and was delighted to find out in August 2022 that I had been awarded a Great Taste award!

 

After selling my cafe/kitchen in 2023 I focused on selling my bread and other baked goods at local markets and to local businesses. 

 

I have now relocated and as well as selling my goods at local markets I am running cooking and baking workshops to pass my knowledge to others.