Helene: Boomerang Cafe is my child

Nationality: Australia

Age: 35

Occupation: bakery chef and landlady

Yao Yao, reporter of ■ New Express

Open the door of the coffee shop Boomerang and greet you not only by the aroma of bread and coffee, but also by a green-eyed Australian girl, Helene, the female owner of this small shop. Helene said: it was the smell of bread in the oven that made her fall in love with baking and opened the Boomerang cafe with her friends.

Unlike other cafes, Boomerang's main product is not coffee, but authentic Australian-flavored pastries. Even the name "Boomerang" refers to the boomerang used by Australian aborigines to hunt.

Toast is not romantic at all.

Helene was born in a small town in Queensland, Australia. At the age of 16, she got her first part-time job at school-working in a bakery in town. "in fact, I didn't have much interest in making bread at first, but there were not many jobs to choose from in the town at that time, and the bakery was quite big." Helene did not expect that this accidental opportunity made her infatuated with dough and oven, a love that has lasted for more than a decade.

"No one taught me anything in the store at that time, and most of the baking knowledge was my own experience at home." Helene said.

Previously, the reporter also "wishful thinking" that kneading dough, baking, and then there are delicious snacks out of the oven, the baker is almost as magical as a magician. Helene laughed when he heard this: "it's not as easy and romantic as you think!" She told reporters that in order to serve freshly baked cakes to customers at seven o'clock the next morning, the baking kitchen staff had to work around the clock. In the months after the opening of Boomerang, Helene spent all night in the baking kitchen working with everyone to make pastries. It was an exhausting time.

I opened the bakery because I was homesick.

Eight years ago, Helene's husband was sent by the company to Guangzhou, where the South China branch is located, and Helene followed him to the warm city of the Northern Hemisphere.

Careful Helene found that there are many foreigners in Guangzhou who miss the taste of their hometown as often as she do. she thinks she should use her baking skills to bring authentic Western-style cakes to Guangzhou, which coincides with what her good friend Tracey, a girl also from Australia, thinks. So the two men began to brew a plan to open a bakery.

The early planning phase took half a year, Helene said. "We were together all day, planning, finding stores, buying equipment, designing menus, recruiting cooks and clerks." "the hardest part is a lot of formalities," she said. "

Although there was no entrepreneurial experience in Helene, Australia, and there was no way to compare the business procedures between the two countries, all kinds of materials, forms, and contracts were written in Chinese, so she and Tracey had to find someone to translate it into English to read it, and then ask someone to fill it out in Chinese. Helene recalled the whole process of "pain" and his eyebrows hung down.

Fortunately, there is no lack of support around her. "many friends who do business in Guangzhou give us advice, including Chinese and foreigners, who are very familiar with the process of applying for various licenses." Helene told reporters that the biggest support came from my husband. "he not only said all kinds of words to encourage me, but also came to the store to help during the break." At a barbecue not long ago, the husbands of two female bosses, Helene and Tracey, came to run errands, and the two small families were very busy for the cafe.

Have a small circle of their own

During the rare break, Helene didn't go anywhere, but stayed at home with her husband. He was usually very busy, and only at this time he could make up for it. In addition, she has her own small circle-the International Women's Club (GWIC). These women who come to Guangzhou with their husbands sent abroad often hold various parties, and the coffee shop of He-lene is one of the "strongholds" of their reading clubs.

Helene pointed to the books on the shelves in the store and told reporters that these books were exchanged by the GWIC Book Club. Because it is not easy to find the original foreign language books in Guangzhou, we will generously take out any good books and share them together.

In an interview with Helene, a foreign woman with two children walked into a cafe, sat down at a table not far away, and began to read with coffee and refreshments. Helene told reporters that there are many foreigners living in the Pearl River New Town, and she feels that her cafe is like a link that ties community residents together so that they can get to know each other and become friends.

In the conversation, Helene revealed his satisfaction and attachment to his current life. The reporter asked, if one day your husband is going to work somewhere else, will you give up the small shop you run and go with him? Helene frowned and thought for a long time before smiling and said, "No way, this is my career." But now his job has basically stabilized and only needs a short business trip, so we will continue to live in Guangzhou like this and do what we want to do. "

You ask

I answer.

Guangzhou has changed a lot in the past eight years.

Hi Guangzhou: does opening a bakery in Guangzhou need to make some changes for local consumers' tastes?

Helene: of course I do! Many customers will put forward their own opinions after trying the pastry in the store, for example, a Chinese customer asked if there was any sweet bread, which we didn't have. but from this customer and other local bakeries, we also found that consumers in Guangzhou really like sweet bread, and now we are starting to try to make it.

Hi Guangzhou: eight years in Guangzhou is not short. Do you think there are any changes in Guangzhou?

Hailin: I found that Guangzhou has changed a lot! when we came to Guangzhou eight years ago, we lived on Ersha Island. At that time, the Pearl River New Town was not like this at all. Later, my husband transferred his job, and we spent some time in Hong Kong. After returning to Guangzhou again, we chose to live in the Pearl River New Town without hesitation.

Charming dialogue

Hi Guangzhou: what do you think is charm?

Helene: be confident, educated, sincere and humorous; the most important thing is to accept yourself-being able to be yourself confidently and comfortably is charm.

Hi Guangzhou: who is the most attractive person in your heart?

Helene: there is no doubt that he is my husband. He meets all the above criteria.

Reporter's notes

I want to open a branch store after a year of opening.

Speaking of busy, Helene is really busy. Several times during the interview, she was called to the back office to "put out the fire". She ran away quickly and quickly came to sit in front of the reporter with an apologetic smile. Looking at her busy figure, you can deeply feel her love for this career.

Every year, many foreign women come to Guangzhou with their expatriate husbands, many of whom are in a "semi-retired" state. But Helene has no way to be idle like this. She has a careful mind to spot opportunities, and at the same time has a kind of "aggressiveness"-which is very valuable in women. Helene and Tracey worked closely together, and Boomerang Cafe showed good momentum in its first year of opening. "We often talk about expanding our business and opening branches in the future, and as long as we talk about it, we are extremely excited." Helene said with a smile on his face.

Helene hasn't had a baby yet, but her life is not empty. At this point, she stretched out her hands and said, "this cafe is my baby!"

China Coffee Trading Network: www.gafei.com