Edward St Bakery in final of T&A Best Bakery competition

“One customer says she would rather come to us because she knows there is nothing in our ingredients list that you wouldn’t want to be there,” said Lisa.

“It’s like baking at home, but people don’t have to bake it themselves. It’s transparent in the way that customers can ask, ‘can you bake this for me because we use to have it at home in Poland’ – and we say ‘yes, we can do that’.

Edward St Bakery (Image: Google Street View)

“So people feel like it’s their shop and their products. If we stop a product that people are used to, they’re really upset! It’s a homely shop.”

Lisa had been made redundant and was testing the local market with the support of a business coach. It wasn’t long before she built up a loyal customer base and, two moves later, Lisa’s shop at 40 Bingley Road, Bradford, has a wide appeal.

“We’re not really a traditional bakery in the sense that we do mainly English traditional baked goods,” said Lisa.

“We’re a cross between Asian flavours as in Pakistan, India, Bangladesh flavours and more traditional stuff. We do sourdough bread and we do some slightly traditional cakes – but we definitely use a lot of spices, still keeping it classic but with a lot of spicing."

Lisa stocks a lot of vegetarian and vegan goods. No alcohol is used, and meat for traditional sausage or bacon sandwiches is sourced from trusted local butchers. What makes the traditional sandwiches extra special is Lisa’s homemade tamarind ketchup.

Some of the products on offer at Edward St Bakery (Image: Edward St Bakery)

“If we hadn’t started in my house, when people thought that it was like a community secret, I don’t think we would have such solid, hardcore fans.

"But we get lots of new people coming, which is great. Our Christmas orders come from the core people that we started with so it’s a bit like our customers feel like it’s ‘their’ bakery."

Bestsellers include the samosa sandwich made with Lisa’s own daal, bread and chutneys – it’s vegan, but Lisa says but lots of meat eaters buy it as well.

Other items on the menu include a masala fish finger sandwich.

“This is quite new and really popular,” said Lisa.

Traditional goods include custard tarts, florentines, chocolate brownies (which won a Taste award), caramel shortbread, and bread and butter pudding – but made with croissants. There is also tiffin and a cornflake tart.

“Elderly people say our bread tastes what bread used to taste like," said Lisa.

“A lot of people come in who want a chat. You see people getting more and more comfortable, which is what I really like.

“I think the community does make a massive difference. We are lucky where we are. Here, it feels like the community makes it. I wouldn’t want my shop anywhere else.” 

The voting coupon for the competition will run in our print edition until September 14.