Lisburn’s gritty World Bread hero Cathy eyes growth beyond pandemic

Lisburn chef Cathy Stevenson, who was recently voted the UK World Bread Hero for Northern Ireland, is hoping the Daily Apron café she runs with business partner Katrina Collins will be able open its doors this weekend.

“Business was really good over the summer and early autumn, and we had recovered much of our customer base from the first lockdown and before the current

restrictions on hospitality,” Cathy says.

“We had invested in measures to ensure the health and safety of customers and employees including the latest sanitising technology such as a dry fog spray system. Customers were required to wear masks on entering and leaving the café and also when they were going to the toilet. Social distancing was applied throughout the café.”

“We did everything possible to ensure a safe eating and working environment,” Katrina adds. “While we both understand and support the steps to halt the spread of this terrible virus, the latest restrictions were still a heavy blow to our business.

Things are hard. We are also concerned, of course, about our 16 employees.”

Adversity, however, is nothing new to Cathy, Katrina’s close friend and longstanding business partner. And Cathy’s fortitude and resilience clearly impressed the judges in last month’s World Bread Heroes, held as part of the annual Tiptree World Bread Awards, a popular event within the bakery industry which was somewhat curtailed this year due to the coronavirus pandemic. It’s a competition which has seen local bakeries here picking up awards for products as traditional wheaten bread.

Cathy and Katrina, both experienced and self-taught chefs, run the café and bakery in the Smyth Patterson store in Lisburn’s Market Square. Both share a passion for good food with locally sourced ingredients and excellent customer service.

The attractive café, which is a member of successful promotional body Food NI, produces a vast range of quality breads, cakes, and tray bakes for consumption in the café - before lockdown - and since for take away. Everything, Katrina says, is freshly baked from scratch using the best of local ingredients wherever practicable.

Katrina continues: “A passion for cooking is not unique but Cathy’s love of baking and mentoring younger staff interested in the trade motivates her every day. She also has a strong commitment to local community engagement which was demonstrated during the first lockdown, an engagement which also influenced the judges in the World Bread Awards.”

Cathy surmounted health problems to continue working alongside Katrina, a qualified psychologist, in the kitchen and in helping to run the successful café. The most serious of Cathy’s health setbacks was a head injury suffered while working in the kitchen. This was in February 2019 and subsequently led to a disorder in the inner ear which proved to be very debilitating, resulting in a slow return to work. It left Cathy with migraines and visual vertigo for life.

Cathy was determined not allow the injury to affect her work in the kitchen. She developed a way of working that supports her love of cooking for people and working with staff.

“She’s a real inspiration to us all at the Daily Apron,” Katrina continues. “During the first lockdown, Cathy baked treats for a local residential development of more than 20 houses, our two families of together some 15 houses as well as local services such as hospitals, Post Office delivery men and counter staff, local pharmacies and other in the wider Lisburn area.”

The dedicated duo delivered the foods themselves in a little red cart.

“People looked forward to seeing the red cart with goodies from the café arriving at their door,” Kristina continues.

Cathy and Katrina, both from Lurgan, have been running cafés together in Lisburn for many years including the former Arora in Bow Street Mall. They moved to the present location in March of this year and shortly afterwards faced the first coronavirus lockdown. “It was a real shock to the system so soon after the opening of the café,” Katrina continues. It reopened in July with 16 employees on the payroll including five new starts.

The small business, according to Kristina, is increasingly seeing shoppers seeking products, especially breads that are perceived as being healthier, from artisan producers they know and trust. “One of our big successes in recent months are handcrafted sourdough breads which are seen as being healthier,” Katrina continues. “Customers really do appreciate that everything we produce is baked freshly in house using only the best local ingredients.”

It’s an adaptable and customer-focused small business that’s looking beyond the coronavirus.

“We are planning for the future, looking ahead to the time when the virus is no longer the threat it currently is,” Cathy continues. “That day is coming and, we hope, sooner rather than later.”

Belfast siblings, Ashley and Amy French, were declared runners up for Northern Ireland. Together they run French Village, a second generation bakery wholesaler with retail outlets.

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