B.Y.O.B- Bring Your Own Baguette

All good things have a difficult beginning…

As we fold up the last chair and close the van, Rob sums up our first
day trading: “Let’s put that down to experience, shall we?”.
Twenty-three bánh mì on our official launch is not bad, given that it
was horrible weather and most other market traders claimed it was a
disastrous day. Absent almost all of CapheVN regulars and we still
managed to reach half of our target number. It would not have gone
down in history as a day that was not meant to be, if not for the fact
that my bike was stolen right in front of our eyes a few minutes
before closing. Not happy about losing my bike!

When we decided to do bánh mì, we knew we were getting into the deep
end. Even with Anh’s mom being a bánh mì professional, making the
Vietnamese baguette in the UK is a different game. After our
successful trial runs, none of us could foresee that our bread
supplier would turn out to be a source of grief. The New York Times
called making bánh mì “a race against death” because the bread needs
to be fresh. For all the wonderful fillings that we make from scratch
at home, the meat that is hand-picked from a specialist butcher at
5am, the daikon radish that needs to be soaked with in brine and
squeezed out of water five times, we have lost the battle when the
bread that encases these ingredients is not consistent. Our bread
today was a doughy mess that refused to turn crunchy regardless of how
long we heated it in the oven. The crust was a pale color that
suggested it had not been raised or baked at the right temperature.
This was our first management lesson, when you outsource a process,
you also lose control over it.

So we owe our customers today a heartfelt “sorry” for the bread. Hence
the B.Y.O.B promotion. If you bring your own baguette, we will make
you a bánh mì for £1.50, instead of the usual £2.50 price. As said, we
want to make bánh mì and be the best at it. Before we can open our own
bakery and control the consistency of the bread, we are open to new
sources of good baguette. Share with us your baguette and where you
got it from. If we end up with your baker as our supplier, we shall
give you free bánh mì for a year!

Posted on: 12.07.2009