Brooke Saward
My journey started back in 2012 when I booked a one-way ticket to London to travel in my gap year. I had just finished university and had no idea what I wanted to do with my life ~ but I knew I loved to travel and eat sweet things.
During my gap year I started a travel blog. Soon after it became my full time career, travelling around the world working with brands and reviewing five star hotels.
My work in the luxury travel space saw me work with brands such as Apple, GoPro, Emirates, Qatar Airways, Samsonite, Sony and Olympus among others. It was an incredible immersion into a new life of adventure and new experiences.
It was this career that saw me travel to and sleep in more than 200+ of the world’s best hotel beds. All of this… as a job! I truly felt like I had won the lottery.
Years later, in my mid-twenties, I decided to pursue my other passion: French patisserie. I set off to Paris, as I had many years prior, but this time under the guise of learning how to make the illustrious French macaron. I continued to learn gâteau, viennoiserie and choux pastry techniques. Then I took all of these skills and opened my first bricks and mortar store, by opening a dessert restaurant in the town I grew up in.
After a while, my feet became restless again. I longed for my flaky morning pastry from Carette in Le Marais, or diving into a warm Pastel de Nata fresh out of the oven in Belém. I longed for adventure.
After another stint abroad – this time living in South Africa and travelling periodically for work throughout Africa and Europe, I landed back in Australia in the wake of the pandemic.
This time, when I returned home, I had no reason for being there. I had handed over the keys to the dessert restaurant (to my enthusiastic parents who now run the business as their own). And so I asked myself, where did I want to be living if I was back in Australia. Where could I see myself for years to come?
In 2022 I am opening my next business venture, BROOKI Bake House in Brisbane, Australia. Watch this space for updates as my journey evolves once more!
Love, Brooke
