Fawkner milk bar selling 1000 custom-made doughnuts every day

We are in the grip of a global doughnut obsession. Far from abating, our bizarre fascination keeps growing, elevating this humble deep-fried food to cult status.

Witness the cronut, that crazy Frankenfood croissant/doughie hybrid that spurred a worldwide frenzy, a Beatles-esque mania in the food world, with salivating punters queuing around the block in New York and beyond.

In England, baker Justin Gellatly regularly sells 2000 doughnuts on a Saturday in London's Borough Market. His are fancy, fermented for 24 hours and with top-notch fillings such as caramel custard topped with salted honeycomb.

Zena Samia and Jimmy Othman sell 1000 doughnuts a day from their milk bar, Jimmy's Place, in Fawkner. Photo: Pat Scala

 

Now, let's head to Fawkner, a quiet residential suburb in Melbourne's north. Three weeks ago Zena Samia and Jimmy Othman started selling Nutella-filled doughnuts from their backstreet milk bar, "Jimmy's Place". They posted a pic on Facebook (their page had 165 likes), and placed an order for 75 doughnuts. Within three hours, all the doughnuts were pre-sold.

Day two: they increased their order to 200. Those doughnuts sold out by 10.30am. "Within one week we upped our order to 800," says Samia. At last count, Jimmy's had 2930 likes (and rising), and sells 1000 doughnuts a day, most of which are gone by 6pm. That's 7000 doughnuts a week. Massive!

What's interesting is that these aren't "name" doughnuts – there's no "Zumbo" or Tivoli Road tag attached. They are made by an Italian baker in Thomastown who Samia approached after taste-testing umpteen offerings. They collaborated on the shape, the softness of the dough, the size, the amount of icing sugar, the filling, and – bam! – doughnut frenzy. He is now baking exclusively for Jimmy's.

Source : Good Food    Nina Rousseau  June 1st 2015