PERHAPS A GIFT VOUCHER FOR MUM?: MOTHER'S DAY
Nicknamed blue as a kid, Mike Russell spent his twenties seeking that thing that would make him tick. Advertising wasn't it. Discovering baking at 25 was the aha! moment, and he moved around honing his skills with leading bakers across Sydney and Melbourne. In 2016, he and his then-banker wife Mia Russell sold their house, upset their parents, and threw everything they had at a tiny shopfront in Elsternwick, swapping blue for bleu because it sounds gourmet, right? Eight years later the couple are full time in their business - which turns out 40,000 items a week, and regularly sells out. They divide their time between two sites in Melbourne and a shiny outpost in Sydney's Double Bay.
