Susan Koh wasn’t always a baker. Instead, she started her career in fashion in her native Singapore. “I was actually a fashion designer and a fashion buyer for Polo Ralph Lauren in Singapore,” Koh says.
“But when my husband and I migrated to Brisbane 16 years ago, there weren’t so many of those jobs here.” So Koh started baking at home and would return to Singapore regularly pre-COVID for “very basic training” as a pastry chef. Later, she mastered her trade working in Brisbane at cafés such as Dello Mano – celebrated for its brownies – and Florence in Camp Hill.
Still, you can see the designer’s eye in Koh’s new café, Nos. Bakehouse, which she opened with chef Hank Lyu earlier this month. It’s in the lovingly thought-through fit-out, with its vintage furniture and light fittings, carefully arranged framed pictures on the dining room wall, and winsome garden setting out back.
Brisbane’s most exciting restaurant openings of 2024 It’s also in the immaculate cakes and sandos the cafe is producing out of its cosy Annerley Road premises, formerly Penny Coffee Co and before that, a Fujifilm development lab. “They’re definitely related,” Koh says. “In terms of baking, it helps a lot – I like to put my own little twist on things.
In terms of designing the shop, it helps a lot because you know what works in terms of colour and so on.” Koh and Lyu’s menu has changed since they first opened Nos. Bakehouse, simply because of the number of pu.
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