From Chocolate Dreams to Patisserie Queen: The Sweet Journey of London’s Chocolatier Turned Entrepreneur!

Words by Tamara Al Saadi – Chef & Founder of T by Tamara

Growing up in a family that loves to cook and bake, the kitchen was always a fun space for me. I would always find myself cooking and baking with my mother and grandmother when she visits us. I do also love sweets and chocolate. 

I remember telling my parents when I was really young that when I grow up, I wanted to have a chocolate factory one day, due to my chocolate obsession. 

Fast forward to going into university – I studied Fine Arts and Art History at the American University of Beirut. During my time there I realised how much I loved arts especially sculpture making. After graduation, it was difficult the find a job in the arts world. I worked in different fields and always tried to figure out what my passion was. I also felt the need to find that out before settling for a job. 

During the time I was “experimenting” as I would like to call it, I would also find myself baking random recipes in the kitchen, and it always gave me a peaceful feeling. I really enjoyed it, until deciding to move to London to do some courses in culinary school at Le Cordon Bleu. It was just something I wanted to explore, and didn’t have much of a plan back then. 

Once I started school, I realised how much I loved it, I really enjoyed studying – arts students are typically not academic, we don’t enjoy school, but this was something I really loved and looked forward to going to class every morning. 

After finishing the year, and doing courses in cake decorating, which is what I found myself liking the most I decided to pursue this new born passion and do more courses in that field to get better. Of course, living in London that year was also one of the best experiences I had. Growing up we used to visit London a lot as a family, and I have always loved coming here, so it didn’t feel like it was a strange city or hard to live in. 

After finishing the year in London, I remember saying to myself that one day I would move here and have my own shop. Back when I told myself that it was just a girl dreaming big. Dreaming of living in a big city and being independent. 

I then spent 4 years in Jordan, Amman building my work and developing my skills. I loved and enjoyed every minute of my job. I took cake and dessert orders from home. During those years I was also hand in hand working on my dream of moving to London and starting my business here. 

I would spend my nights envisioning my dream, as they say when you envision something and think about it every single day you eventually make it happen. Of course that wasn’t enough, it needed a lot of hard work and dedication to get to it as well. I would fly to London, speak to lawyers, speak to business advisors, friends and family about what my concept was and how I could make it happen. 

It was a tough road, getting everything together and making the decision to move here. Of course, that’s when I came across Innovator International with my business plan and my vision. After getting approved by them, and having multiple conversations with founder Nick, I remember it like it was yesterday – he said to me ‘Tamara, your voice while speaking to me about this has so much passion and love of what you want to do, and that is the most important part of your business’. 

I am forever grateful for them, for all the support and help they gave me. I then moved to London after getting my visa during the pandemic – I had to postpone it until things settled down and there were flights from Jordan to finally make the move. 

I would say this all happened at a time where life wasn’t at its best, where people reached points of making major life changes after being locked up for 2 years of covid. It was a tough decision for me, but my gut told me this is what I want to do and this is where I see myself. 

My journey to finding a space that fit my vision, finding staff that will love their job as much as I do, all that was not easy, but it was beautiful and through it all, I would remind myself that this is what I love and this is what I am passionate about… 

Karen from Innovator helped me a lot during my journey, whether it was emotional support or business support – she was there and I am forever grateful for her, and for the whole team!

Until this day, I wouldn’t say it has been easy, I wouldn’t say that I have had good days everyday, but I know that this is exactly where i envisioned myself to be, and that is enough to keep me going, to keep me dedicated and passionate.

The journey taught me a lot, it taught me that humans aren’t born successful, they aren’t born happy. This is a journey you have to go through and truly believe in yourself and in what you can do to reach those goals. It is about learning that no one is a failure, even if you do fail, it just means it wasn’t meant for you. You get yourself up and you try again and when you do it all with love and passion it makes it all worthwhile. 

Turn the ‘No’ to a ‘Yes’ but by being passionate – when people see the passion in you they give you the yes, they fall in love with your passion, and your energy. I never accepted a no, I always felt like there was a solution to every problem I faced and I still face, as long as the love is still there.