ABOUT US
Shynara Bakisheva founded FAB Bakery in 2017. Shynara is Kazahk and started off her adult life working as an interpreter for an oil and gas company. Her relocation to the UK came when she met her English husband Russell.
​Once settled in Newcastle, she became dismayed at her inability to find bread of a high quality. In Kazakhstan, bread is a symbol of hospitality and holds a lot of value. In Russia, bread and salt is a traditional gift brought by guests to your home too.
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Frustrated by the lack of bread choices in the North, Shynara enrolled on a bread course in Scotland. After completing these studies, she knew she had more to learn about bread. In 2014, she enrolled in a 10-month Advanced Diploma in Bread Making from the School of Artisan Food. When she returned, she worked at Fenwick's in Newcastle and Vallum Farm in Northumberland. She built up her reputation and found the confidence to launch on her own. Fresh Artisan Bread Ltd (FAB) Bakery was born in 2017.
Shynara began by supplying her bread for wholesale and featuring at local markets. But she longed to have her own site. An opportunity arose to lease the empty unit on Fenham Hall Drive. The shop had been a well-loved butchery and it seemed the perfect home for a place of her own. At the beginning of April and in the midst of lockdown, Shynara launched the FAB Bakery. Thought it was a challenge time to open, the bakery became a beacon of the lockdown landscape! The bakery often has queues of customers around the block, waiting patiently for their daily bread.
MEET THE TEAM
A musician, a neurologist, an architect, a DEFRA project manager, and a carpenter (that's Chris, and he's not in this shot). All have become bakers, and Shynara could not be without them!