The Friendship Bakery will be leaving its home at the Mark Moran Vaucluse retirement village, but baker Ed Halmagyi says the program’s young bakers will be back at work at Nefesh Synagogue in Bondi on Monday.
The bakery closes its doors today after years of attracting large crowds for its challahs, cakes and other kosher baked goods, with its Friday trade becoming a regular part of Shabbat preparations across Sydney’s eastern suburbs and beyond.
Speaking to JWire on the bakery’s final day, Halmagyi said the training program for young people with disability would continue without interruption.
“The important thing is that there is no disruption to the service we are providing to our team,” he said.
“We will be at Nefesh Shul as of Monday morning, ready to go.”
Halmagyi, a baker and television chef, is also well known as the owner of Avner’s Bakery in Surry Hills, which closed after antisemitic attacks, harassment and threats.
He said working with the Friendship Bakery had become the most rewarding job of his career.
“This is absolutely the very best job I’ve ever had,” he told JWire.
“You can do a 12, 14 or 15-hour day with this team of incredible young people and get on your bike at the end of the night with a smile as big as the Opera House.”
He said the work had changed his understanding of what made a job meaningful.
“If you want to know what a meaningful life is about, focus on making a difference and see the difference that makes to you,” he said.
The Friendship Bakery, operated by Sydney Friendship Circle, provides training, work experience and practical skills for young people with disability.
It opened in 2016, closed during the COVID-19 pandemic, and then reopened at Mark Moran Vaucluse in 2021.
Thousands of customers have visited the bakery on Fridays, when people queued for challah and other treats ahead of Shabbat.
The operation will move to Nefesh Synagogue and Community Centre in Roscoe Street, Bondi, from Monday.
The Nefesh site will operate as a teaching and production centre rather than a retail shop.
Halmagyi said the temporary operation would be renamed the Friendship Test Kitchen while the organisation searched for a larger and more retail-friendly permanent home.
“It’s gone from being Friendship Bakery to being Friendship Test Kitchen, because that is what we’re doing,” he said.
He said the setup would give trainees several weeks to test recipes, refine products and learn new techniques.
“We have this extraordinary opportunity to spend four, six or eight weeks making new products, refining them and finding new ones to develop and teach, so that when we find a new space, we can hit the ground running,” he said.
Halmagyi said the bakery’s products were already being shaped by the creativity of its trainees.
One 19-year-old recently developed a roasted caramel tart after being given ingredients and guidance on how to test and improve a recipe.
“It is not OK. It is not just good. It is absolutely sublime,” Halmagyi said.
“He is creative and committed to learning.”
The bakery has also developed a two-strand turmeric challah to help trainees with limited vision or difficulty with manual dexterity.
Half the dough is coloured yellow, making it easier to follow and match the strands during braiding.
Halmagyi said a new 19-year-old trainee named Sarah had braided 65 loaves in one day using the method.
“They were immaculate,” he said.
“You could put them in any bakery in Australia.”
He said the success of the method showed why training should be adapted to each person’s abilities rather than imposing a single way of working.
“Stop telling young people, particularly young people with disability, no,” he said.
“Meet them where they are and provide the support that lets them do it correctly.”
Halmagyi said even a small change to a recipe or production process could produce professional-quality results.
“If that means changing the flavour profile of one of your products, isn’t that the shortest way to go from where you are to excellence?” he said.
A flyer handed to customers on the bakery’s final day carried the headline, “It’s not goodbye.”
“Together, we will continue to grow, serve and build community for many years to come,” it said.
Halmagyi said the strong turnout on the final day reflected the community’s affection for the trainees and their work.
“What you’re seeing here today is the community coming together to celebrate what these kids do,” he told JWire.
“None of us really wanted to have to move. It’s happening, but there is so much community support.”
Rabbi Sender Kavka, who co-founded Sydney Friendship Circle with his wife, Chana, in
2007, and now serves as its CEO, told JWire the move to Nefesh would create new opportunities, including group challah bakes in the synagogue hall.
Halmagyi said he was confident the bakery would soon find a permanent home.
“We will end up in a new, bigger and more retail-friendly space,” he told JWire. “With the incredible turnout and community support, that will solve itself in the next few weeks.”
For more information about the Friendship Bakery, email [email protected].