Graham Hornigold: From Michelin stars to selling doughnuts

The Staff Canteen

After his long stint at hospitality group Hakkasan came to an end, Graham Hornigold opted to go it alone.

The 2007 UK pastry chef of the year has a storied background. Starting out as a teenager, sweeping floors and stacking bread in a bakery in St Albans, Graham joined Watford catering college. He would go on to study international culinary arts at the University of West London, having already started his career in earnest.

After spells in the pastry section at London hotels Mandarin Oriental and The Lanesborough, Graham joined Hakkasan Group in 2011. There he became responsible for all patisserie and desserts across the group’s restaurants in London, Asia, the US and more, where Michelin stars and other awards were won along the way.

In 2017, that came to an end and Graham set up management company Smart Patisserie Ltd.

In 2018, he headed out to Kuwait, to carry out some consultancy work, when the idea came to him – the reintroduction to the UK market of the finger doughnut.

The Origins of Longboys: A New Take on Doughnuts

Picking up the story from there, Graham explained: “The idea came to me and my then partner Heather (Kaniuk), and we decided that we would bring a long form doughnut back to the UK because the market was saturated by, no disrespect to the competition, but large, round, overly sweet and just everything on top of the doughnuts.

“We just thought we'd bring another level to the game essentially. And in order to impact the market, we just thought we'd bring a different form, which was the reintroduction of the finger doughnut.

“It's literally there to bridge the gap between high end pastry and the man on the street, the general public, in the sense that you're paying £4.50 to £5.50 for a pastry, which is exactly the same price as a few years ago now. But that's what you were paying for an entremet in Yauatcha, which was obviously one-star Michelin.

“So, for me, I was just like, well, there's got to be a bit more quality involved.

Longboys came here to disrupt the market of everything that is round and sweet and to just bring some balance.

“The long form is easier to eat and more flavours can be taken down so that every mouthful is slightly more different. That's literally it and why we’re #notroundhere!”

He added: “There's layers of flavour, versus just a sugar fix. That's very important. That's literally the mantra we've had throughout all of our career, less sweet, less fat, or fats which are stimulating, so that you go on a bit of a journey with anything that you eat, versus just filling a hole.”

Longboys, Graham Hornigold, UK pastry chef, gourmet doughnut, the staff canteen

What Makes Longboys Different? - A Gourmet Doughnut Experience

Longboys launched in the UK in 2019, at Boxpark Wembley. It now has stores at Borough Yards, King’s Cross and Liverpool Street, as well as pop-ups, a van used at events, a thriving social media platform and music offerings with Longboys Lounge. Last week saw the gourmet doughnut brand launch within Market Halls Canary Wharf.

Asked what separates Longboys from others on the market, Graham said: “Our ambience when you come in. If you're familiar with our van and if you're familiar with our festival setup, or you can go on Spotify and listen to our playlists and we have this thing called Longboys Lounge. So we're trying to not just create a doughnut shop, but it's a space you can come relax, chill, have a cup of coffee, bit of a sugar fix at the event side or when we're doing the pop-ups in the offices it's a nice space to come and see.

“In the summer here (Coal Drops Yard), it's packed. New Year's Day here, we have DJs coming in because nobody else is open and after New Year's Eve, everyone is pretty hanging. So they just come here and we have an absolute blast. Probably one of our best days of the year is New Year's Day here.”

Longboys, Graham Hornigold, UK pastry chef, gourmet doughnut, the staff canteen

Facing Challenges as a Business Owner

Selling doughnuts in London is a world away from the life Graham used to lead.

Asked how he found the transition, he explained: “Obviously you miss all the perks of corporate life, like the money, the bonuses, definitely the travel.

“But like with anything, large corporations, you can work really hard and then you can have the rug pulled. At that time there was this cleaning of house in Hakkasan and the rug got pulled, so everything that we'd done was gone. I was like, that's never happening again.

“So I went off, cleared my head, came back to the UK and was given an opportunity to start a new concept, so did.”

Asked what the toughest thing has been about being a business owner in this industry, Graham said: “Biggest challenge? Maintaining the headspace. After everything that goes on with you personally, professionally, with the environment, with the industry itself, COVID, investors, all of these things obviously weigh on you much more than they would do if you were in a whole corporate setup.

“There you just have to worry about your P&L and making sure your teams are okay. But this keeps you up at night. You worry about all the bills, where the next cheques are coming from, how we're going to make budgets, when the menu changes are coming on, visa applications, franchise offers, all of these things that you wouldn't even think about, everything sits on you.

“And that's the biggest challenge, keeping the headspace. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.”

Longboys, Graham Hornigold, UK pastry chef, gourmet doughnut, the staff canteen

The Future of Longboys: Growth and Innovation

The doughnuts change seasonally, along with some staples such as peanut butter jelly, raspberry rose lychee and salted caramel pretzel.

The brioche base is rolled and cut by hand by the company’s five bakers, while fillings and toppings are made fresh, in house.

Looking ahead to the future of Longboys, Graham said: “Like everybody else, nobody’s fireproof. So we're hoping that we can maintain the business in its current form, grow it through franchise opportunity, be more visible through the events business and B2B through Longboys Lounge and those types of concepts, which we're trying to push.

“We have other ideas within the current setup that we want to do. But we just need to balance the books, like everybody, and make sure that we can keep up with it.

“The challenge is keeping your doors open, like it is for everybody, keeping everybody happy. But then all the ideas that we have, they're there, it's just how do we get there?”

Graham Hornigold, Longboys, gourmet doughnut, doughnuts uk, the staff canteen

 

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The Staff Canteen

The Staff Canteen

Editor 21st January 2025

Graham Hornigold: From Michelin stars to selling doughnuts