About Us

The story behind the starter.

Claire Beaumont, founder of Crumb & Bloom, at work in the bakery

"The starter tells you when it's ready. You don't rush it — you learn to listen to it."
— Claire Beaumont, Founder

She opened Crumb & Bloom in 2018 with a single deck oven, a twelve-year-old sourdough starter named "Margot," and a conviction that the best baking happens slowly. Six years and four team members later, that conviction hasn't changed — just deepened.

The cake studio came out of lockdown in 2020, unexpectedly. Claire had always made celebration cakes for friends. When enquiries started coming in, she built a proper commissioning process around what she'd always done by instinct. It filled the calendar in 18 months.

The Team

The people behind the counter.

Four people, four disciplines. Each one building something they're genuinely proud of.

Claire Beaumont

Founder & Head Baker

Claire spent her twenties between Melbourne and Lyon — an apprenticeship at a boulangerie on the Presqu'île, followed by five years in the pastry section of a two-hat Melbourne restaurant. What she kept coming back to was bread: the patience it requires, the way it resists shortcuts, the daily ritual of something that is alive. She opened Crumb & Bloom in 2018 with a single deck oven, a 12-year-old sourdough starter named "Margot," and a conviction that the best baking happens slowly.

"The starter tells you when it's ready. You don't rush it — you learn to listen to it."

Isabelle Laurent

Pastry Chef de Partie

Isabelle trained at Le Cordon Bleu Sydney before stages in Paris and Copenhagen. She handles all viennoiserie production at Crumb & Bloom — the croissants, the canelés, the seasonal danishes — with a precision that makes the rest of us feel lazy. She is also the reason our cakes taste the way they do: she developed every filling and ganache recipe in the cake studio's arsenal.

"Good lamination takes three days. I'm not interested in cutting corners on the one thing that matters most."

Marcus Chen

Cake Designer & Decorator

Marcus came to cake decorating from a background in graphic design, which shows in everything he makes — a strong sense of proportion, an instinct for restraint, and an ability to translate a client's brief into something that looks inevitable. He leads all custom cake design consultations and does most of the decorative sugar work and piping by hand. His speciality is pressed botanical work using edible flowers.

"Design is mostly about knowing what to leave out. A clean cake says more than an overcrowded one."

Emma Whitfield

Cafe Manager

Emma has been in specialty coffee for over a decade and ran front-of-house at two of Melbourne's most regarded cafes before joining Crumb & Bloom in 2021. She manages the day-to-day running of the cafe floor, leads our coffee sourcing partnership with Padre Coffee, and is the reason every visit feels less transactional and more like returning to a place that knows you.

"A great bakery experience isn't just about the croissant. It's about feeling, for a few minutes, like you're exactly where you should be."

Timeline

Six years in Fitzroy.

2018

Crumb & Bloom opens its doors at 42 Smith Street, Fitzroy — just Claire, one oven, and 200 pre-ordered sourdough loaves on opening day.

2019

Added viennoiserie to the daily program after six months of R&D on the croissant lamination. The almond croissant became the product that defined us.

2020

Launched the custom cake studio during lockdown — an unexpected pivot that grew through word of mouth and filled the calendar for 18 months straight.

2021

Isabelle and Marcus joined the team. Emma took over the cafe floor. For the first time, it felt like a proper team rather than a one-woman operation.

2022

Named Fitzroy's Favourite Bakery by the Inner North Reader's Poll. Expanded to the current premises, adding a second oven and a dedicated cake studio space at the back.

2023

Introduced Thursday tasting sessions for wedding and event cake clients. Launched the Sourdough Fundamentals workshop series, now fully booked three months in advance.

2024

Partnered with two local farms for seasonal produce sourcing — Sutton Grange Organics for stone fruit and Boonderoo for hazelnuts and pistachios.

What We Stand For

The things we don't compromise on.

Time as Ingredient

Most of what we make is made slowly. Our sourdough ferments for three days. Our croissant dough rests overnight between folds. This isn't nostalgia — it's technique. Time develops flavour, structure and texture that shortcuts simply can't replicate.

Seasonal & Local First

We source fresh fruit and produce seasonally from local farms wherever we can. Our menu changes with what's available — a tart in October looks nothing like one in June. We find this constraint genuinely inspiring rather than limiting.

Honest Ingredients

We use real butter (not vegetable fat), free-range eggs, whole milk, and stoneground flour where possible. We list our ingredients properly, allergens included. Nothing on our counter is made from a pre-mix.

Waste-Conscious

We compost all kitchen waste through a local program, use recyclable or compostable packaging, and donate unsold bread each evening to a meal support service in Collingwood. Our goal is zero landfill from the kitchen.