Winner’s Bakery on CP Ramaswamy Road has been around for more than a decade and of all the bakeries we’ve been to over the years, Winner’s holds a special place in our hearts. The bakery itself doesn’t look like much from the outside; it’s small with no place to sit or wash your hands, but the food and the people at Winner’s are why we love it.
Started as a joint venture between the Chennai Corporation, Rotary Club and Chennai Culinary Institute, the bakery hires underprivileged and differently-abled youth to work at their bakery. In exchange, the kids are taught baking and making confectioneries over a six month training period, during which they’re given a stipend, three square meals, optional accommodation and an offer to work full time at Winner’s Bakery once their training is completed! The end result is a range of baked goods and confectioneries that are made with a lot of love.
Winner’s Bakery is known for its very reasonably priced sweet and savoury treats. To say that they have the best sellers would mean that there are some products that don’t move fast, which is entirely false. Every evening their entire inventory is cleared by a horde of customers past 4 pm, so if you’re going, be sure to go during lean hours. If we had to pick our favourites, we’d choose the sinfully rich Chocolate Éclair, soft Japanese cake and fresh cream butterscotch pastry.