Hackney People
Anthony Ferguson
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What would bring Hackney’s very own Willy Wonka to the borough? “People kind of look at me in a strange way when I tell them that we moved here from San Francisco. But there are surprisingly a lot of similarities between the two places. “There’s a kind of renegade, creative energy, it’s artistic, and |
there’s a lot of diversity, and different cultures, there’s an edginess to it, it’s comfortable and it’s progressive.”
So explains US-born chocolatier Anthony Ferguson, who has been living in Stoke Newington with his English wife Susan, and their baby son Nikolas Bahari, since last December.
The family decided to move to England because it was becoming increasingly difficult to make a living in the US. Anthony had been running his own chocolate-making business since 2003, but after Nikolas was born in 2008, it wasn’t making enough money to support the whole family and Susan was struggling to find a job in the charity sector.
Susan now works for Cancer Research UK, and Anthony divides his time between caring for Nikolas and creating chocolates in their kitchen. But he wasn’t always a chocolatier.
Born in Flint, Michigan, in 1965, he studied electrical engineering and worked for big companies including General Electric and General Motors and then for a large computer manufacturer in California’s Silicon Valley for nearly 10 years before being made redundant in 2001. He rented an apartment in Barcelona for a month while he ‘decided what to do with the rest of (his) life’ and thought he would import fine European chocolate into America.
But once he was back home, he changed his mind.
He said: “I wanted to do something that was unique and personal and that’s hard to do when you are selling someone else’s products.”
So he took a two-week intensive chocolate-making course at the University of California – learning the science behind the sweets – and set up his own company in September 2003. Business grew steadily – mainly by word of mouth after people had seen his hand-made chocolates – which use exotic flavours and spices such as cumin, raspberry and mint – at fairs and online.
By the time he left the US he was supplying five-star hotels, had made chocolates for the Golden State Warriors basketball team, and supplied 4,000 boxes of chocolates for a vineyard to send to its wine club members. Although it was hard starting from scratch again, he says there have been some benefits including it being cheaper here because he can work from home, whereas US laws meant he had to hire industrial kitchens.
Also he has moved to using organic ingredients.
“In San Francisco my products were designed to have a long shelf-life. But since coming here I’ve gone organic – because of Nikolas. I want to have a positive effect on the world in which we live. Now I use fresh herbs from our garden and buy organic ingredients from local shops, so I feel I’m able to do that here in Hackney.”
Anthony is the latest of five local companies to be supported by Growing Communities, which runs Stoke Newington Farmers’ Market. The not-for-profit organisation helps them set up and develop their businesses, sell their goods at the market, and promote sustainable food production.
Curriculum Vitae
- 1965 Born in Flint, Michigan, USA
- 1983-90 Studies engineering at University of Detroit and Syracuse University, New York
- 1987-90 Works at General Electric
- 1992-2001 Works at Silicon Graphics, Silicon Valley, California
- 2001 Made redundant and spends a month in Barcelona
- 2003 Studies chocolate-making and starts his own business
- 2008 Moves to Britain
More information
The market is every Saturday at William Patten School, N16. Call: 020 7502 7588 or visit: www.growingcommunities.org Call Anthony on: 0789 625 9012, or email: nikobchocolates@yahoo.com.
Page updated: 15 Jun 2010
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