For more than nine years, Uma Yalamanchili (right) has been working at software companies writing codes but her fiery entrepreneurial spirit and a long standing dream to do something different gradually took over her . After a long conversation with a friend running one of the Hot Bread franchises at Dallas, she decided to set up one in the Boston area.
“It was an opportunity”, Uma says, “I left the computer industry and asked myself "What can I do to make life more interesting?" I decided then, on a lark, to jump into this, because the success of Hot Breads is phenomenal all over the world,” “So I did my research for one and half years and talked to a lot of people: The idea of baked goods with an Indian flavor that tasted great was appealing”. It didn’t take long to convince the officials at the Headquarters of Hot Breads that she could do this and soon she was scouting for an appropriate location for the bakery.

The Boston Globe ran a story of the venture in the beginning of the year and on July 28th, 2004; the bakery had its grand opening in Woburn. The town was a good choice since it has a sizeable Indian population with other neighboring towns of Burlington, Arlington and Lexington.

The bakery is located conveniently on Main Street in Woburn and has an interesting and exotic array of desserts, pastries, tarts and éclairs. Croissants include such stuffing’s as Paneer, Aloo green pepper, mix vegetable and Chicken Tikka and Chicken curry and Keema. The pastries that are prepared by a French Chef from Paris have variety like Black forest, Pineapple, mixed fruits, chocolate and Nogha that is made of almonds and Honey. Uma offered us a sample and we found it delicious

The bakery also takes customized order for special occasions. Kids could order birthday cakes of their favorite cartoon character and icons like Harry Potter. The sample of a wedding cake we saw included lots of soft pink French ribbon, frosting ruffles, drapes, fresh Bridal Pink roses, icing white dots done very carefully on pale pink icing.

The smell of freshly baked goods and the aroma of Indian baked spices fill your senses as you enter. Balakrishna, an employee and a good friend greets us and urges us to help ourselves with some great coffee, Indian style. It seems as if people work around the clock there; in the back of the bakery the atmosphere is warm and friendly, and very busy. The bakery never seems to stop. Jagan, a chef who flew in from Hot Breads, Houston is in charge, till the permanent chefs from India arrive. French chef Buker, whose specialty is pastries, came all the way from Paris.

Uma tells us how dedicated and hardworking the team is, arriving every morning at 4 am and working late till the night. Everything is freshly baked there. The eggless cakes are the specialty, since Uma explains how Indians would find this as Kosher, and the flour is exported exclusively from Canada. She herself commutes each day from North Andover where she lives with her husband Vijay Yalamanchili, a chemist and her 10 year old son Subba Rao.

It has been only two weeks since the bakery opened and is already attracting a lot of customers. Says an ebullient and enthusiastic Uma , “In these two weeks, people are coming in every morning, waiting to buy these goodies, and I realize that you spend all your time and energy doing this and at the end of the day this is what make it feel really good”

Hot Breads
438, Main Street
Woburn, Ma
Phone 781 933 7557

Hot Breads, a multimillion-dollar subsidiary of Oriental Cuisine Pvt. Ltd., based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, has more than 70 outlets around the world.

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