Making donuts sanctifying work

By Lara Pickford-Gordon

Saturday, August 3 was a milestone for Chelsea Jardim, 27 years—she opened her first business Dough Bomb Donuts Café at Royal Palm Plaza, Maraval. This happened within two years, propelled by word of mouth, social media, and repeated calls for a physical store where customers can satisfy their donut craving.

This business is not just about offering a product, as Jardim states: “We are sanctifying the world through donuts.” There’s an irony in setting up a donut business because she was not a fan of donuts.

A different taste

Jardim studied law in Trinidad and went to Ireland to take the bar. She realised that she did not want to pursue law as a profession but knew the knowledge of law would be useful. She decided to do a Master’s degree in Project Management at the University College Dublin Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School. “I love organisation, planning, executing and really pulling off something,” she said.

Jardim is a lay member of Opus Dei, “so when I am Trinidad, I live at Eston House; in Dublin, I lived in a university residence for girls,” she said. While in Dublin, a friend encouraged her to try a donut from a shop.

“I said to her ‘I don’t eat donuts…I don’t like donuts, because growing up in Trinidad I never enjoyed a donut. It’s definitely not what I go for when I went to the bakery, and she said, ‘no Chelsea, you have to try it’. So, I bought a normal, simple, glazed donut and she was right. It was the best thing I’ve ever tasted, soft, fluffy and you could also tell they gave their best in making those donuts”.

Whenever she went to the mall she stopped and purchased the donuts, she said with a laugh. It also struck her, “We don’t know what we eating as donuts in Trinidad compared to what is out here”. She said the local palate has gotten used to the mass-produced donuts as compared with the one in Ireland which tasted homemade and rich.

She returned to Trinidad in 2021 for some time, then in December went back to Ireland for her graduation. This was when she had another donut experience.

Jardim says it was a cold, winter night and she was trying to get the bus back to where she was staying. At a corner was someone with a cart selling hot donuts

sprinkled with sugar. “I ate it and again, I was like, ‘we do not have this in Trinidad’…it melts in your mouth kind of taste”.

When Jardim was back, she worked with her mother while trying to figure out what next. Every other Sunday, she began preparing donuts. “Just to satisfy my own cravings, I love the kitchen. I would go and try to make donuts for myself and for my family and I just did that over and over until I just launched out”.

Her first sale was on Independence Day, August 31, 2022. She went out with a friend and sold 40 donuts.

Quality and love

She had two types of donuts for her first sale to the public: a white glaze and a vanilla custard-filled donut also with a white glaze. “Nothing fancy, nothing special at that time, really I didn’t know a lot,” she said.

The glazed cost $20 and stuffed $25. Paying such a sum for a single donut was unheard of and her family tried to convince her to drop the price. She was adamant about knowing the work that went into it.

Jardim researched donuts until she found the one with the right “fluffy” texture. Then a chef friend worked with her to develop a recipe for sale. Jardim said she could not just double or multiply ingredient amounts by ten.

She added: “Dough is very delicate; the time between you making the dough allowing that dough to proof, frying that dough is a very delicate process and we are not doing mass production, we are doing this by hand,” Jardim explained.

“We used fresh ingredients. It took us a lot of time, and we were giving our absolute best.” She was also certain she wanted from the onset “to make a statement; this is a premium product, and you are paying for that premium product”.

From October 2022, she began targeting offices. In retrospect, she recognises she did not know what she was getting into. The business did not even have a name yet.

“At that time, I was waking up at two o’clock making donuts, selling donuts, delivering donuts, buying all the ingredients. At that time, too, I had a friend who was helping me, she was by my side, she is a chef by profession, so she was guiding me, ‘This is what this is for; this is how you do this’. She was very fundamental in Dough Bomb’s growth”.

Production took place once weekly, then daily based on orders and making donuts to entice new customers to try one. Jardim said, “It always worked out.”

Available flavours were pecan caramel (“still a top seller”), chocolate glazed and a custard-filled donut. The custard-filled remains popular evolving into crème brûlée, another top seller. “I’ve tried to take it off the menu and I’ve almost been stoned…after that, we tried another flavour and people responded well and another flavour and people responded well,” she said smiling.

Fresh custard filling has converted many who were not fans of custard or donuts. For those who don’t like custard cream cheese fillings were created. For the palates partial to fruit fillings, blueberry-lemon was introduced in January 2023. The current top sellers are crème brûlée, double chocolate smores, French toast, blueberry-lemon, and tiramisu, introduced in 2024.

Last year she went to Chicago to learn more about the food industry and what is needed for a donut business. A new stove would cost thousands. She was invited to be part of a pop-up at 139 Woodbrook Yard in May 2023; it was Dough Bomb Donuts’ official introduction to the public. “It just had so much foot traffic, much more than I ever expected and the next week I realised ‘Oh gosh, I can afford my stove’,” Jardim said.

Sanctifying by donuts

The feedback for her donuts has been incredibly positive. Jardim stated, “The reviews were always ‘you could taste the love in this…you can taste you really put your heart into this’, and it is true. A big part of Opus Dei’s message is the sanctification of our daily work, and the truth is that is what I do through this business. I try to sanctify every moment, when they’re hard, when they’re good”.

She went on, “We don’t have to necessarily be anything different to serve God in the middle of the world.”

Jardim speaks enthusiastically of the happy feelings evoked when customers enjoy her donuts, asserting that day-old donuts are not sold. More than a business, she discloses that customers became friends and have inspired her to continue. She spoke highly of her staff, “Without my staff we do not have a business”.

Jardim tries her best to do things with a lot of love. “That means showing up on bad days, showing up when you feel ‘I can’t see another person, and exhausted’; it means showing up when it is difficult and offering that up to our Lord, because these are souls He is interested in, and that keeps me going”. It is in the tough times and uncertainty that ‘God shows up and shows off!’”

The young Catholic entrepreneur is hopeful for the future saying other products will be coming at the Café and these must also have the high standard for which the brand is known.