The Maize Blaze Colombian Cafe Project

Welcome to Maize Blaze!

We are a Colombian Street Food brand trading in markets all over London, every day of the week.

Rain or shine we are serving up hot, sizzling Colombian goodness right into London’s hands.

We love the streets, but now we need a home.

Help us to fund the move from tent to brick:

The Maize Blaze Colombian Café Project

Hi!
My name is Ruth and I am the founder of Maize Blaze.

I started trading as Maize Blaze in Camden Lock Market in March 2014 and the business grew from there!

We are now open seven days in Camden and run other markets alongside it including pop ups inside Old Street Station (with Appear Here), a monthly world food fair near Liverpool Street (Devonshire Square with Epicurean Events), and a Monday to Friday lunch time market in Kennington Business Park (with Workspace) to mention a few!

Markets are a great place to expose our brand and talk to our customers informally to constantly fine tune our menus to what people really want to eat every day.

We will continue to expand our street food outlets – there are no plans to slow down!

The Next Big Step

To find a permanent home and put roots down in the form of a cafe in East London, serving a slightly wider menu (difficult to do on the streets) and rewarding our loyal customers with new culinary delights!

The numbers have been crunched, the locations have been scouted and most importantly the energy and passion is overflowing!

……the only thing keeping the breaks on is the lack of funding to jump start right now!

We are making bounding leaps of progress that still astound me, but it takes time to build up lump sums of money to kit out a brand new kitchen, pay leases and rent during the remodelling period and ensure we can cover costs in the first few weeks of opening while people find us!

There is no time like the present and our present is brimming with ideas, excitement and a solid understanding of our demographic and positioning in the market.

£10,000 will go towards paying the lease of the premises for our first year.

This is why we need your help now to get started on our very first flagship cafe, which will hopefully be the first of many!

Thank you to our amazing customers!

The feedback we have received over the past year and a half has been amazing and we have learnt so much from the whole process.

Our Food

We like to keep it simple:

• 100% gluten-free
• Fresh vegetables and meat delivered daily
• Everything sourced locally
• Everything cooked from scratch
• Always delicious vegan options

Sample Menu

What we would cook one day at the cafe!

If you want to take a closer look and do a bit of mouth-watering come find us at:

www.maizeblaze.com

@maizeblaze

/maizeblaze

Why Colombian Street Food?

I grew up in Bogota as a child and then London later on.

My mother is a fiery Colombian carnivore and my father an English organic-loving vegan.

From that union sprung my diverse culinary upbringing which eventually inspired me to start Maize Blaze.

Food has always been central to both my family and work life. 

My father has always grown organic vegetables and now he grows on quite a large scale at his allotment in Muswell Hill. So we have always had fresh corn, pumpkins, runner beans, beetroot (you name it!) straight from the land.

I think this really instilled in me a respect for produce and an expectation of high quality ingredients in all my cooking.

My Colombian side of the family are big eaters and took special trips out to the mountains and countryside to root out the best outdoor BBQ grill restaurants.

I have vivid memories of hanging out in hammocks with my little sister while the smell of great hunks of beef, sausages and sometimes capybara wafted through the warm mountain air.

I graduated with a Patisserie Diploma from Le Cordon Bleu and worked in kitchens for four years before my BSc in Biochemistry took me away to Bath University for four years.

Since I came back to London I have followed my burning desire to grow a business and build something out of the things I love:

Our Suppliers

I’ve been incredibly lucky to have encountered probably the most helpful and supportive suppliers in London. I genuinely could not have got this far without them.

Ted and the Team

Going the extra mile is an understatement – Ted has found solutions to problems far beyond the reach of groceries.

Fresh & Fruity

Have been delivering to my prep kitchen all year and even helped me to build a bed out of pallets when I moved into a new flat!

Dastin’s Butchers Shop

My family butcher since we moved to London, Dastin has grown into an essential advisor on everything from keeping my accounts in order to scaling up my operation!

Franconian Sausage Company

These guys make the best gluten-free, animal welfare-conscious (Red Tractor) chorizo in London.

We love this planet

All our packaging and cutlery are biodegradable and we recycle all we can.

With great quality options available now (we use Biopac)- who would choose not do their bit?!

End Game

Launching a 100% gluten-free cafe with ethical roots and an equal weighting of vegan and meat dishes inspired by my Colombian roots.

On top of wanting to flourish and grow as a business there is also the inspiration and excitement that comes from educating and bringing new flavours to people.

“I want to make Colombian food as familiar and accessible as Mexican food is in Britain”

Ruth Christianson, Owner of Maize Blaze

Ruth

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Source: ICNW