Despite his love of food, Ben Thomas never thought salads would make him rich. He now owns a chain of stores throughout Sydney selling very popular, delicious Asian salads.
With the healthy food craze on the rise, his stores are gaining popularity as more people push burgers off their plates and replace their fast food cravings with healthy substitutes.
Despite his success Ben hasn’t always had a passion for food. He loathed studying science at university and it was during this time that he first decided to train as an apprentice chef.
From working in various pubs in Surfers Paradise, to working alongside Adrian Upward at Cottage Point Inn, he gained plenty of experience along the way.
However it wasn’t until he began working at Darley Street Thai under David Thompson, a world renowned Thai chef, that he discovered his love of Thai food.
Of love and business
The two hatted restaurant not only became Ben’s workplace for the next ten years but it was also where he first met his wife and business partner, Nat.
“Nat is very driven and she pushes me. With her help we opened the Banana Blossom restaurant in Cremorne in 2003 but when the GFC hit we struggled,” says Ben.
“The salads at the restaurant were always a popular menu item so we decided to trial them at the Sydney Good Food Noodle Markets. This was when we realised that we had something the public wanted – the salads were a hit!”
During this time, Ben and Nat also had a deli in Monavale that sold their popular salads as well as typical Asian deli products. Despite the popularity of the salads, the deli wasn’t thriving so in 2009 they changed their concept and evolved into Banana Blossom.
The Monavale store took two years to gain traction and with its success Banana Blossom expanded to Manly. After two weeks of opening in Manly, the store was so popular that Ben and Nat knew they had created something special. It was late last year that they decided to open another store on the shores of the iconic Bondi Beach.
Why has Banana Blossom blossomed so well?
The secret to the Banana Blossom salads is they are healthy, fast, affordable and delicious while also containing the perfect proportions of protein, carbohydrates and vegetables.
“We didn’t plan it but we ended up creating the perfectly balanced meal. 100g protein, 130 g carb and salad. Perfect breakdown,” says Ben.
Banana Blossom has skyrocketed but according to Ben and Nat, they don’t rate their success based on the financials but focus more on the customer experience.
“Of course we rate our success on what we have become, what we have earned financially and the rise in customers however what is more important to us is that people are happy with our food and people are beginning to follow the raw food movement.”
“We want to keep promoting a healthy lifestyle and for the public to ‘eat more green’ which is our business motto. The stores are gaining popularity and it is a nice feeling for people to enjoy and admire our products and to be able to cater and appeal to such a vast array of people.”
Ben revealed that when they first opened they were serving 40 year old ladies for lunch but now have tradies, school kids, sports stars, footy players, surfers – everyone.
The couple is now looking to expand to other areas including Coogee and the city.