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“Together with our customers, we survived it all—1936-1945, we witnessed and survived wartimes with bread shortages; 1970, the Black Power upheaval; 1986, a recession; 1990, the attempted coup; 2008, another recession; and 2020 to present COVID-19 pandemic. Together, we will survive this one too.
“We are happy that we can still bring some measure of joy to your households. Our brand message, Fresh Bread Daily, sees us remaining a household name because of our reliability, quality and great taste.”
That was a statement from the management of Chee Mooke’s Bakery which is this year, celebrating 90 years in business.
It all started in the 1920s, when Arthur Alexander Phillips, then in his 30s and popularly known as Pa Alec, gave up his job as an experienced table hand with a big Port-of-Spain bakery to start his own business, baking bread and delivering it around town in a hand-drawn cart.
Around that time, he met and married young Daphene Cha Cha, known as Mama D, who quickly learned baking skills and began assisting at their bakery located on St Joseph Road, Port-of-Spain.
In the 1930s, when Columbus Bakery, located at 14 Marine Square (now Independence Square), was put up for sale, Pa Alec sold a parcel of land where the Hilton Hotel and Conference Centre now stands to make the purchase. But sometime after that he became ill and died.
Chee Mooke Bakery’s current management team: From left Stokely, Simone, Natalie and Joan Phillips and accountant Richie Roach.
Mama D then took on the task of running the business and raising five children: Agnes, Dorian and Ivan, Enid and Leon “Taffari.”
She later met and married Boysie Chee Mooke, of Morvant, who got involved in the business.
The late Robert was born of that marriage. During the 1940s, the couple developed a principle of sharing and connectedness, with and beyond East Port-of-Spain. The bakery was eventually renamed Chee Mooke’s Bakery and almost became a centre of community life where people would come to get their baked goods. There was a time when Mama D occasionally offered visitors a cutter—a small portion of food with fresh juice or whiskey.
She had a keen business sense. To expand service and sales, she included roti. Realising that education was vital, she saved, encouraged, and ensured her children a good, sound education. That bore fruit in the following decades, when Boysie began focusing on his own business in Morvant and daughter Agnes got involved in operating the bakery in partnership with Mama D. The other children made their way in the world but also contributed to the business.
Streetwise Dorian was the driver, Ivan became a cereal chemist in Canada and Enid worked as a nurse in England. Taffari qualified as a biochemist at the University of British Columbia in Canada and Robert served as a deputy mayor of Port-of-Spain.
Their combined efforts contributed to the growth and success of Chee Mooke’s from the 1970s to 2007. They also evolved from word-of-mouth advertising to a popular jingle. Radio and television advertisements followed and production increased with new customers beyond the East-West corridor.
When Mama D stepped away from active involvement in the business in her 70s, her son Taffari and daughter-in-law Joan took.
The newly-named Chee Mooke’s Bakery in the 1930s.
A fourth generation of the family is now in charge and operations have been modernised at the bakery’s original location in Port-of-Spain. Apart from walk-in customers, other services include: wholesale, delivery to regular customers, premium breadcrumbs (wholesale and retail), baking for customers, and catering.
Under the auspices of the Northern Region of Pan Trinbago, Chee Mooke’s Bakery hosted a one-month customer and culture appreciation from August 27 to September 17, part of Diversity Month with live entertainment every Friday, where freshly-baked hops were sometimes distributed.
Featured performers were: Uni Stars’ Kareem and Avis Bruce-Brown, Road Block’s Deja and Dejean Cain, Highlanders’ Shaquille Gaskin; Adele and Rudolph Taylor, and Marcus Glasgow and Roseford Coutain from reigning Panorama Champs Desperadoes.
