'It's good to be back': Prodigy chef returns to city and opens family-run cafe with parents

Cosy vibes and handmade delights are on the cards at a new family-run cafe which has opened in the heart of the city.

Leila’s Cafe, in St Paul’s Road, opened on Saturday, September 26 with chef prodigy, Leila Steere, taking the kitchen by storm after previously working at luxury hotels in Surrey and Ware.

The cafe, which dishes up breakfast, brunch, lunch and sweet treats, is owned by Leila’s dad, Tony Steere, who said they had been hunting for the perfect spot for months before getting the keys to their current premises.

Leila said: “I have always wanted my own place. Chefs can be quite scary and many of them shout, so I wanted to be my own boss in a family business where we can all bring ideas to the table.

“I am mainly in the kitchen and my step-mum is out front and we all work together. The opening went really well, we had lots of customers throughout the day and we even sold out of cakes. We have had so much support from the whole community and a few of our neighbours came down.”

The 21-year-old’s love of cooking stems from her childhood where she would create culinary treats with her grandmother. She started her career working in Southsea and, after getting her qualifications at college, she was selected to work in a five star hotel.

She continued: “It feels really good to have Leila’s because when I worked away, I was really far from my family and I never really got any time off so it’s good to be back.

“We got the keys at the end of June so it took about two months to get things sorted. Towards the end, we were working day and night to get things done because it was sort of abandoned. It was very dusty and we had to work really hard to get it up to scratch.”

In the space of the past four days, eggs benedict has secured itself as a customer favourite, with the cafe’s cheesecakes and cookie pies also going down a treat.

Leila added: “We have been saying if this goes well, we would like to open up another one somewhere else but that would be in a couple of years time.”

For more information about Leila’s Cafe, click here.