A love for creativity has seen Katrina Bozikovic’s career take her from a childhood in WA to opening the Aussie-inspired bakery Outpost Eccleston in the UK – with a few Michelin-starred restaurants along the way.

Katrina Bozikovic has always sought a creative life.

Originally hailing from Fremantle in Western Australia, the Le Cordon Bleu-trained pastry chef said there has always been something in her that is “compelled towards the bespoke, the beautiful and the artisanal”.

It’s fitting, then, that she has forged a career in baking and pastry that has seen her traverse numerous Michelin-starred kitchens.

“As a little girl I loved all things creative, but especially drawing,” Katrina said, adding for her there were strong parallels between art and bread-making.

“I’m completely obsessed with tirelessly, wonderfully drawn cartoon styles found in Japanese and Western style comics, and their creation has, for me, a direct parallel with pastry and bakery. It isn’t just artistry. It’s the craftsmanship, the repetition, the tiny incremental changes that you almost can’t see.

“Making bread is very similar. You and the starter are symbiotic, reacting to one another, and small incremental changes to temperature or to hydration can create these huge ripples of consequence.”

Drawing strongly on her love for art, Katrina said she realised a career in pastry would encompass a number of her interests – not to mention the sheer delicious possibilities included in sharing something with loved ones that she had made.

It was a realisation, Katrina said, that came after she decided not to pursue a career in art.

Some of the bread made out Outpost Eccleston

Heading in a new direction

“I didn’t really see a career as an artist as plausible for myself. I also really love people and cooking, in a professional sense, is very much a team sport,” she said.

“Getting to learn and share alike is such a great feeling.”

Katrina headed to London, where she trained at Le Cordon Bleu before working across the city including at the Michelin-starred Moor Hall and Trinity, and artisan bakery The Snapery Bakery.

Working underneath mentors like Richard Snape (The Snapery Bakery) and Adam Byatt (Trinity) helped shape Katrina’s formative years in the industry.

“My career took me all over London and covered everything I could have hoped to in my cooking career. There’s something amazing about working side-by-side with a master of their craft, and I think in that sense Adam and Richard were just amazing mentors,” she said.

“Never were they ever too busy to engage, to teach or to inspire. In those environments you learn so much, so fast, that you almost don’t know it’s there in your mind until a small moment years later when suddenly that muscle memory kicks in. It really is only after that time has passed that you realise how much of an impact those years had on you.

“Working at a Michelin level, I would say, is an absolute must for any aspiring young chef. It isn’t just the food but the attention to detail when it comes to hygiene, efficiency and collaboration with the team that’s really hard to find consistently at places that don’t have that accolade. It’s also given us at Outpost Eccleston a real drive to use the best ingredients, and that always means seasonal and local.”

Located in Eccleston in Lancashire, Outpost Eccleston has been a true labour of love for Katrina and her husband, Felix Stenhouse.

Katrina said after working at Trinity she and Felix headed north after a project they were both due to work on didn’t come off.

“We decided we both wanted to work somewhere amazing; Moor Hall was that restaurant,” she said.

“We ended up falling in love with Lancashire and the proximity to the best ingredients. We were particularly influenced by Mark’s approach, celebrating the best produce from his own garden and then working outwards. It was just a natural progression for us from that point on.”

The bakery range is inspired by Australian favourites and local Lancastrian produce

Cementing the plans

The duo had been kicking around the idea for their own business for years. By the beginning of the Covid pandemic Katrina said they began to take it more seriously, first considering a British ramen noodle bar concept before deciding it to go down the bakery route.

It was Felix’s mother who actually came across the perfect site for the bakery, and Katrina said everything just snowballed after she and Felix went to see it in person.

The doors to Outpost Eccleston were officially opened in 2025, and its first year of trading has surpassed all expectations.

“We knew we needed to create our own future where the hours could be shared more evenly between the two of us, with work and family,” Katrina said.

“Originally the idea for Outpost Eccleston was that it would be bread and coffee by day and then wine and snacks by night. In the end we decided we should focus our attention on the bakery side of it with a compact lunch menu. That would allow us to really push the offering while allowing us to look after our two small boys, Magnus (2) and Douglas (6 months).”

At Outpost Eccleston, Katrina said there is a strong focus on only using the best products; think local wholegrain, stoneground flour for the breads and the very best French flour and butter for the pastries, each of which are made using traditional recipes and techniques.

It’s food that Katrina describes as being food for the people, by the people.

“We believe in community. We want to be on the high street, amongst it all and love being a buzzy little spot for friends to meet,” she said.

“My favourite is when people bump into each other while buying their bread, and they end up grabbing a seat in the sun with a coffee and pastry and have a good old catch up. All in all, we just wanted to make a place that we’d love to go to.”

With one year at Outpost Eccleston already under her belt, Katrina said the rest of 2026 was shaping up to be the craziest year yet.

Construction on a purpose-built sourdough bakery, called Out Back, is almost complete, while Katrina and Felix are preparing to launch ‘Saltbush and Smoke’, which is for fine dining and events.

“Inspired by Aussies barbecues and our years of cooking in the best kitchens, we want to provide really great meals and experiences,” she said.

“Beyond this year, I’d love to open a little bakery school. We’re dreaming of opening it on the farm where we source the amazing wholegrain, stoneground Lancashire flour for our breads, and really give people a sense of time and place with regards to the bread.

“Beyond that? I’d love to write or draw a book. I’d love to create something beautiful and hand-drawn and come full circle on my own personal journey that would make the little girl who grew up in Fremantle proud.”