Cannoli and courtrooms: how an Italian lawyer and London GP are taking Italian baking global

Testing Sicilian cannolo recipes is quite the side hustle for an Italian corporate lawyer, based in Shanghai, and a Holborn-based GP.

But it’s exactly the mixed career that Matteo Cicero, a Sicilian lawyer who grew up with his grandmother’s baking, and London doctor Jonathan Hazon are juggling. Alongside their professional day jobs, the duo are behind an Italian bakery chain, Nonna, which has rapidly grown to 15 sites across China; they're now targeting 15 UK sites over the next five years, starting with a first branch that opened last September in Holborn.

How did it happen? “I was living and working as a lawyer in Shanghai and I simply could not find the baked goods I was used to back home,” explains Cicero. “At the same time, I was watching coffee become enormously popular in China, a country with no [previous] coffee tradition whatsoever. That told me everything: if coffee can conquer China, then bread absolutely can too!”

The first branch of Nonna opened in Shanghai’s French Concession in 2022, with the brand scaling to 15 sites across China in three years thanks to a franchising deal. “It allowed us to move at a speed we could never have managed with a fully owned model, but also created headaches we weren't prepared for - like franchisees not consistently following brand standards and failing to maintain the right atmosphere in their shops. Now we think keeping direct control over operations is the better path; it's shaping how we're approaching the UK rollout.”

That roll-out started in September, when Nonna opened in the UK in Holborn - steps away from Hazon's GP practice, so he pops in before and after seeing patients. “Keeping our professional careers has taken the financial pressure off starting up a new business, which means every decision is made for the long term rather than out of necessity,” Cicero says.

The UK-China time difference adds another layer of complexity. “For the first six months, there wasn't a single day off for us - working from six in the morning until midnight. It's only now that we're starting to build a healthier work-life balance.”

The duo first met on holiday in Sicily - when Hazon decided Nonna should spread to the UK. “My thinking was simple," the GP explains. "If Italian baked goods are popular in the Far East in a culture that has no historical connection to Italian food, how could they possibly not work in the UK? After twenty years as a doctor, there was also a real excitement about building something completely new. I wanted to create something that would give me the option, in the long term, to step away from medicine.”

Nonna is currently bringing in revenues of £70, 000 a month from its British outpost. The duo say their day jobs help their entrepreneurial endeavour: “As a lawyer, Matteo is trained to read risk into everything; he approaches a negotiation looking for the worst-case scenario first, which means we rarely get caught out. As a partner of two GP practices, Jonathan brings experience in HR, finance and admin management. Running a medical practice is a business in its own right.”

While many founders wait to ‘exit' their day job before scaling a business, the duo advise would-be entrepreneurs to plunge ahead. “Stop waiting for the perfect moment because it doesn't exist,” Cicero says. “Your career isn't an obstacle, it's an asset. The discipline, credibility, financial stability it gives you are things most founders would kill for. Use them. Start small, prove the concept, and build around your commitments rather than abandoning them.”

“After my appearance on Dragons’ Den, our website traffic increased 20 times, and I saw a powerful opportunity. We made a decision to invest in our team, infrastructure, technology, and product marketing. Turnover jumped from £125,000 a month at the time the show aired to £1.3 million a month now - here are my tips on how to scale a fast-growth, disruptive business: