Now they're award-winning bakers - all in the space of a year.

Husband and wife Patrick Vu and Melissa Do abandoned the corporate world in Sydney after they came to the NSW Hunter region for a trip away. They fell in love with Rutherford, a suburb of Maitland.

They started M&M Bakehouse there from scratch without a pinch of baking experience between them.

Luckily, Mr Vu's parents have a poplar Vietnamese bakery in Blacktown, so they initially leaned on them for advice and spent countless hours researching recipes to create a mouth-watering menu.

Mr Vu has been baking from 3am seven days a week since the business opened its doors and he doesn't call it a day until 6pm.

He admits the days are very long, and it's his love for the business and the community that keeps him coming back.

That perseverance kicked up a notch after they won Newcastle Live's contest for the Hunter's best Banh Mi - thanks to votes from the public.

"We've seen a lot of people from out of the area come in since we won it so they could try the roll, where as previously we just saw our regular customers," Mr Vu said.

"We've very, very excited about it. Hopefully it has created more awareness about the bakery in general."

It's fair to say their Banh Mi, which is a Vietnamese pork roll, is even more popular now.

"The recipe is from our research that we've done and firsthand training that we had in the bakery back in Sydney - and tweaks along the way," Mr Vu said.

"The hero is the bread, the meat, the sauce we use - it all comes together. We make the bread, the mayonnaise, the pate, the soy sauce ...The bread is French baguette inspired so it has to be crunchy and crisp on the outside and light and fluffy on the inside.

"My parents are over the moon about our win so it's good recognition for everyone that has been involved.

"When you get recognition like this it makes working so hard even sweeter."

Mr Vu said starting a new business during COVID had been a challenge but he felt it was stronger than ever before.

"Having come through it we can see that the business has matured and it has come through the tough times ... We were fortunate bakeries were considered essential so we weren't affected as much during COVID," he said.

"We're still pulling big days now. I do the baking in the morning and then I get ready for service time and I make coffees in between as well and in the afternoon I get the pork ready, it's a pretty big operation."