Hello, Happy Friday!
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I started the week off right, spending the morning with my friend Jen, who writes ‘The Next Delicious Thing’, on a mini bakery crawl, I mean academic research obviously, not just eating out way around Notting Hill, it was for science. As we visited on a Tuesday, our crawl had limited options as both Le Choux and Hachi, two brilliant bakeries in the area, are closed Mondays and Tuesdays. Luckily we were still able to visit the brilliant Layla and the newer Chai Guys Bakery. Layla, which I’d visited before, has only improved since my last visit and it was already a great bakery to start with. We tried a handful of things and the laminated dough they use works as a brilliant foil for all the flavours and shapes they use it for. An nduja swirl was always going to be a winner with me but the wild leek pesto twist was a surprisingly close second. A walk along Portobello Road brought us to the recently opened Chai Guys Bakery. Of course they make great chai, punchy and packed full of spice, but they also have a beautiful selection of baking. I was, not unsurprisingly, rather full by this point, even though I’d only been taking small bites, but the samosa pastry was calling my name and I ate more than my fair share. I loved that even though they were doing laminated pastry, like every other bakery in London right now, the flavours were different and I want that samosa pastry again as soon as humanly possible!
Later that day, I popped along to launch of the wonderful Angela Cluttons new book Seasoning, but I left early because I had dinner plans. How I had room to eat anything else is a question for another time. I met my friend Jess and we joined the queue for Le Relais de Venise, the Parisian steakhouse transplant. For £30 you get a simple walnut salad with a mustard vinagrette, a few pieces of baguette, and steak frites served with their house entrecôte sauce, a very buttery very herby affair. There is nothing else on the menu and don’t even think about asking for medium rare or medium well, we were offered only rare or medium, nothing else (note the rare seemed pretty close to blue). The steak portion seemed incredibly stingy, if thankfully delicious and well cooked, the fries were however plentiful. As I finished my plate I was surprised to find the waitress filling up the plate for a second round. It’s a pretty damn slick operation and, with this inbuilt second portion, a really good value meal, let’s just not talk about the very average baguette (hint: it tasted like one of those par baked baguettes you buy from the supermarket and bake yourself at home). They also have a selection of classic french desserts but the steak is the reason for the vis
Cookbook
There are some very exciting cookbooks coming out this year (hint hint) and one which I was particularly excited for landed on my doorstep this week. Natalie Paul from Beatrix Bakes has just released her second book, Another Slice, and I was very excited for its release, mainly because I had already had the pleasure to read it last year and knew just how good of a book it truly is. Natalie graciously asked me to read the book, to see if I would like to give a quote for the cover. After the proofs arrived I devoured them, they’re brilliantly written, full of warmth and packed to the brim with incredibly useful baking advice. As I said in the quote I gave for the book, Natalies writing makes it feel like she is in the kitchen with you, holding your hand, as she guides through the process of making her recipes. The recipes are also everything I like to make, in the style I love. Full of flavour and oozing style without trying too hard. This book deserves a place on your bookshelf and as far as I am concerned its a classic in the making.
Quince Bakery
One of the things I love about this job, and this industry, is seeing friends achieve amazing things, be that releasing wonderful books, thriving on TV or opening my new favourite bakery. The latter happened recently when Anna Higham, an amazing baker and pastry chef and author one of my most loved cookbooks ‘The Last Bite’, opened Quince Bakery here in London. The bakery focuses on using british produce and celebrating traditional baking. Interestingly, especially considering the trends these days, the bakery features no croissants, no laminated doughs at all. If all the bakeries are starting to look the same to you, Quince is a breath of newness and individuality. The bread, THE BREAD! It’s truly fabulous, hearty and chewy, it was one most flavourful loaves I have enjoyed in a long time. But that is really what makes this bakery stand out, not the flavour of the bread in isolation but the underlying flavour of everything. Because everything is made with wholemeal grains the flavour is deeper, richer and just packed full of flavour, it’s not just the fillings that bring the flavour, every bite is imbued with something delicious. Whether it is the deceptively simple brown butter bread buns or the fabulous hand pies, everything I tried was jammed full with flavour and texture. If you cant tell, I loved this place, and I am sure to be back incredibly often.
Rolo Dessert
Back on home turf my mind turned to recreating the supermarket rolo dessert. Inspired by that dessert I started with a chocolate mousse added a layer of salted caramel and finished it with a thin chocolate shell. If you need a dessert idea for the weekend make sure you head over to this weeks issue of Second Helpings and make this, its a winner!