Brightly coloured cakes line the window of Ole & Steen, and the shelves are stacked with crusty wholegrain bread.
A few doors down, exquisite cupcakes glitter in the window of the Hummingbird Bakery and the smell of fresh bread wafts from the door of the Bread Shop.
Richmond high street in south-west London is littered with artisan bakeries. It’s easy to forget that, until a couple of decades ago, such establishments were a rarity in Britain.
One of the first people to open such a bakery was German-raised Jonathan Cohen, who, after moving to Britain to study, missed German bread so much that he opened the Bread Shop in 1999.
At around the same time, Englishman Daniel Bear returned from a trip to France so enthused by its baked goods that he gave up his job as a lawyer and opened the Euphorium Bakery.
Not far away from Richmond high street, there’s another German bakery run by Gerd Kusche and Carola Hesse, and in 2011, German Marc Deuring joined the crowd with his Baekehaus, which makes German bread, rolls and cakes.
And these are just a handful of the many bakeries that have opened in London in recent years.
In order to make their bread they import a lot of ingredients, most importantly flour. “English flour is quite different from German,” says Hesse. “You can’t make German bread with English flour. It’s got enzymes in it.”
Ole & Steen, meanwhile, works only with Danish flour — and Danish bakers who stay true to original recipes.
Bear has even imported his bakers from other countries: the Czech Republic, France, Poland, Italy and Germany.
The Bread Shop and Baekehaus import their products from Germany. Rye and wholemeal bread are among their top sellers.
So will Brexit have an impact on these bakeries? “Brexit is causing problems for us,” complains Hesse. “First of all, the terrible pound. And German customers are moving away because of Brexit — and lots of Poles.”
After 20 years in London, Hesse is also planning to return to Germany this year.
Deuring has had a different experience. “Since the Brexit [vote] it’s been going better for us.” That might be because more tourists are coming to take advantage of the weak pound. He’s just signed a new rental agreement for his business.
And it’s not just in London that Brits are developing a taste for good quality bread.
Aidan Monks, who runs Lovingly Artisan in the north-western town of Kendal, says he now bakes 4,000 sourdough loaves a week, up from 200 just six years ago.
The number of bakeries has increased in Britain from 2,060 in 2012 to 2,305 in 2016, according to the government’s “Food Statistics Pocketbook.”
Deniz Gul from the Bread Shop says the growing demand for rye, wholemeal and spelt breads could be linked to people’s increasing health consciousness.
Baking at home is also becoming increasingly popular in Britain — partly thanks to the runaway success of the TV show “The Great British Bake Off.” Bakery schools have also opened across the country.
Bread Ahead, for example, is a London-based baking school founded by Brit Matt Jones in 2014 where those interested can learn how to make bread at half and full-day workshops.
In mid-2018, one London bakery, Benk + Bo, even made it onto Wallpaper magazine’s list of the most beautiful bakeries in the world, along with venerable establishments in Paris, Melbourne and New York, among others. – By – Sabine Schereck
