THE BEST CROISSANT IN LONDON
The Mediterranean, mountain roads, glasses of rosé in the sun… there are certain aspects of London life that fail to live up to la vie Niçoise, but one thing we thought we could find to relieve our home sickness was a humble pastry. One that would live up to our (admittedly elevated) standards. It’s harder than you think.
After months of tasting and testing we finally found what we were looking for. Situated just off London Fields you’ll find Yeast Bakery. For the past eight years they’ve been providing east London with authentic French patisserie, operating with one simple goal – “to make the perfect croissant.“
We decided to cycle on over and meet its founder, Ben, to find out how it came to be.
What has brought you to become a baker? More precisely French patisserie?
I used to be in marketing but have always been passionate about food. So I wanted to try and do something in this area but focus on one thing and be the best at doing it. I noticed that no-one was making a decent croissant in London so decided to specialise in high quality viennoiserie. And that’s how it all started...
What’s your process to source ingredients?
We aim to be the best so we need to use top quality ingredients. In fact we now source most of our supplies from France as we know excellence is going to come as standard and there will be no compromise on quality.
What’s your connection and fondest memory of France?
My great grandmother was French but that’s about as far as any personal connection goes. We have a number of bakers who come over from France each year so it’s great to maintain an association that way too. But my fondest memory of France was when I was a teenager staying with my correspondent and being sent to the local boulangerie to buy baguettes and then devouring most of them on the walk home!
Do you visit regions of France to discover regional pastries and seek inspiration? For example, Brittany inspiring your Kouign-Amann
Having a 24/7 bakery doesn’t give us that much time to get away unfortunately but we try to take a traditional product and re-engineer it to create something unique that looks and tastes great. We developed both the Kouign-amann & Brioche Feuilletée this way and have a real following for these products
As a cyclist yourself, what comes first: pastry or bikes?
That is impossible to answer... can I say both?!?
What makes your pastries so special?
Each day we try to make the best possible pastries we can. Using top quality ingredients helps but it’s the desire to give our customers the opportunity to experience an amazing product that really drives us and, we hope, makes our pastries so special.
