Bread of Heaven

Emma Brophy meets Chiswick's newest mover and baker

Is there an aroma more alluring than freshly baked bread? Personally I think not which is why I was so excited about meeting Jonathon Cohen, founder of the Bread Shop which opens its doors this weekend. 

The new Chiswick store (opposite Dukes Ave) will be the second of Cohen’s bakeries and will offer the same extensive range of continental breads and pastries made from specially selected wheat, flour and other key ingredients as its St John’s Wood counterpart.

Such high quality produce has put the Bread Shop firmly on London’s gastronomic map with the food halls of Selfridges and Harrods stocking their goods and prompting India Knight to state in her essential guide to the art of shopping, “delicious bread and also, unusually, excellent wheat-free croissants”

Set in fresh and contemporary surroundings, the Bread Shop will offer an abundant choice of large and small white, rye and seeded products all baked to perfection daily on the premises. Specialities include the four seed roll, made with pumpkinseeds, sunflower seeds, linseed and millet seeds kneaded together with potato flakes and sourdough and left to mature for sixteen hours for maximum flavour. The raw ingredients are all grown without the use of any pesticides or chemicals in specific 'Bread Shop fields' in Germany to ensure premium quality.

Cohen said, "Our aim is to provide the best quality, freshest bread money can buy, which, until now, has not been readily available. We want to turn buying bread into a pleasure rather than a daily chore. When visiting The Bread Shop, we want our customers to enjoy and relish in the aromas and taste the freshness when they walk in."

The Bread Shop's main focus is to provide customers with healthy, delicious, fresh bread everyday of the week. Open from 7.00am until 6.30pm 365 days of the year, patrons will also be able to enjoy a cup of freshly made illy coffee with their croissant or an Innocent smoothie with their sandwich.

And it gets better, for lovers of natural and nutritious food, Bread Shop bakes a wide variety of rolls and breads packed full of seeds and grains, which are hugely beneficial for our health. Then there’s spelt, which although very similar to wheat, is generally higher in protein, vitamins and minerals, and is easier to digest making it kinder on the stomach. So much so that Spelt is the perfect alternative for wheat-sensitive bread lovers. The Breadshop has dedicated an entire range to spelt due to this growing demand, from rolls to loaves and even a spelt croissant!

Future plans include an online ordering service and a health benefits column to be written by their resident nutritionist further details of which can be sought from their website www.breadshop.co.uk. “We are an independent, community orientated business that aims to provide an excellent service to local people,” states Cohen.

Could the Bread Shop mark a return of the local independent trader to our High Road? I for one certainly hope so.

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April 9, 2005