london bakeries & bakers gossip.

i have to share some fun tidbits with you. shhhh, they're secrets. tee hee.
i used to work here, The Big Gun. the company was started in 1991 by the formidable She. now it is owned by two businessmen. it's a massive enterprise in Hendon with 3 factions/departments: The Cake Department, BMG (Viennoisserie) & Bread.

A number of years later She started an amazing food shop and ran these well known london bakeries too. She also has a small part of opening one of the most beautiful chocolate shops.

right after valentine's day of this year, her bakeries were bought by a company that should barely be allowed to call itself a bakery. that company fired just about everyone and still owes them months of back pay.
but i digress.

if you read the Tamasin Day-Lewis piece well, you'll notice that one of the chefs is now a main chef (and partner) at this other incredible london food shops/restaurants/pastry shops. yes, and the name of the business comes from someone else who worked for She.

one of the pastry chefs let go in the massive bakery take over in February started consulting for this bakery chain about 3 months ago.

this bakery chain was not begun by She, even though it's her name.
She has nothing to do with this bakery chain, even though the website might tell you different.
this bakery chain's products are produced in The Big Gun's Cake Department.
this bakery chain is just one of thousands of customers of The Big Gun and the Cake Department.
this bakery chain is owned by a He. yes, the same one of the two he's who own The Big Gun.
this bakery chain has just launched a new product line. you can eat it at 2 of their four stores. Clapham & Hampstead.

but massive product launches for one specific customer coming from a department producing 40,000 units a month (not an exaggeration) need extra pastry chefs.

and here's the clincher.
if it weren't full circle/incestuous/crazy small world enough yet.

The Big Gun, who owns the small bakery chain, named after She who started The Big Gun, the same She who went on to open the most gorgeous, delicious series of bakeries/food shops London had ever seen, and then hired two he's who would open (an eponymous) very similar businesses to Hers

are now the company whose pastry chefs are leaving it to help this bakery chain.

could you die? it's so amazingly ridiculous.

how could it be that a city as big as London is being baked for by a handful of pastry chefs/bakers?

one last thing. the people behind this shop will soon be opening a bakery. guess where the pastry chef/baker behind that venture worked last?

Comments

[kelsie]

all of it really just wants to make pack up and move to a remote spanish town

[kayenne]

as they say... the food industry is relatively small...

you lost me somewhere since i'm not familiar with many of the places and people there, but i get the gist. a mall giant here does similar monkeying around... rather sad, i know.

i hate it when big companies eat up smaller ones, then foul up everything.

[Hareesh]

thats a lot of research and work (reading all the links) :)
and its my turn :D
he is there for last 3years and she came in like a tornado just for few months leaving a lots of memories..
hes who baking and thinking loads of things where she writes everything like piece of cake.
oops i dont've any external links to support the HE and the SHE.
But many of us know the answer :D

Hareesh, you are gorgeous and i love you. i miss you all the time too. will come back for a visit soon. xo shuna

[Malini]

deliciously incestuous!

[Lovebabz]

Very Peyton Place...am I dating myself? Oh I am sure I am!

It all seems very melodramatic...love it. Work your fine talents into a book...about this...fiction of course ;)

[Victoria]

Tamasin Day-Lewis is fabulous. Her book West of Ireland Summers is simply a dream.

Do you think Dan Lepard could make clotted cream strawberry shortcake for ME?

I always hope you are happy. Looks like you made a good friend; that's something special.

[Melvis]

This is where you would turn to me and grin and hold your fingers together tightly and say "the world is this big"...
And it's so true....

[Rebecca Stevens]

When I read this I imagined you driving a convertible speaking into a handheld microphone pink feather boa wrapped around your neck flapping behind you. Excellent reporting on the move! XO becky fresh

[cheryl]

I have to say that this post explains a lot of what's going on in the food world there and here. It's amazing how someone can start a good thing and it morphs into something else when business people get involved with a food business.

But it also explains a lot of what happened in your world in the last few months and why you took on a baker manager role at this Big Bakeshop which was founded by Her - she is famous all over the world for her great stuff. Keep baking your good stuff.

[lithotomist]

Just to correct one point, 'The One and Only' Dan Lepard has not worked for or with 'She' for a decade now. Personally, I'm not sure how much of Baker & Spice's success was down to 'her', and I think it's fair to note that the trading name and outlets were bought by the Patisserie Valerie people after the previous owners had run them into 'administration', the new polite term for having the bankruptcy liquidators in.

[ele]

i am sooooo confused

[Caleb]

I found your food blog going through a few links. Glad I ran into it. Didn’t know that the food blog/recipe community was so big online. I love your posts!