So many new London openings

A chocolate shop, bakeries and a multi-brand pop up off Regent Street. Plus a pumpkin praline pastry, fabulous chilli oil and a must-have cookbook for busy people.

Nov 13, 2024

Good news and bad news.

Good news: this is (relatively!) short. You could even read it right now.

EDIT: Well, it’s turned out to be quite long, but it’s mostly pictures and links!

If you’re one of my wonderful readers who has no plans to come to London then you may want to skip all the way down to the cookbook recommendation.Sorry! But please stick around as the next two weeks will be nationwide then Paris.

Bad news: my Paris tips and recommendations won’t come to you for two more weeks. Not today because it’s going to take a bit longer and not next week because then I’ll be sharing my advent calendar and hamper recommendations with you. If I leave that any later it’ll be too late to start your calendar on December 1st.

More good news: there are 3 spots on this Friday’s Notting Hill Bakery Tour from 9am to 12pm if you’d like to join us!

This week’s delicious things:

3 places just opened (one is only temporary!)
1 place about to open
a West London bakery expanding East
2 delicious things I had recently
crowd funding for one of my favourite bakeries opening in December
1 cookbook recommendation for busy people (so, uh, everyone?)

Three places just opened in London

1. A new cinnamon roll place has opened inside Saint Espresso in the Olympic Park.

Roll Boys are only baking Saturday and Sundays from 10am. They will be baking throughout the day. I’d expect queues because it’s already going viral. 😳

I’m not sure I can make it this weekend, but I’ll try to get there soon to report back!

It’s right around the corner from Hearth Bakery so make sure to go there as well, if you’re planning to visit.

📌 Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, 13 E Bay Ln, London E20 3BS

🚆 Hackney Wick / Stratford International

2. The RAYE pop up is on again.

This time on Regent Street, just near Piccadilly Circus.

With many, many new brands in both beauty and food. Each time RAYE pops up they’re showcasing an almost entirely new set of businesses and this is the 11th time they’ve found a location in London. That’s a lot of great businesses.

They’re open every day.

10am - 7pm Mon-Sat
12pm - 6pm Sun

Until Sunday 1st December.

Tap to see the full list of brands present plus the events they have on their website.

📌 Quadrant Arcade, Regent St., London W1B 5RL

🚆 Piccadilly Circus

One of the delicious things I bought recently

When I popped into the RAYE pop up, I bought this jar of bitsy chilli oil by Omiyage by Koya and between two of us we almost finished half of it in one evening - me on baked potato and sweet potato fries and him on pizza. It would be amazing on avocado and on noodles, too.

If you can’t get to RAYE then you can also get it at Koya’s restaurants in Soho, the city or Hackney, or by delivery here, but only to London addresses at the moment. Sorry, my lovely non-London people.

OMIYAGE is the Japanese tradition of travellers bringing back gifts that are typically food from the region. Like a souvenir but the word refers to it being for other people. It’s usually something that’s easily divided amongst the people who didn’t come with you and so if you’re travelling around Japan you’ll see quite clearly what’s packaged up and intended for this purpose.

I remember hearing about this during a cooking course at someone’s home in Kyoto. He told us it actually made going away tricky because it can get quite expensive with this expectation, as it applies even for short trips to neighbouring areas.

Here are some other food products that looked interesting at RAYE:

Products at RAYE pop up store. PAL & Leo, ancestral superfoods, shatta jam, jungle butter, fil foods, powder patisserie, over the moo

3. XO Chocolate is now open in central London.

Southwest Londoners probably already know and love XO Chocolate but I’m so excited they’re now open centrally. In recent years we’ve lost more chocolate shops than we’ve gained so this feels significant. I’m visiting this week. I will report back!

📌 35 Riding House St, London, United Kingdom W1W 7EA

🚆 Oxford Circus

The newest bakery about to open this weekend

Mahali & Co have their soft launch this weekend. Open from 8-3 unless they sell out earlier.

📌 Ground Floor Retail, 24 Battersea Park Rd, London SW11 4HY

🚆 Battersea Park

This West London Bakery is moving Southeast

Moi et Toi, from the team behind Gunpowder and Empire Empire, have been making and selling their pastries from Empire Empire in Notting Hill. From Monday 18th November you’ll also be able to buy them from Gunpowder by Tower Bridge

Pastries from our Notting Hill Bakery Tour on Sunday. We tried all but one!

📌 Gunpowder, 4 Duchess Walk, London SE1 2RZ

🚆 London Bridge

Crowdfunder for one of my favourite bakeries

August Bakery by Harry Robins and his partner Florrie is due to open on Battersea Rise in December. They’re looking for prepurchases via crowdfunding to fund their laminator. Check it out here:

https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/august-bakery---help-us-make-it-happen

Harry used to run the micro bakery Robins Provisions from home and my memory is of his cookies and croissants being amongst the best I’ve ever had. He’s also hired experienced chef Sesilia to bake as well.

I called them phenomenal here:

thenextdeliciousthing

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I feel like supporting this crowdfunder now will be an excellent investment in your future self.

I am very excited.

You want this Pumpkin Praline Pastry

chaiguysbakehouse

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We had it on the Notting Hill Bakery Tour on Sunday. It’s a weekend special and will sell out. Good luck!

📌 Chai Guys Bakehouse, 193 Portobello Rd, London W11 2ED
🚆 Ladbroke Grove

A must have cookbook for busy people

If you have a pressure cooker. But if you don’t have a pressure cooker, why not?

I bought one that also works as Air Fryer, Dehydrator, Mini Oven, slow cooker and other things, on an Amazon Prime deal (sorry) and then left it in the box for at least six months because I thought I didn’t have time to figure it out. Turns out there wasn’t really anything to figure out (this one is useful even as a mini oven and a game changer for dried legumes).

The longer I’ve had it the more I use it to the point I’m tempted to get another.

Reading

Catherine Phipps

‘

Catherine is under pressure

over the past year or so has helped me to use it even more, so I’m very excited for her newest book.

catherinephipps

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I say excited a lot, don’t I? Well, there’s a lot to be excited about.

This is the link for Catherine’s book on Amazon and on Bookshop.org. I‘ve just bought myself a copy.

This is the newer version of the Pressure Cooker/AirFryer/etc that I bought which also has a grill and sous vide!

If you’re after a stovetop pressure cooker instead, then one of the brands that Catherine has recommended before is currently on sale on Amazon.

Here’s the plan for the next few weeks of The Next Delicious Thing newsletters:

next week: a round up of hampers and advent calendars

w/c 25th Nov: my Paris recommendations and recent openings there (paid subs only)

w/c 2nd Dec: recent restaurants I’ve loved

As always, I’ll throw in random timely things and fun facts and products or books that are available.

See you soon!

Let me know in the comments if you have any trips planned? I’m trying to plan where to adventure to next year and would love to hear where you’re off to.