The Comptoir Bakery: Why London’s newest French bakery school should be added to your London Bucket List
Stage one in becoming a croissant connoisseur
Oui oui oui, what do you do when you want to go to France, but are stuck in London? Well, you head to a French bakery school, of course.
This may be taking our penchant for a little sweet treat a little too far, but we headed down to The Comptoir Bakery, London’s newest bakery school in Bermondsey, in a slight departure from our usual Guestlist features.
Whilst we love a good restaurant and are always looking for London’s coolest bars, sometimes we just want a more wholesome daytime activity. Enter The Comptoir Bakery. Drawing in London chefs, solo travellers, and London locals, The Comptoir Bakery’s new school - run by The Wind Family - is a great spot to try out.
Where is it?
The Comptoir Bakery has 6 bakeries dotted across East London, but their bakery school is situated in the achingly cool Bermondsey arches, 96 Druid Street SE1 2HQ - not far from London Bridge.
Down the same alleyway that the bakery is located, you’ll also find Spanish wine bars, Italian nonna-run restaurants, and a hidden disused Timber yard that’s been upcycled into a brewery/bar amongst others.
What’s special?
The Comptoir Bakery is a small, family-run business with community at its heart. Also, run by a genuinely French family of chefs, it’s worth checking out for listening to their accents alone. Lowkey yet upbeat, The Comptoir Bakery School combines the French patisserie expertise with the patience of teaching English incompetence.
What’s new?
The bakery itself opened a couple of months ago, so it’s still a mostly undiscovered spot, although word of mouth (food of mouth) is making them popular already.
Who should you bring?
A lot of people go by themselves; as you’re on tables of four, you really get to know the people you’re in a group with, and the whole atmosphere is friendly and fun.
There’s a whole mix, though; when we went, there were some local chefs who wanted to learn the fine art of viennoisserie, a group of friends, a dad & daughter duo, and a (thankfully very chilled) hen party. So, really, bring anyone at all - even if you’re going by yourself. Just don’t take anyone who is vegan or gluten free…
What should you wear?
As it’s a baking class, we’d recommend wearing things you don’t mind getting a bit floury - although you are given a gorgeous linen apron (which you get to keep!!) so you won’t get too mucky.
What are prices like?
All the classes are £99, which seems on the more expensive side when you’re thinking about an activity however, this is definitely one of the best value-for-money places we’ve been to.
Not only does each session last for over three hours (which makes it just over about £30 an hour), but you make around £50 worth of pastries which you get to take home, plus incredible snacks and drinks throughout. It is about the same as Bread Ahead Bakery but you get to do a lot more.
Also, unlike most other London bakery schools, you don’t just watch the pros make it, getting to try little bits yourself here and there, these classes are structured around making things yourself, and getting to do all the fun parts of cooking.
What’s available?
The Comptoir Bakery has a whole range of workshops, including: Brioche, Choux pastry, macaron, puff pastry, and tartlets, as well as the croissant one we went to.
What do you do?
In the workshop, you start off by learning how to make the dough, before giving it a knead and whacking it in the fridge to prove. Anyone who has watched Bake Off or a cooking show of any kind will probably know that most croissant dough is laminated, meaning it needs to have a series of turns and folds with butter layered between it, and needs to rest for h o u r s in between each turn.
Luckily, in order to make sure you’re always doing not waiting, the bakery swaps out your rested dough with some of the dough from their own prep kitchen.
So after you’ve made your first dough, bashed the butter, layered it in, and popped it in the fridge, you start learning how to shape and make the croissants and pain au chocolats. Once those are in the oven, you learn how to make creme patissiere, before using some of the ready-to-go-dough to make your own pain aux raisins.
Once these are filled, rolled, shaped, cut, and glazed, they also get popped in the oven. (You can imagine just how good the place smells). Also, all the while you’re turning your original dough.
The verdict?
Whether you’re a foodie or not, this a fun one to check out. It’s perfect for a more wholesome activity with your mates that changes up your usual routine. Plus, it does give you a little ego boost when you look at your little croissant and think “I made that”.
Main image credit: Comptoir Bakery and Nick Lachance / Getty