Review of Kossoff's Bakery
Kosoffs Bakery in Kentish Town is croissant nirvana. The space is just as welcoming as the smell and taste. Terrazzo tabletops; wood baffling on the ceiling, poured concrete – Kosoffs knows its audience. The best ingredients, the true ingredients – the butter, the sugar, the flour – push all else to the background.
This magnificent bakery opened just after the last lockdown. It might be one of the greatest bakeries I’ve visited. Even the local French people who are rife in north London, flock to it and claim the baked goods are better than home.
Aaron Kosoff, the owner and one of two lead bakers (his partner Jo is co-lead) comes from a long baking familial history.
The website sets out the history:
“The historical Kossoff's Bakeries was established in the 1920s by Wolf Kossoff, a Jewish refugee from Kiev. Between the 1920s and the 1980s he opened a number of bakeries across East London, where he brought traditional Jewish baked goods to the communities living there.
Two generations of bakers followed establishing their own bakeries, including a grandson, David. With time the product offering diversified to include a broader range of baked goods, while still keeping the Jewish tradition alive.
Now, in 2021, David’s son Aaron has picked up the gauntlet, and has opened the latest Kossoff's Bakery in the heart of Kentish Town.
Aaron has been preparing for this moment since qualifying from Le Cordon Bleu in 2014 with Le Grande Diplome. Since then he’s cut his teeth in the industry with spells at The Ivy Covent Garden, Little Bread Pedlar, Honey & Co. and most prestigious at Ottolenghi where he was Head Baker at the age of 27.”
Aaron and Jo are the real deal. The crack and crunch, the flaky and the buttery-chew all come together in pastries that are both deeply traditional and a little bit form-busting. For instance, the above picture is of a black sesame-feta croissant which works a treat. The sharpness of the cheese hitting up against the earthy woodiness of the sesame and the sweet butter in the many croissant layers makes something totally classical yet tastes brand new. They even do a kimchi-cheese version which uses the juice from kimchi in a super surprising way.
At lunch time Kosoffs always has a varied trio of salads. For instance: sweet potato, peanut butter, red chillies, feta and spring onion is hearty, thick and an umami mega bomb.
The sandwiches – like the croissants – elevates the definition of such a simple foodstuff.
One dad sitting next to me looking tired and wrecked, took a bite of his picture-perfect BLT and exclaimed to nobody in particular: ‘My god that is the best BLT I have ever tasted.’
I would have to agree with Tired Dad. Each constituent element is perfect: the freshest and plumpest of everything. A rave is needed for the white and wholewheat loaves that Kosoffs kicks out with scary perfection. On the weekends the dough wizards do a special multi-seed load whose last piece has caused family fights in my household. It’s nutty and chewy and yeasty and crunchy.
Finally, a word about the patisserie, which I think betrays Jo and Aaron’s history as bakers in some of London’s finest bakeries and restaurants. There’s a Yottam Ottolenghi vibe viz a viz the palette of tastes they utilise.
Miniature orange-chocolate gluten free polenta cakes look as if they’ve escaped Lewis Carrol; their scalloped edges and drizzled with chocolate. Ginger custard with rhubarb pieces is encased in a cup made from croissant dough. Kouign-amann – which are dials made from croissant dough ends whose top is sugared and blasted with a blow torch and pucks of perfection. Other tastes that get a look in with their patisserie are fig, orange cream, walnut, frangipane, blackberries. Very Ottolenghi. Very Kosoffs.
These guys don’t need a baking master anymore – they have become the top dogs themselves.