Britain's £10 loaf of bread

[Jonathan Day]

From this morning's Sunday Times: Waitrose are now selling Poîlane "sourdough" (levain bread) for £9.62. This received a front page headline: "Crumbs! It's the £10 loaf".

To be sure, the loaf weighs 4 pounds, so the article's subsequent comparison with supermarket bread is a bit silly.

"In a blind test last week nine out of 12 shoppers said they preferred the taste of a £1.45 loaf from Safeway to Poîlane's finest sourdough." A 75 year old retired marine engineer said, "They taste the same to me...I've no idea why people would pay £10 for a loaf. They must have too much money."

On the one hand, it's great to see Britons interested in good bread and willing to seek it out. On the other, having returned from a small French town that is surrounded by bakeries, where very good levain bread is readily available and a fine baguette costs something like 50p, we have a ways to go before good bread is there for everyone, every day, at a reasonable cost.

[Andy Lynes]

Harvey Nichols were selling it at £10.00 a while back, even before Poilane opened in the UK.

[magnolia]

The bread's about the same price as it is in France, but - and I'm just going to say this and not get into the bread discussion again !!! - at least in France there's lots of good bread at far less. In London sadly, in general, the bread is terrible. Sad that it has to come down to charging £10 for a good loaf. If sourdough's your thing, Poilane bread lasts and lasts. It doesn't get mouldy and it doesn't get stale.

[John Whiting]

When I buy Poilane in London I go to the bakery at Victoria and pay around six pounds for a loaf which I cut into quarters and freeze. (If I've lots of freezer space at the moment I may buy two.) That's about one pound fifty sterling for a pound of bread, a couple of slices of which fill you up more completely than twice that quantity of Mother's Shame. Is that expensive? Only if you're a painoholic.

[Andy Lynes]

So does the stuff they sell in Waitrose come from the bakery, or does he now have some massive factory churning the stuff out?

[Jonathan Day]

My surprise at the article was less about the price than to see a bread piece on the front page of the Sunday newspaper. Either there wasn't enough dirt and scandal to fill the page, or people here are getting deeply interested in food. I think it's the latter.

I sometimes buy half loaves of Poîlane levain bread at Borough Market -- there's a stand just outside Neal's Yard. They assure me that it has come from the bakery. It's never quite as fresh as what you get at the bakery itself, but it is good and it keeps a long time. It also slices more neatly than some levain breads I buy (e.g. at Le Petrin Ribeïrou in France where the bread has larger holes and a more varied texture than the Poîlane product).

[magnolia]

So does the stuff they sell in Waitrose come from the bakery, or does he now have some massive factory churning the stuff out?

I am pretty sure it comes from a bakery that's owned/operated by POilane exclusively for themselves... it may not be in the shop in Victoria...I think they sell Poilane at Selfridges too. But it all tastes exactly the same, and Poilane's modus operandi and reputation depend on total control over ingredients & process, to the extent that I believe they import various ingredients from France because they are no acceptable equivalents here.

[Matthew Grant]

Most people would be happy paying £1.50 - £2.00 for a speciality loaf, the Poilane is 4 times the size of most speciality breads, what is the problem? The only problem I see with the price of that loaf is the markup that Waitrose have put on it. Its only £2.00 a quarter at Borough Market and £6.00 a loaf direct form his bakery. Senationalist journalism me thinks.

I don't find this nearly as shocking as the jar of Dean and Deluca Pasta sauce at Waitrose for £7.95. I could make a whole load of very good pasta sauce for that money.

[Robert Schonfeld]

I sometimes buy half loaves of Poîlane levain bread

JD(London), you don't bake your own pain au levain? Say it isn't so!