Our Patch APRIL 2016
A
dusting of flour covers
everything. Absolutely
everything. The counter,
the floor, the till. You
even have to brush it off
the screen to enter your
PIN on the credit card reader.
Sacks of organic stone-ground flour
from Shipton Mill in the Cotswolds
occupy half the floor space of the
tiny bakery in Askew Road where
Raluca Micu creates artisan bread, but
the real action is at the back, through a
lattice screen.
A ferocious oven, little bigger than
one you’d find in a domestic kitchen,
throbs with the heat.
Stone slabs inside spread the
temperature evenly for a better bake.
It’s so small that only a dozen baguettes
can be made at the same time.
Somehow, in this cramped zone,
wonders are performed.
Condensation runs in trails down
the front window. “That means we’re
open,” laughs Raluca, 34, who grew
up in Bucharest and left her native
Romania with husband Alex (a social
media guru) seven years ago to settle in
Hammersmith.
The bakery, curiously known by the
date name of October 26, has been
going a year, building a loyal following
among Askew Road foodies, and
appreciators of a good loaf from wider
afield.
When she started trial bakes,
she handed the results out on
the pavement. One grateful guinea
pig happened to be the food writer
Josceline Dimbleby, who is now a
big fan.
The novelist Paul Bailey, who
lives round the corner, is also a regular
– addressing Raluca in Romanian,
having visited the country and set
books there.
A sign on the door proclaims ‘Come
on in, leave me breadless!’ When you
walk in you realise that, despite the
simple wood floor and plain black
counter, this is no ordinary bakery.
Raluca took over the shop when
beauty salon Planet of Joy closed,
converting it with the help of friends
so that there are now wooden pegs
protruding from two walls, where the
loaves rest as they cool from the oven.
She makes sour breads with
flour, salt and water, rather than using
yeast dough.
Oat porridge bread (£4.25), West
End white sour (£3.75), The Secret Loaf
8/9
Everything is done
by hand by Raluca
at October 26, from
pastries to her
sweet Easter loaves
ALL PHOTOS: LEIGH QUINNELL
(it has a heart symbol and costs £4),
walnut and raisin (£4.50), semolina
sour loaf (£3.75), rye an