Traders of the month

With more than two decades of experience under his belt, pastry chef and baker Olivier Favrel is committed to providing products made using only the best ingredients. Based locally in south-east London, Olivier’s Bakery brings to Borough Market a variety of freshly baked breads, cakes and pastries, including a special selection of 100 per cent spelt breads and deliciously soft croissants.

The Flour Station came to the Market in 2004, having begun life in the kitchen of Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen restaurant. Its wide range of sourdough and speciality breads, cakes and pastries continues to grow, all the while maintaining authentic methods of craftsmanship. Look out for their award-winning English muffins: thick, pillowy and golden topped thanks to a hand-griddled finish.

Charles Tebbutt is committed to supporting and spreading the word on the benefits of agroforestry – a broad term that essentially means farming with trees – and its many economic and environmental advantages. Specialising in native varieties and those sourced from our European neighbours, Food & Forest offers a range of raw, organic nuts alongside roasted savoury nuts and sweet brittles.

When Elizabeth King started making pork pies back in 1853, little did she realise what she was setting in motion. More than a century and half later, her name  has been immortalised at one of the world’s most famous markets and her Melton Mowbray pies now have dedicated PGI status, meaning they can only be made in a particular way in a specific area of Nottinghamshire. Each pie uses fresh pork and rich jelly, cooked inside golden brown pastry.

David Holton, Tim Jarvis and the rest of the team at Blackwoods Cheese Company have been producing soft, raw cow’s milk cheeses since 2013. Their signature cheese is Graceburn, which is based on a Persian feta recipe that David learnt in Australia. They also offer Edmund Tew (a small, brainy-looking, brine-washed cow’s cheese), William Heaps (a fresh lactic cheese), whey and cow’s curd, all produced at Commonwork Organic Farm in Kent.

The Padfield family have been looking after cows and making cheese at Park Farm in Somerset for four generations. Their five signature cheeses – Wyfe of Bath, Bath Soft, Bath Blue, Kelston Park and Merry Wyfe – have been sold at the Market for years at their Bath Soft Cheese stall. Their first foray into hot food sees them using the cheeses we know and love to make traditional tartiflette and baked cheeses, served alongside thick and creamy milkshakes.

Follow your nose and the aroma of freshly baked bread to the Bread Ahead Bakery on Cathedral Street. Here you can watch Matthew Jones and his team of expert bakers hard at work in the glass-fronted bakery, which serves the doughnut stall and stand selling filled croissants, sourdough breads and sweet bakes out front, as well as a stall in Three Crown Square. The bakery is also home to the Bread Ahead Bakery School, which offers baking and pastry skills courses for both novice and skilled bakers.

Michael Hobbs started working at Borough 25 years ago, first as a market porter and then as a bookkeeper for Elsey & Bent. Together with his wife Julie, he opened Hobbs Meat Roast which soon became a favourite among Market regulars. The pair certainly know how to get a queue started: their hot meat baguettes include roast loin of pork with stuffing and apple sauce, turkey breast with stuffing and cranberry sauce, and salt beef with dill pickle and mustard.

Camille draws on the intimate, down-to-earth atmosphere of a classic bouchon or cave-à-manger in Lyon or Paris. The menu is heavily influenced by those French neighbourhood restaurants, without being entirely tied down to Gallic flavours. Chef Elliot Hashtroudi and his team work closely with a tight network of suppliers to source the highest quality ingredients, the seasonality of which informs the ever-changing menu. The wine list showcase the work of distinctive small-scale producers.

Deliciously upcycled snacks, handmade with food industry by-product ingredients that would otherwise be thrown away (such as fruit and vegetable juice pulp collected from local juice bars) to fight food waste. Founder, food writer and activist Chloë Stewart’s mission is to empower customers with the knowledge and tools with which to live by their values and, ultimately, inspire people to reduce their food waste – in the most delicious possible way.