The Triumph Of Populations Bakery

January 19, 2026

by the gentle author

It is my pleasure to publish these edited excerpts from this piece by Julia Harrison, author of the fascinating literary blog THE SILVER LOCKET. I am proud that Julia is a graduate of my blog-writing course.

There are only a few places available now on my course HOW TO WRITE A BLOG THAT PEOPLE WILL WANT TO READ on 7th & 8th February. Email spitalfieldslife@gmail.com to enrol.

George’s Galette des Rois

Spitalfields Life readers will already know about George Fuest’s Populations Bakery. In the past, I have collected pastries in the past from George’s home on Fournier St but the discovery that he was offering Galettes des Rois at his new bakery at Corner Shop in Arundel St was just too tempting. On Saturday, I made my way down to the Embankment, almost next door to Temple Place, to collect one.

I was met with apologies from one of George’s team of bakers, Huey. My galette was still in the oven: would I sit down, have a cup of coffee and taste a slice? I eagerly agreed and when there was a pause in the morning rush, Huey took a few moments to talk to me. He started by explaining the reason for the name ‘Populations Bakery’.

‘George uses heritage wheat populations which are mainly ancient heritage grains, Populations-diverse wheat is where you have got lots of different species of wheat, meaning that the soil is in far better condition. If you go to these fields you can see it clearly because rather than weeds being around knee height the crop is up to waist height: so much healthier for you but also for the soil and the landscape.

He uses a lot of stone-milled flour in his pastries: stone-milled flour keeps all the properties of the wheat as opposed to regular sifted milled flour. It means that the pastries have a darker colour because there are more sugars, more nutrients to caramelise, which means more flavour.’

Then Huey handed me a box containing a delicate pastry that would not look out of place in a patisserie in Paris.

‘This is the perfect example of what he does: unbelievable technique as well as the provenance of the ingredients. The technique is cross lamination: if you are making a dough for pastries you laminate butter and then the dough. Once that is all done you slice it very thinly and then twist the segments ninety degrees, and then re-laminate it which means you have more texture and better flavour as well.

Then the clementine: you have candied clementine on top and then clementine creme inside with creme fraiche. The clementine comes from Vincente Todoli, grown just outside Valencia which has a long history of citrus farms. He moved away, became an art dealer, travelled the world, fell back in love with citrus and now has created this citrus sanctuary in Valencia. It has the biggest collection of citrus trees from around the world and they have all started cross breeding with each other and making new varieties. It is like a museum, but for citrus.’

I look up Vincente Todoli and discover that he was not just any old art dealer, but one-time director of Tate Modern. His Todoli Citrus Fondacio preserves rare citrus varieties for future generations.

When I remark on George achievement in scaling up his bakery from his garden shed in Fournier St, Huey says ‘I try and get the message through to as many guests as I can, such a variety of people come through these doors.’ The fact that my galette was still in the oven turned out to be a moment of serendipity. I am indebted to Huey for taking the time to share the philosophy which brings producer and baker together in such fine style.