No need to hop on the Eurostar for a decent bread anymore

Eat your lardy heart out, Mr Atkins, but there is no way you will ever see me on a no-bread-diet. A while ago, when my innocent ears first got wind of the idea of cutting out any kind of bread, my first instinctive reaction was to dig my teeth deep into a pretzel – an act of reassuring myself that a part of the world was still how it was supposed to be.

Ten years on, and various studies have proven that a) a no-carbs-diet is not only unhealthy but b) also makes you unhappy. Which is not really surprising, as your body transforms carbs into glucose, which triggers Serotonin release, which makes you happy.

Of course, there’s bread (mass produced, additive-loaded, rubbish-in-a-bag-kind-of-bread) and bread (the traditional, artisan, good-for-you-kind-of-bread). For a while now, Waitrose has stocked my personal favourite: Poilâne rye bread.

With envy, I used to look over the (little) pond. The Parisians did ‘ave it all. Le tour Eiffel, le je-ne-sais-quoi and… les Poilâne shops.

However, rumour has it that the famous French bakery has opened a restaurant in Chelsea. As soon as I will be back from our little vacation (more on that later), I shall head over to Cuisine de Bar by Poilâne and amuse myself with a tartine. Or two.

Happy weekend, chers amis. And don’t forget to eat your bread!

Cuisine de Bar by Poilâne, 39 Cadogan Gardens, SW3 2TB, Tel.: 020 3263 6019