Bakery Wars, Running Between Bakeries, and Master Perfumers' Favourite Everyday Smells.
another dispatch of this an all-you-can-eat mind buffet
Hello everyone. On Sunday I was invited to Meatopia — twelve years running, and I’d always dismissed it as too cliquey, too blokey, too smoky. Wrong. The vibes were impeccable, the crowd refreshingly mixed, the food outstanding, and the live music made it feel like a party: just an all-round good time. I can still smell the smoke in my hair which makes me feel like i’ve just come back from camping. Already eyeing next year.
→ Cake wars!
Get Baked, a Leeds-based viral bakery known for its stuntlike creations, is accusing Studio Bakery, a Lancashire bakery supplying Booths, Asda, Waitrose, and Tesco of copying their products, instagram posts and tone of voice. And imma be real with you: the evidence is wild. I’ll leave it up to you guys to click through, but Get Baked’s army of 334K followers are going absolutely HAM online about this.
The most damning part (IMHO) has to be the accusations around food safety issues.:
More as it comes in….
→ Bakery running is taking the run club movement by storm.
Food writer
started the bakery-centric running club Bun Run in August 2023, throughout August Gail’s Bakery partnered with 11 run clubs across London under the Knead for Speed banner, and a Times writer devised a marathon route with 26 bakery stops along the way.
This phenomenon is also showing up in NYC and Copenhagen via tipster.
A few months ago, I wrote about Knees Up Space — a bricks-and-mortar manifestation of a run club and an interesting case study in community building and monetisation. I’m still unsure how run clubs can sustainably monetise (let’s be honest, in this economy it’s necessary), but bakery partnerships might be one way. What do you guys think?
→ In further baked goods news, Tandoh wrote about her experience as a contestant on season four of The Great British Bake Off in The New Yorker’s Weekend Essay.
Loved this peek behind the scenes — especially the revelation that host Sue Perkins used the ingenious tactic of libelling pharmaceutical companies to make embarrassing show footage unusable.
She also has a new book coming out on Thursday that i can’t wait to dive into.
→Tekla is opening a shop in Marylebone, it’s first outside of Copenhagen.
The brand is currently hiring for what looks like a November opening. Nice to see a brand that’s bullish on London!
→Elon Musk has endorsed a new UK political party that’s even more to the right than Reform UK.
Tommy Robinson also backs Advance UK but it’s unclear if Musk will make a monetary donation or just stick to tweeting about it. A quick scan of his X account shows a lot of posts about migration into the UK and retweets of Tommy Robinson (Stephen Yaxley-Lennon) tweets. Big yikes.
I’m re-watching The Gilded Age right now, can’t these billionaires engage in some philanthropy instead of stirring up civil unrest?
→ Sylvanian Families has dropped their lawsuit againt Irish TikToker behind Sylvanian Dramas account.
The two parties reached a mutually agreeable settlement: Thea Von Engelbrechten (the account’s admin) will change the name and profile photo to avoid further action.
→ Really enjoyed this “10 Master Perfumers on the Everyday Products They Can’t Smell Enough Of” article on Cultured magazine.
You might not know this, but I’m a cosmetic scientist by trade — I studied Chemistry and Cosmetic Science, worked in R&D, Product Development, and as a Technical Manager at a contract manufacturer, before launching my own (small) brand almost a decade ago. One thing that always stuck with me from perfumery classes: the bulk of the industry develops fragrances for household cleaning and personal care products, and only a tiny fraction of perfumers actually work in fine fragrance.
Pleased to see multiple Mrs. Meyer’s products on this list as I use these at home too — UK readers, you can purchase these via iHerb.
Bye!