EGGS on sourdough toast with a dollop of kimchi for breakfast and a chilled glass of kombucha for sundowners — London eateries are book-ending days with fermented foods. Throw in a spoonful of sauerkraut with lunch, and diners’ guts are positively gurgling with healthy bacteria.
Fermentation is an ancient practice. Many cuisines are steeped in it — Eastern European pickles, Japanese miso, Korean kimchi, and South African umqombothi.
Over the past few years Londoners have embraced fermenting. Craft microbreweries, kombucha brewers, kimchi and sourdough makers are proliferating.
Adam Vanni, from Jarr Kombucha, shares space with a microbrewery in Hackney Wick, an arty East London neighbourhood. A group of young men, mostly bearded, unload barrels of beer, while music blares from a warehouse that transforms into a taproom and party space at the weekend.
Vanni hails from Los Angeles, where kombucha has been growing in popularity since the 1990s. Kombucha is a fermented tea packed with probiotics, vitamins, enzymes, and amino acids. Served chilled, it has a decidedly acidic flavour.
He describes London as an untapped market. Over the past six months, he has seen a doubling in the numbers of kombucha brewers. He attributes the rising profile of kombucha to a general surge in health consciousness; fermented foods replenish some of the healthy bacteria the gut needs to promote health. "People are looking for an alternative to soft drinks or alcohol. We are trying to shift the paradigm towards something that is good for you," Vanni says.
"Fermentation focuses on the gut. So many ailments can be attributed to bad flora or gut digestion."
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AS Jarr Kombucha is already on sale in Harrods, it is clear that these young brewers are commercially savvy. So what brought them into brewing rather than banking? Vanni and his peers want to work for a cause that they believe in. Rather than chasing big salaries, they try to create a vision, to help people turn away from unhealthy lifestyle choices.
Jane Mason, whose company Virtuous Bread teaches bread-making skills across the UK, believes that fermentation is perceived as "clever", which adds to its popularity. The burgeoning interest in sourdough bread is, she believes, part of the current fashion for healthy food, along with an added element of social pressure.
"Sourdough bread has the added kudos of appearing complicated," Mason explains. "There is an element of science. You have more bragging rights if you make sourdough bread than if you knock up soda bread."
Nostalgia is a further driving force behind the current popularity of fermented foods, according to Nick Vadasz, who provides London food markets with sauerkraut, fermented pickles, and kimchi.
"The process is one that we have been doing for thousands of years, my family for generations," he says while inspecting a barrel of garlic and dill sauerkraut at his Hackney depot. "A whole generation stopped making their own stuff because of the pressure of having to work.
"People still do not have the time to make pickles, kimchi and bread. But they love the idea of it. So they come to a workshop. I think people are drawn to it as nostalgia. They love the idea of something that takes time, long and slow."
As a child, Vadasz helped his Hungarian grandmother ferment pickles. The current surge in interest in his Vadasz Deli pickles is not only from young, middle class couples, but Londoners who originate in Poland, Hungary, and Ukraine.
"There is no history of fermenting cabbage or vegetables here. It is not an English tradition," Vadasz says, "It is the immigrants who brought that interest".
...
HE notes that while fermented foods are popular in the health food community — the people who want to live forever, as he calls them — it is top chefs making their own that has made it trendy. "They are creating new interest because they are the rock stars of the 21st century. In this country they are worshipped."
Yet for a fad to stand the test of time it has to taste good. Only so many people will take to fermented foods solely for health-promoting properties. Vadasz tried a sprout kraut for Christmas. "A few hardy customers bought it," he laughs.
His kimchi is such a success because it is a scientifically proven superfood and is so versatile. "It works on a burger, with cheese or in a really healthy Asian salad," he says.
Londoners love new trends. That kombucha has been brewed in China for 2,500 years does not detract from its novelty status.
Chef Jamie Park brews silver needle tea kombucha at The Frog, in East London’s Old Truman Brewery. It is served as a kombucha Bellini. Park says that while Londoners have an unquenchable thirst for Prosecco, kombucha is catching on. "Anything that is seen to be a health food, a superfood, people will take on as a new craze."
While observing that fermented foods are having their heyday, Mason predicts that not all aspects of the trend will have a long-term future in the city. Sourdough bread, she hopes, "could become for some people a long-term lifestyle change", as bread is part of an everyday diet.
She says that many customers are well-informed about the probiotic nature of fermented food, which is also easier to digest. "Five years ago you couldn’t get decent bread in London, and you certainly couldn’t get sourdough," she recalls, "I believe that good bread is here to stay because it tastes better."
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Nick Vadasz, owner of Vadasz Deli in London, helped his Hungarian grandmother ferment pickles — not an English tradition. Picture: SUPPLIED
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Adam Vanni from Jarr Kombucha with a giant teabag used to brew kombucha, which is a fermented tea packed with probiotics, vitamins, enzymes and amino acids. Kombucha has been brewed in China for 2,500 years. Picture: SUPPLIED
EGGS on sourdough toast with a dollop of kimchi for breakfast and a chilled glass of kombucha for sundowners — London eateries are book-ending days with fermented foods. Throw in a spoonful of sauerkraut with lunch, and diners’ guts are positively gurgling with healthy bacteria.
Fermentation is an ancient practice. Many cuisines are steeped in it — Eastern European pickles, Japanese miso, Korean kimchi, and South African umqombothi.
Over the past few years Londoners have embraced fermenting. Craft microbreweries, kombucha brewers, kimchi and sourdough makers are proliferating.
Adam Vanni, from Jarr Kombucha, shares space with a microbrewery in Hackney Wick, an arty East London neighbourhood. A group of young men, mostly bearded, unload barrels of beer, while music blares from a warehouse that transforms into a taproom and party space at the weekend.
Vanni hails from Los Angeles, where kombucha has been growing in popularity since the 1990s. Kombucha is a fermented tea packed with probiotics, vitamins, enzymes, and amino acids. Served chilled, it has a decidedly acidic flavour.
He describes London as an untapped market. Over the past six months, he has seen a doubling in the numbers of kombucha brewers. He attributes the rising profile of kombucha to a general surge in health consciousness; fermented foods replenish some of the healthy bacteria the gut needs to promote health. "People are looking for an alternative to soft drinks or alcohol. We are trying to shift the paradigm towards something that is good for you," Vanni says.
"Fermentation focuses on the gut. So many ailments can be attributed to bad flora or gut digestion."
...
AS Jarr Kombucha is already on sale in Harrods, it is clear that these young brewers are commercially savvy. So what brought them into brewing rather than banking? Vanni and his peers want to work for a cause that they believe in. Rather than chasing big salaries, they try to create a vision, to help people turn away from unhealthy lifestyle choices.
Jane Mason, whose company Virtuous Bread teaches bread-making skills across the UK, believes that fermentation is perceived as "clever", which adds to its popularity. The burgeoning interest in sourdough bread is, she believes, part of the current fashion for healthy food, along with an added element of social pressure.
"Sourdough bread has the added kudos of appearing complicated," Mason explains. "There is an element of science. You have more bragging rights if you make sourdough bread than if you knock up soda bread."
Nostalgia is a further driving force behind the current popularity of fermented foods, according to Nick Vadasz, who provides London food markets with sauerkraut, fermented pickles, and kimchi.
"The process is one that we have been doing for thousands of years, my family for generations," he says while inspecting a barrel of garlic and dill sauerkraut at his Hackney depot. "A whole generation stopped making their own stuff because of the pressure of having to work.
"People still do not have the time to make pickles, kimchi and bread. But they love the idea of it. So they come to a workshop. I think people are drawn to it as nostalgia. They love the idea of something that takes time, long and slow."
As a child, Vadasz helped his Hungarian grandmother ferment pickles. The current surge in interest in his Vadasz Deli pickles is not only from young, middle class couples, but Londoners who originate in Poland, Hungary, and Ukraine.
"There is no history of fermenting cabbage or vegetables here. It is not an English tradition," Vadasz says, "It is the immigrants who brought that interest".
...
HE notes that while fermented foods are popular in the health food community — the people who want to live forever, as he calls them — it is top chefs making their own that has made it trendy. "They are creating new interest because they are the rock stars of the 21st century. In this country they are worshipped."
Yet for a fad to stand the test of time it has to taste good. Only so many people will take to fermented foods solely for health-promoting properties. Vadasz tried a sprout kraut for Christmas. "A few hardy customers bought it," he laughs.
His kimchi is such a success because it is a scientifically proven superfood and is so versatile. "It works on a burger, with cheese or in a really healthy Asian salad," he says.
Londoners love new trends. That kombucha has been brewed in China for 2,500 years does not detract from its novelty status.
Chef Jamie Park brews silver needle tea kombucha at The Frog, in East London’s Old Truman Brewery. It is served as a kombucha Bellini. Park says that while Londoners have an unquenchable thirst for Prosecco, kombucha is catching on. "Anything that is seen to be a health food, a superfood, people will take on as a new craze."
While observing that fermented foods are having their heyday, Mason predicts that not all aspects of the trend will have a long-term future in the city. Sourdough bread, she hopes, "could become for some people a long-term lifestyle change", as bread is part of an everyday diet.
She says that many customers are well-informed about the probiotic nature of fermented food, which is also easier to digest. "Five years ago you couldn’t get decent bread in London, and you certainly couldn’t get sourdough," she recalls, "I believe that good bread is here to stay because it tastes better."
