Interview with Gerhard Jenne: Rise and shine

Shannon Denny visits konditor and cook Gerhard Jenne’s newest cake shop to learn what’s hot

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With the recession many of us navigated our way back to simple pleasures, and as a consequence, baking is booming. But for Gerhard Jenne, there’s hardly been a time in his life when he’s not been within arm’s reach of a kitchen and the basic ingredients required to make a cake.

He grew up in the Black Forest, so it stands to reason that early on he sampled his share of that region’s most famous sweet offering. “We certainly did eat a fair amount of Black Forest cake – but not only,” he tells me. “My mother was a very keen baker. It’s kind of tradition in Germany. The German hausfrau is quite good at baking usually. She would bake cakes at the weekend, one or two or maybe three. You’d have them on Saturdays and Sundays, and then whatever was left was served up for breakfast the following day! I was sort of brought up on a diet of apple pie in the mornings.”

Upon leaving school, he hoped to work in hospitality, and the landlocked German envisaged a sandy waterfront future. “To be honest with you my parents had a farm and I absolutely hated it. What I really wanted was a job to take me away from home, and obviously the hotel industry meant travelling.”

But when his apprenticeship fell through at the last minute, he found himself working instead for the village baker, who happened to be his brother-in-law. The stop-gap job turned into an apprenticeship, and after two years Gerhard had a new direction in life. After national service (he worked in the catering corps), he took an apprenticeship in Munich to learn to be the German equivalent of a patissier. The konditor had arrived.

From Munich, Gerhard came to London to improve his English, with a view to eventually making his way to a hotel kitchen in the Caribbean. “I still had this idea of working on a hot, sunny beach. So I thought maybe I’ll go to an agency and find out if there are any jobs. They said, ‘We’ve got a job in Brighton.’ I’d had something a bit further afield in mind!”

Unable to find sand and sun, he settled on glamour instead and landed a job working for an upscale deli behind Harrods. He baked bread, decorated elaborate cakes and learned the savoury side of catering. “We had quite interesting customers – lords and ladies, Eric Clapton would come in, and Ringo Starr had his office behind so he used to walk through the kitchen into the shop at the front.”

By 1993 he was ready to set up on his own and took over an ailing bakery in the side streets of Waterloo, changing its name and menu and almost instantly turning its fortunes around. Konditor & Cook’s arrival coincided with the Jubilee Line extension, which transformed the run-down corner of the capital into a desirable destination.

Gerhard moved from Brixton to a house just down from the shop, and then proceeded to leave an indelible mark in SE1. He opened concessions in both the Design Museum and the Young Vic, and set up a shop in Borough Market before it had made the transition from wholesale market to culinary shopping extravaganza. Gradually he spread his empire northward – but only just – with outposts at Grey’s Inn Road, Curzon Soho Cinema and the Gherkin. The latest addition, found behind Gabriel’s Wharf, is only a few months old and just a quick walk from the original flagship.

Fans flock to the locations for sandwiches and sausage rolls, finishing off their lunches with favourites like Curly Whirly Cake or Magic Cakes (on-the-go precursors to the cupcake craze, these fanciful fondant confections can be finished in three perfect bites). He continues to decorate cakes, and recent high-profile commissions include Terence Conran’s 70th birthday and a cabbage-shaped cake for Priscilla Carluccio. A hero among foodies, he’s also the author of two cookery books.

Maintaining quality is his passion, so he’s constantly munching on what they make, particularly St Clement Almond Cake. “It’s a form of quality control, tasting things – a terrible job,” he sighs with mock fatigue. “For elevenses I’ll definitely see if there’s a croissant lying around.” For a cake maestro he’s bafflingly slim, which he says is down to cycling from one shop to another all day on his Brompton.

And anyway, he claims eating such things is in his DNA. “In Germany cakes are very big and light, whereas here they’re more compact and heavy so you have a small slice. The Germans like to have one big slice, or preferably two slices if possible.”

He continues to spread his cake-centric approach to life, with decorating classes set to take place in the new shop later in the year and several approaches by TV producers keen to cash in on the current home baking phenomenon. Within the company he tries to mentor his employees too. “There are at least 10 people that have started their own business that used to work for us,” he affirms. “One girl opened a shop in Sydney and she’s doing Magic Cakes quite happily, doing quite well with them. One guy left last year and is opening a shop in Costa Rica.” When I point out that his protégés have managed to get closer to his seaside dream than he has, he just laughs. “I might go there when I retire, sit in a deck chair and eat Magic Cakes!” But for now he seems pretty content to forego the tropics for his sweet spot on the banks of the Thames.

www.konditorandcook.com

Interview with Gerhard Jenne: Rise and shine

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