19 hours ago
Meet our regional rising stars: London
S tepping foot into the Flake Bake factory is like being enveloped in a warm, deliciously fragranced hug. It's a grey day in south London and you can smell the herbs and spices used in Mike Williams's Jamaican patties from half a block away.
Inside the 2,000 square foot kitchen, a team of 15 painstakingly constructs the patties from scratch. From rolling out the pastry dough 20 times to achieve the perfect flaky texture, to slow cooking the filling, it's a hive of activity. When The Times visits, head chef Kenrick is in a side kitchen, pouring the chicken filling for 400 patties into large flat pans to help it cool.
The team barely bat an eyelid when Williams, 34, shows journalists and camera crews around. They've grown used to the limelight, as Williams and his father, Paul, his co-founder in Flake Bake, were the stars in April last year of a Channel 4 television show called Aldi's Next Big Thing, where food and drinks makers competed to get their products on the shelves of the supermarket.
