A Welsh pastry chef who appeared on this year's Bake Off: The Professionals is launching his first pop-up bakery in Cardiff. Benjamin Condé, 29, who is originally from Llanelli and now lives between London and Cardiff, runs SABLÉ Bakery, named after the classic French biscuit, near London's Covent Garden.
He made it to the final six on the baking show earlier this year with fellow chef Dinesh Ramsurn . Now he has revealed the exciting new pop-up venture which will be coming to the Welsh capital on October 22 and 23 - the first of his three Welsh pop ups.
The takeover, also named SABLÉ Bakery, will be hosted at Rhostio Coffee on Crwys Road and will be serving baked goods, breakfast, lunches and Viennoiseries between 9am and 4pm. And if the pop-ups are a success, he's hoping to open a branch of SABLÉ in the Welsh capital.
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Speaking to WalesOnline, the chef, who grew up baking on and off alongside his French-trained chef grandather and fell further in love with food and cooking while he was studying Law, revealed that savoury items on the pop-up menu are likely to include classic French dishes like Jambon-Buerre and filled croissants, while sweet items will be the likes of petit gateau, raspberry and yuzu tartlets.
Benjamin's viennoiseries will also feature, with raspberry and pistachio double baked pain au chocolat, pain suisse and more.
Of this, he says: "I’m a huge fan of the classics, but reinvented with childlike nostalgia. So for me if I can elevate a pain au chocolat with quality fillings in a creative and fun way, then I do."
Speaking of the pop-up in Cardiff, Benjamin says: "Cardiff was the city where I first fell in love with pastry so there was never a second choice for my first pop up location. I’ve poured my passion into developing the food at SABLÉ, and being able to finally bring those to Cardiff is going to be a long overdue but very proud moment. Looking forward to showing the Cardiff food scene, my food identity."
Alongside the pop-ups, the chef will be launching some videos to teach punters at home how to make some of the items available on the menu. Details for the remaining two Cardiff pop-ups will be announced in the coming weeks.
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