Andrew's tour of London Wibble wobble, wibble wobble, genius on a plate

Date Published:

31/10/2008

London: arguably the gastronomic ground zero of Great Britain. If there are interesting things going on with food, they're probably happening here. You've added over 200 places in the capital, and choosing which one to visit is difficult. But in the end I indulged my inner silliness and dropped in on Bompass and Parr, London's only (indeed probably the UK's only) Jelly mongers. Bacchite added it to the Map saying: "The best jellies in the world, in any shape imaginable!" My dessertspoon and I went to find out more

Sam Bompass and Harry Parr started their jelly business in June 2007. Previous to that Harry trained as an architect and Sam worked in property. The skills they learned there stood them in good stead as the business took off. The boys take on commissions from corporations, organisations and individuals to create bespoke jellies. "We've had all sorts of clients looking for something special," says Sam. They built a jelly Barajas airport for Richard Rogers’ birthday, and a jelly Saint Paul’s for the London Festival of Architecture. At present they’re working on a wedding commission, so if you’re after something a bit more unique than the standard cake, or even cheeses, why not have a wedding jelly?

Harry talks me through the production process. They get fruit fresh from Borough Market round the corner, heat it up to release the juices then mix in leaf gelatin. It's then poured into the mould and left to set - it's that simple. The custom moulds are designed by Harry on a CAD programme, then printed using a 3-D printer, which makes objects out of plaster and glue. This is then put in a vac-former to get the negative shape in thin plastic. After a good wash with soapy water it's ready to have hot jelly poured in.

R&D

They boys have also made me a glow in the dark jelly to try. "It's made with tonic water, which contains quinine which is UV reactive, so it glows brilliantly under a UV light." You can see it for yourself here.

Christmas is coming

Next I'm told about some of the other products the boys are working on; they plan to mix sugar crystals with Methyl salicylate. "When you crack sugar crystals with your teeth they give off tiny amounts of UV radiation, which you can’t really see, but adding Methyl salicylate moves it into the visible spectrum," says Sam. The upshot of this is that when you bite them in a dark room you'll get blue sparks. Finally, they tell me about their next project - a flameproof jelly. "We're going to try and get all the flavours from a Christmas dinner into individual layers of jelly, and then set it alight like a Christmas pudding," says Sam, while Harry beams with delight at the idea.

I love what these two are doing; they're playing with their food - something we were all told not to do as children - and creating unique and interesting experiences out of that. As I leave I ask: “What do your parents think of what you do?"
"They’re supportive but don't really get it," says Sam with a smile. And with that I say goodbye to London's only Jelly mongers.

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