Peter's Yard: our favourite Swedish-style bakers
As part of our 'olive loves small-scale producers' season, we talk to Peter's Yard, the Swedish-style bakers based in Edinburgh.
Crispbreads aren’t usually accompanied by mouth-watering anticipation, thought more of as a vessel for toppings or as uninspiring diet fodder. That was until Peter’s Yard crispbreads came along; they still act as a base for an endless array of delicious toppings, but also have their own unique flavour and texture, and have a beautiful, rustic appearance. Made with Shipton Mill flours, fresh milk, honey and naturally fermenting sourdough, they’re far from the cardboard crispbreads many of us are used to.
Wendy Wilson-Bett and Ian Tencor were high flying directors at one of the UK’s largest blue chip companies, with a shared ambition to set up a business of their own. The pair put their business heads together and took the plunge in 2008. They visited Sweden for inspiration and found that the quality of bakeries and the products were unique, natural and artisan, and also cool, stylish and understated. Recognising the gaps in their skill sets, they approached two entrepreneurial bakers with the right experience to join them. Together they’ve created an authentic Swedish product in terms of roots and provenance, making it as it would have been made hundreds of years ago – ‘very simple, very natural, nothing artificial,’ says Wendy. After importing the crispbreads initially, they’re very proud to be baking them in the UK: ‘the Swedish recipe is 100% authentic but the company is now 100% British’.
Wendy recalls fondly the first sale to Martin Wishart’s eponymous Edinburgh restaurant: ‘We’ve framed the invoice and it’s up on our wall.’ With this came confidence and more customers, including Fortnum and Mason. Incredible feedback from chefs, food-lovers and retailers helped to build the strength of the brand, and Wendy and her team promise to bring ‘the best of Swedish baking to the UK’. petersyard.com
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