Help judge London's best bread and butter champions at The Bread & Butter-Off 2026

It's increasingly becoming one of the ways in which a restaurant can really showcase the kitchen's creativity and now there's a special event devoted to the bread course. This October, eight London restaurants and bakeries are going to be pitted against each other in the city's inaugural Bread and Butter-Off 2026.

The event, sponsored by Kerrygold of course, will take place at 40FT Brewery's Walthamstow base. It's the brainchild of hospitality industry website Countertalk, who have picked the participants. A judging panel of experts including chef Jeremy Lee and Toad Bakery's Rebecca Spaven will be deciding who goes home with this year's trophy, alongside a vote from the general public.

Here's who's going to be taking part (and what they're bringing to the voting table).

• Osteria Angelina - Hokkaido milk bread with kumquat jam and burnt honey butter
• Don't Tell Dad - miso and brown rice bread served with chilli, thyme and honey butter
• Peckham Cellars’ focaccia served with a whipped flavoured butter (the flavour will be revealed on the day)
• Tavern - fire bread with tomato and house miso butter
• Gina and Fink's will both compete with their sourdough and Portland and The Fat Badger will both have a soda bread in the game.

Tickets are £25, which gets you a welcome drink and eight portions of the competing bread and butters. The lucky winner will be sent by Kerrygold on an all expenses paid trip to the Ballymaloe Food Festival in County Cork.