Last evening I visited our local Waitrose supermarket. They have just started stocking a new bakery product - namely vegan brioche buns by "Bosh!" There's our Ian on the right with his old schoolmate Henry on the left. It's the latest thing on the still magical journey that is "Bosh!". No doubt it will end one day - but not yet. Not by a long way.
This very weekend they are one of the headline "acts" at a big vegan festival near Newark. They'll be selling and signing their books before giving a talk on the main stage about plant-based living. Later they will be DJ-ing - spinning discs and bringing chosen beats and samples together as hundreds of people dance to their music.
Brioche bread is normally enriched with butter, eggs and milk but Ian and Henry have found a way of mimicking it without dairy or animal ingredients. For our evening meal tonight, we had homemade vegan burgers with lettuce, tomato slices and vegan mayonnaise inside the new "Bosh!" buns. Though I made them myself and at the risk of sounding boastful, I promise you that they were great!
Locating the buns in the bakery section at Waitrose was not easy because a team of shop staff were stock checking and replenishing the shelves at the time. I asked a fellow with a clever, hand-held device if he could tell me where to find the "Bosh!" buns. He was both courteous and helpful. His little machine told him that the buns were in stock so he asked a junior called Alice if she knew where the product would be. She said, "We don't stock Bosh! buns. I have never heard of them."
And then I spotted them on the shelf immediately behind her. There were only two packs left. We all had a giggle about that and Alice apologised saying, "I guess I look pretty stupid after saying that!" I smiled and kept my own counsel. Sometimes that is the best way.
I shall be scouting Ian and Henry's vegan brioche, sans Butter Eggs Milk.
ReplyDeleteI'm no bean cheeky like (as we say in Glasgow) but is Bosh the best product name?
Decades ago I frequented the French Cafe in Old Brompton Road, London.
Un petit cafe, a glass of orange juice, and a sugared brioche with blackcurrant jam was my idea of second breakfast.
The girlfriend liked the croque monsieur or the croque madame.
She was gender-fluid as we say today.
The French Cafe is long gone.
J.B. Priestley once saw G.K. Chesterton there.
G.K. had a hangover and was drinking soda water and strong black coffee.
Haggerty
Do they have a branch of Waitrose in Glasgae? That's the only store that currently sells the Bosh! brioche buns. I think a better name for Bosh! might be Haggerty's Vegan Pantry.
DeleteBefore lockdown I met friends for coffee in Waitrose, Byres Road.
DeleteI mind sitting at the window on a winter night. A Thai woman told me that her Scottish boyfriend had broken her heart. She was in tears. A stranger.
She was completing a Ph.D. in microbiology and was quite beautiful.
Her solicitor boyfriend told her he wanted a younger girlfriend.
Ach, Tears Dry as Amy Winehouse sang. A good cup of coffee and a brioche can mend a broken heart.
Remember that song of George Burns? *I'm so glad I'm not young anymore*
Haggerty
I am too young to remember George Burns's song. I hope that the Thai woman is okay. So horrible to be dumped like that in a foreign land.
DeleteVegan food is surprisingly good. Not so much the desserts, but the savory dishes.
ReplyDeletePerhaps you will check out Boshtv Margaret. So many great recipes there.
DeleteBy Royal Appointment to Marie-Antoinette. Didn't you have any bread you starving peasant?
ReplyDeleteClever quip Monsieur D'Unham.
DeleteAs the mother of a grocery story employee I can tell you that it would be impossible for every employee to know everything out of the thousands of items what was on the shelves or in the freezers. Unless they are stockers of that item or are check-out people and have seen those items coming through their lines, they could not know. So. Alice was not stupid. She truly just did not know that Bosh buns were now part of their inventory. But now she does! Hurray for Ian and Henry! They truly are doing amazingly good work with their vegan products.
ReplyDeleteThe bizarre thing is that she was literally three inches from the buns. They were right behind her back but anyway - all was good.
DeleteI've often found that if I've searched a store for a particular item, when I ask a member of staff where it is, I'm usually standing within about a foot of it's location!
DeleteI love brioche, and have a couple of slices from a loaf most mornings for breakfast. I'd be interested to try the Bosh buns, but it's unlikely they will find their way here. Iceland used to stock goods from Waitrose, but since dreaded Brexit they have disappeared from the shelves, and the last time I went in, everything came from the Co-op!
DeleteI did try some Raspberry and Vanilla vegan ice cream recently, from Lidl, and I have to say that it was horrible. It tasted of flour and had a strange consistency, leaving a coating on my tongue. The dog wasn't very impressed either, but she did finish it off, to save me throwing it all away.
I realise that Bosh products are far superior, so I hope we'll see them here one day. I'd like to try something from the Vegetarian Butcher too.
What did you put in your home-made vegan burgers?
Red onion, lentils, kidney beans, Marmite, cornflour, salt and pepper, a dash of mixed herbs but there are several better recipes for vegan burgers on the Bosh! channels - also on YouTube.
DeleteIt's a challenge to push a new product. Not even shelf fillers know where it is. I wish them luck.
ReplyDeleteThey have some new products coming out soon - vegan ready meals but only in Morrisons supermarkets.
DeleteHow wonderful that Bosh! continues to expand into new realms! I wish we had those buns here.
ReplyDeleteHope Alice learned a lesson from this :)
As one or two others have said...in a big supermarket - with so many products for sale - you cannot possibly know everything.
DeleteWell done on the new product, but shame on the packaging (unless you can assure us it's plant based plastics and bio-degradable).
ReplyDeleteGood point Tigger. It's not bio-gradable I am afraid.
DeleteHow does it feel, walking the aisles of a big supermarket and spotting your son's face on products? Next, Waitrose will ask you to sign packets of brioches and other Bosh! goodies!
ReplyDeleteFor me, a brioche is a semi-sweet kind of bun/cake, made with yeast and eaten "as is" with café au lait or with a dollop of jam on butter. I would never think of it as something to make burgers with, but if you say your burgers were great, I guess your brioches are different from what I know from France.
I'd love to try all the Bosh! products, but they are not available here as far as I know. If things were not so complicated post-Brexit, I would even ask you to put together a package for me and send it over, against payment of course.
We will have to think about that. The brioche buns have a limited shelf life of course.
DeleteI love a brioche bun for a breakfast treat occasionally especially if it is warm and dripping with honey.
ReplyDeleteI thought you would be a cornflakes kind of girl JayCee.
DeleteAnd so they go from success to success, I love brioche bread but at the moment I am baking organic wholemeal flour. Their story reminds me of Marc my daughter's cousin, who from a stall in Lausanne on festival days went on to run a sushi company in the middle of Switzerland. He has made his fortune as your boy will I am sure.
ReplyDeleteYou just worry that the journey might end Thelma. He began from such a very low point and now he has his own flat in Shepherd's Bush. So far so good. Nice to hear about Marc. Good luck to him.
DeleteAny chance of Ian writing a guest blog post YP?
ReplyDeleteHe would want money for it and I am a pauper.
DeleteCool to see Ian's picture on yet another product! At least Alice will know where to find them from now on. The Waitrose near us is CONSTANTLY being restocked. I can never move around in there without (literally) bumping into employees.
ReplyDeleteThe big one in Sheffield is very well-maintained. So neat and tidy.
DeleteToo bad I can't find Bosh! buns in my store (and I feel sure they truly aren't there). It's getting easier for me to find vegan items, but I've yet to see any brioche. Plant-based food has come a long way since I made the change to eating that way more than six years ago.
ReplyDeleteAt present "Bosh!" products are only available in certain British supermarkets Kelly. Ten years ago veganism was widely mocked and seen as a weird cult for weirdos. It isn't like that now in Britain. Plant-based diets have moved into the mainstream.
DeleteThey're going from strength to strength, those two boys. Vegan is certainly a buzz word at the moment, so their goods will be much in demand. I love brioche having discovered it only recently when I grabbed some buns and thought they were ordinary ones. (Must go to specsavers!) I actually loved them and will buy more - but they weren't vegan, so I am not sure how differently the vegan ones taste.
ReplyDeleteThey are lighter - not as rich as most versions of brioche buns.
DeleteI keep a fairly close eye on the vegan offerings in the shops and I don't think there is a vegan brioche available in Australia yet. Hopefully we'll get there soon.
ReplyDeleteWell done to Ian and Henry!