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Bakes & sweet

Konditor & Cook.

Cakes · Waterloo · $$ · Solid · could-visit · verified

Duchy Street

The original 1993 Waterloo bakery; trades as Konditor since 2019. Home of the Curly Whirly

Jeff's note

Konditor & Cook

The chocolate swirls on the Curly Whirly exist because customers could not tell what was inside a white-frosted cake, so the bakery piped the answer on top.

Why go

Gerhard Jenne grew up on a farm in Bahlingen near Freiburg, apprenticed as a baker while his sister was marrying the village one, then added a second two-year apprenticeship as a Konditor in Munich in 1979. He came to London in 1982 to work for Justin de Blank in Knightsbridge, and in 1993 he found a small bakery for sale on the corner of Cornwall Road in Waterloo (Konditor). This counter is that bakery. The Curly Whirly arrived in 1994 as a one-off request and became the thing the business is known for. In 2001 it took over the Young Vic cafe and became the first new food retailer in the revived Borough Market. Gerhard's husband Paul has run the day-to-day since 2010, and the business describes itself as a gay-owned family business. Every fact in this entry comes from that timeline, because no independent source about it was reached.

Order this / avoid

  • Order: the Curly Whirly, and a brownie, which is the other half of what this bakery is for. Mince pies in December, which took a three-star Great Taste Award in 2022.
  • Avoid: arriving late in the day and expecting a full counter. And do not go looking for "Konditor & Cook" on the signage, because the business dropped the second half of its name years ago.

What locals & experts say

  • The business's own timeline is the only account available, and it is specific enough to be worth quoting on the cake that made it: the Curly Whirly began in 1994 as "a special request for a chocolate sponge cake with vanilla frosting", and "customers were confused by its outward white appearance. The solution was an overlay of piped curly whirly chocolate swirls." ref
  • On the awards, again first-party: in 2022 the mince pies earned "a prestigious 3 Star Great Taste Award", which the business says was the first mince pie ever to receive one. The body and year are precise; the superlative is theirs.
  • Abbie Dawson, British Baker (10 May 2019), who dates the name change: "Konditor & Cook is rebranding to Konditor as it celebrates 25 years in business. The business said it was removing the '& Cook' from its name to focus on its cake baking heritage as it looks to the future." Trade news, so a fact rather than a verdict. The same piece records six London stores, a same-day cake delivery service and a cake school. ref
  • No critic has assessed the baking, and no chef vote appears in places-db/london/data/chef-votes.jsonl. Searched 1 August 2026. Everything about the cakes themselves in this entry comes from the business, and its eval block records that as a fault to fix rather than a rounding error.

Good to know

  • Where: 22 Cornwall Road, Waterloo SE1 8TW, on the corner. This is the original 1993 shop.
  • The name: the business trades as Konditor. Our spreadsheet and the food-hygiene register both still say Konditor & Cook, and this entry keeps that spelling so the database join does not break. A proper rename has to change the spreadsheet, the entry and the linked data together.
  • Other shops: 15 Cullum Street in the City, opened 2023, and 46 Gray's Inn Road. Separate premises, and nothing here is about them.
  • Hygiene: the FSA records rating 5 for 22 Cornwall Road, inspected 25 February 2025, with components 0, 5 and 0, where lower is better. ref
  • Michelin: not recorded either way. Our cached Michelin data is stars only and a bakery counter sits outside the restaurant guide.

Jeff's take (his words)

Jeff has no note on this one. The saved-places export carries an empty Note for the row, so jeff_note stays empty and nothing here is attributed to him. The master spreadsheet's one-line description was an enrichment lead and has been replaced by the fetched facts.

Verdict (Chef Jeff ladder)

could-visit — Gerhard Jenne grew up licking the bowl after his mother's Apfelkuchen on a farm near Freiburg, apprenticed as a baker, added a second apprenticeship as a Konditor in Munich in 1979, came to London in 1982 to work for Justin de Blank, and in 1993 bought a small bakery on the corner of Cornwall Road in Waterloo. This counter is that bakery. The Curly Whirly came a year later, from a special request for chocolate sponge under vanilla frosting: customers could not tell what was inside a white cake, so the piped chocolate swirls went on top, and they have been the brand ever since. His husband Paul has run the day to day since 2010 and the business calls itself a gay-owned family business. The mince pies took a three-star Great Taste Award in 2022. Everything above is the business's own account, because nothing independent about it was reached in this pass, and the rung reflects the evidence rather than the affection. Go for a brownie and a Curly Whirly on the way to the South Bank.

Order

  • The Curly Whirly, chocolate sponge under vanilla frosting with the piped chocolate swirls that exist because customers could not tell what was inside
  • The brownies, which are the other half of what this bakery is for
  • The mince pies in season, the first ever to take a three-star Great Taste Award
  • Whatever is out of the oven when you walk in. The Cornwall Road shop is the original and still bakes

Good to know

  • Booking: walk-in
  • Timing: morning-only, all-day
  • Best for: breakfast, quick, solo
  • Avoid: Turning up late in the day expecting a full counter; Calling it Konditor & Cook to the staff. The business dropped the Cook years ago, even though the food register has not
  • Expert picks: Abbie Dawson
  • Verified 2026-08-01

Where

city map →© OpenStreetMap © CARTO

Duchy Street

Sources & mentions

  1. [1]
    British Baker (Abbie Dawson, 10 May 2019)

    trade news, and the only independent source reached. Dates the rebrand from Konditor & Cook to Konditor to May 2019, on the business's 25th anniversary, with the reason given as focusing on cake-baking heritage; the new logo was hand-written by Gerhard Jenne. Records six London stores at that point, plus a same-day cake delivery service and a cake school. Gives the launch year as 1993, independently of the venue's own timeline

  2. [2]
    Konditor (venue site and Our Story page, read 1 August 2026)

    first-party, and the only detailed account of the business. Gerhard Jenne grew up on a farm in Bahlingen near Freiburg, apprenticed as a baker in the 1970s, added a two-year pastry apprenticeship (Konditor) in 1979 in Munich, and came to London in 1982 to work for Justin de Blank in Knightsbridge. 'In 1993, Gerhard came across a small bakery for sale on the corner of Cornwall Road in Waterloo, and so began Konditor.' The Curly Whirly began in 1994 as a special request for a chocolate sponge with vanilla frosting; customers could not tell what was inside from the white exterior, so the piped chocolate swirls were added. Konditor has baked for the BFI Flare festival every year since 1994. In 2001 it took over the Young Vic cafe and became the first new food retailer in a revived Borough Market, and opened at 46 Gray's Inn Road. Gerhard's husband Paul has run day-to-day operations since 2010 and the site describes it as 'a proud gay-owned family business'. In 2012 it built a pixelated cake portrait of the Queen from 3,124 individual square cakes, one for each week of her reign. In 2022 its mince pies took a three-star Great Taste Award, which the business says was the first mince pie ever to receive one. A newest shop opened at 15 Cullum Street in 2023

  3. [3]
    FSA food hygiene register

    FHRSID 484038, register name 'Konditor And Cook', 22 Cornwall Road SE1 8TW, Lambeth: rating 5, rating date 25 February 2025. Components hygiene 0, structure 5, confidence in management 0, where lower is better. The register still carries the old trading name, which is the same reason the master row does. Sibling premises: FHRSID 1660749 at 15 Cullum Street EC3M (City of London) and FHRSID 1918540 at 46 Gray's Inn Road WC1X, the latter rated 4 on 30 March 2026

Record

slug
konditor-and-cook
city
London
group
Bakes & sweet
category
Bakery
cuisine
Cakes
area
Waterloo
price
$$
editorial class
Solid
ladder verdict
could-visit
provenance
verified
confidence
low
status
Open
address
Duchy Street
coordinates
51.5065, -0.10888
last verified
2026-08-01
curated page
places/konditor-and-cook.md
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