Who knew Britain’s best bread comes from a corner of sleepy Oxfordshire? In Stoke Row, a French duo and a Mexican alchemist are baking loaves so good they’re winning gold medals for Britain. Rob Rees investigates if sliced bread is having a run for its money…
Blink and you might miss Stoke Row, a leafy South Oxfordshire village tucked between Henley and Wallingford, nestled by the Chilterns. Yet behind the hedgerows and sleepy lanes lies what must surely be Britain’s most delicious 150 metres. On an unassuming rural industrial estate, two remarkable bakeries are turning out some of the finest loaves in the land – and racking up national awards while they’re at it.
It’s a story of outsiders bringing fresh energy to Middle England. From Burgundy and Nîmes comes Jules Chambe and Pauline Philippe, the French duo behind Wild Frog Bakehouse. Just across the car park, you’ll find Imma the Bakery, led by the mercurial Mexican, Tonatiuh “Tona” Erreguin. Between them, they’ve transformed Stoke Row into a dough-dusted paradise.
Wild Frog opened in 2022, but its pedigree goes deeper. Jules and Pauline first met working at Raymond Blanc’s celebrated Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons in Great Milton. He’s a pastry chef from Burgundy, she a former hotel manager from Nîmes. Together, they’ve married French savoir-faire with British comfort food…and the results are irresistible.
Wild Frog’s wholesale arm supplies many of the region’s top farm shops, gastropubs and restaurants, while locals flock to the small shopfront (open Thursday to Saturday mornings) for a taste of the action. The menu runs from crisp baguettes to focaccia, sourdoughs and seasonal specials. Over Easter, their orange-glazed hot cross buns caused a minor stampede.
But it’s Jules’s inventive twists on British classics that really stand out. His sausage roll comes wrapped in buttery croissant pastry with garlic sausage and a kick of French wholegrain mustard. Even better, perhaps, is the “Welsh Rarebit” pastry: molten cheddar sharpened with mustard, all layered on a flaky base.
The judges at the 2025 British Baker Best Loaf Awards agreed. Wild Frog walked away with no fewer than five medals: four golds (for its Pain de Campagne, Seeded Sourdough, Olive & Herb Fougasse, and Baguette de Tradition) plus a silver for its Fruit & Nut Multigrain loaf. Not bad for a business not yet three years old.
If Wild Frog embodies French finesse, Imma the Bakery is all about restless invention. Its founder, Tonatiuh “Tona” Erreguin, trained as a double philosophy major in South America before becoming a chef in her hometown of Querétaro, Mexico. She sold her fine-dining restaurant just before the pandemic and moved to the UK with her partner—a twist of fate that Oxfordshire should be grateful for.
Tona approaches baking like both a scientist and an artist. Her “Oxford County White” sourdough beat all comers to win the 2024 Best Plain Sourdough title at the same national awards. This year she returned with three more gold medals – Wholemeal, Seeded Sourdough and Flavoured Sourdough -cementing Imma’s reputation as one of the country’s great bread producers.
Step inside and you’ll find a warm buzz: shelves stacked with glossy pastries, loaves cooling on racks, and the scent of butter in the air. The on-site shop opens five days a week, serving great coffee alongside a daily bounty of 350 loaves and up to 1,000 pastries. Don’t leave without trying the legendary “monster sausage rolls”, richly spiced and generously sized.
Behind the scenes, Tona and her 14-strong team work ten-hour days to master the art of fermentation. Each loaf goes through a painstaking 72-hour cycle of mixing, proofing and baking. She tweaks everything from oven heat profiles to the viscosity of butters in pastry layers, chasing perfection in every crumb. “I just want the best bread to be available to everyone. It’s a basic human right” she says. Her 4am starts prove she means it.
Stoke Row’s rise isn’t happening in isolation. Within a few miles you’ll find Nettlebed Creamery, an acclaimed organic cheesemaker, and two excellent coffee roasters: Anonymous and Dark Horse. For a post-bread pint or plate, there’s no shortage of top-notch foodie pubs either – the Crooked Billet in Stoke Row itself, or The Red Lion at Peppard, The Bottle & Glass at Binfield Heath and The Plough at Shiplake, to name a few.
Add it all together, and this corner of Oxfordshire is surely one of Britain’s most compelling new food destinations. You could easily spend a Saturday morning hopping between bakery, cheesemaker and coffee roaster before settling in for a lazy pub lunch. Or make a weekend of it by overnighting in Henley and get up into the Chilterns or into the Thames Path for a brisk walk to shake off any gastronomical excess.
This isn’t an overcrowded, overhyped Cotswolds cliche but a much more wholesome escape, just an hour from London by car.
It’s tempting to say there must be something in the water in Stoke Row. But really, it’s about the people – young entrepreneurs who’ve brought passion, skill and imagination to a quiet corner of the shires.
Whether it’s Jules and Pauline’s buttery, mustard-spiked sausage roll or Tona’s prize-winning sourdough, every bite tells a story of dedication and craft. The awards are a fine validation, but the real proof, as ever, is in the eating.
So, is Stoke Row Britain’s baking capital? Spend a day here and find out for yourself.
Wild Frog Bakery and Imma Bakery have Units 11 & 51, Van Alloys Industrial Estate, Busgrove Lane, Stoke Row, nr. Henley-On-Thames, Oxfordshire. RG9 5QW. For more information, including opening times, details of market stalls and partner stockists, please visit wildfrogbakehouse.co.uk and www.immabakery.com.
