Food Pornography as London Takes It

Had the good fortune whilst returning from a prospective job interview to choose to return on the circle line via High Street Kensington for a varied walk home (the stop and search down of anyone suspected of looking Asian opposite the copshop on Shepherd's Bush Road is also worth avoiding), to stumble in finally to Whole Foods Market

Set in the old Barkers store along the road from the Daily Mail/Evening Standard offices on Derry Street the three floor food emporium invites shoppers to indulge a foodie shopping nirvana beyond compare. Or if we agree that comparisons are odorous, it makes the Waitrose at the opposite end of the High Street seem like Somerfield.

The range of cheeses alone would force Sarkozy, let alone Barosso to lower head in hands and despair over how to govern a country, let alone continent with such diversity of dead milk in unusual smells and textures. Ditto the opening bakery, deli counter let alone meat, chocolate, and fruit and veg hall downstairs. I felt like Yeltsin or Gorbachev in the late 80s, dumbstruck by the world of choice represented by an everyday US supermarket compared to the GUM stores of Soviet Russia.

I didn't have time or incliation to head upstairs for the restaurants and Bramley pub but I did leave with head a spinning at the sheer quality, range, freshness and immensity of all on offer, rigorously maintained by staff working to the orders of a cadre of Whole Food drill sergeants/commissars.

So in short it's like being inside the Chocolate Factory - a world of wonderment, fantasy and sustainable, feelgood excess on the edge of Kensington Church Street. I'll have to come back to the store and ruminate between times on what this means in a world of haves and have nots. On first impressions this seems a happy concept that is well run and has the potential to improve our understanding of how food should be presented, marketed and sold.

But it was still back to Brook Green's Tesco to pick up humble supplies for a ready steady cook £5 dinner (Black Farmer sausages with new potatoes, green beans, broccoli, carrots and onion gravy for those desperate to know).