Konditor & Cook.

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.2
• 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, and the date is the fact it carries. The same piece records six London stores, a same-day cake delivery service and a cake school.1
• No critic has assessed the baking, and no chef vote appears in the London chef votes. 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.3
• Michelin: not recorded either way. Our cached Michelin data is stars only and a bakery counter sits outside the restaurant guide.

Verdict

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.