‘For indulgence, brioche is king’ – the sweet, buttery bread stealing sourdough’s crown

Once an indicator of wealth, but for years stuck in burger-bun purgatory, the enriched dough is being embraced by a new generation of chefs and bakers for its versatility and delicious complexity

‘You shouldn’t have to fight your sandwich,” says Sacha Yonan, his voice rising to compete with the noise of London’s Soho on a Tuesday morning. Within half an hour, queues for the sandwiches at Crunch, the cafe he co-founded earlier this year, will be snaking out of its doors. Its secret? Fresh brioche, which comes toasted and filled with ingredients that give the place its name, including southern-fried chicken, baby pickles and lettuce. “We love a sourdough,” says Joni Francisco, his Crunch co-founder. “But if you’re talking about sandwiches, then you need something with an easier mouthfeel.”

Could brioche be the new sourdough? Insofar as anything can be, sourdough being to bread what black is to fashion. In 2023, the humble white sliced loaf was hailed as a better sandwich bread than sourdough, the sourfaux scandal continues to rumble and, while we’re not baking sourdough at home with quite the same zeal as we were during lockdown, our lust for the real deal is still very much around.