For Julie Whittington and Megan Twisk, two British expats who moved to the U.S. within the past decade, there was one mystery about American culture they couldn’t understand: Why weren’t sausage rolls more popular here?
“To be honest, we find it a bit weird,” Whittington says. “It’s pastry and meat. I don’t know what’s not to like about it, really.”
It had started out as a joke that the two friends should start a sausage roll business together. But when the pandemic hit and Whittington, a trained chef working in the kitchen at a tech company, found herself out of a job, the idea started to gain momentum. The result is Mrs. Miggins British Bakery.
The duo bakes traditionally-prepared, high-end sausage rolls plus a selection of pasties in traditional flavors like steak and ale, cheese and onion, chicken and mushroom and chicken and bacon, plus Indian-inspired flavors like chicken tikka masala and lamb keema ($16 per 2-count). Their most popular vegetarian pasty is one featuring butternut squash, leek and Emmental cheese. These are typically sold frozen to take and bake at home.
Most recently, they’ve expanded to offer sticky toffee pudding and fruit crumbles as well as scones, which are sure to impress the Bay Area brunch crowd, Whittington says: “You’ll look like a domestic goddess.”
The two women now sell their products throughout the Bay Area at farmers markets on weekends from San Ramon to Willow Glen, Sunnyvale, Oakland, San Carlos, Fremont and Livermore.
Eventually, they’d love to open a cafe, but acknowledge that opening a brick-and-mortar location is pricey. So they’re working to expand to more farmers markets first, she says. But they’ve already started to develop a loyal customer base. Now, it’s not just homesick Brits hankering after Mrs. Miggins’ sausage rolls; a growing proportion of their customer base is American.
“People get hooked on it,” she says.
Details: Mrs. Miggins British Bakery is at farmers markets from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays at 37482 Niles Blvd. in Fremont, 121 W. Washington Ave. in Sunnyvale and 1425 Lincoln Ave. in San Jose; and Sundays at La Salle Avenue at Moraga Avenue in Oakland, 600 Laurel St. in San Carlos and 206 S J St. in Livermore. You can also order frozen items for delivery across the West Coast at mrsmigginsbritishbakery.com.