Bath buns and Sally LunnsBath buns are famous all over the world, but eat them here in the city of Bath in style! Sample other Bath treats while you are here - have you ever heard of a Bath chap?
 The food most often associated with Bath England is the Bath bun, which dates back to the 1700’s, and which Nigel Slater, my culinary hero, has described as ‘like a marriage between a brioche and an Easter hot-cross’. The buns are a golden brown, sticky on top and covered in currants and nibs of sugar. In the 1700’s the buns were flavoured with caraway and were apparently eaten by Jane Austen, one of the city of Bath’s most famous residents, to pad out the small meals provided by her rather miserly aunt. Some sources claim that Bath buns were invented by Dr William Oliver of Bath Oliver biscuit fame, who later came up with his biscuit as a way of slimming down people who had over-indulged in his buns! Today Bath buns are served with butter and tea or coffee and you can eat them in the Pump Room and at the Bath Bun Tearoom in Lilliput Court off North Parade Passage.  The Bath bun should not be confused with the Sally Lunn, which legend tells us was first made by a Huguenot refugee of that name who arrived in the city in the late 1600’s after fleeing religious persecution. She offered locals her brioche-type bread, a large round bun, which could be eaten with both sweet and savoury dishes. The same recipe is used to this day and the Sally Lunn bun can be sampled as a snack or main meal at Sally Lunn’s House, North Parade Passage, the oldest house in Bath.  Whether or not Dr Oliver was behind the Bath bun, he certainly came up with the recipe for Bath Olivers. Dr Oliver treated his patients with Bath spa water in the 1700’s and invented the plain biscuit, made from flour, butter, yeast and milk, as an additional aid to health. He is said to have left the recipe to his coachman, who grew rich from manufacturing the biscuits. The business changed hands a number of times and in the 1950’s the Fortt family were still baking Bath Olivers in the city. They are no longer made in Bath England but the name of Fortt still appears on the packaging, which also states they are good with cheese and wine, which they are! I would also recommend the packs of Bath Olivers covered in thick chocolate which are available at Christmastime! Bath chaps are a delicacy that I had never heard of until a recent article in the Bath Chronicle. Bath chaps are apparently ‘the meat of pigs’ cheeks … served cold, covered in breadcrumbs’. They have probably fallen from the favour of a health-obsessed public due to the fattiness of the meat, but if you are curious, you may be able to try a Bath chap at the King William gastropub in Thomas Street, where traditional English dishes are enthusiastically prepared. 
More acceptable to most modern palates are the cheeses produced by Graham Padfield at Park Farm in the village of Kelston just outside Bath England. The organic Bath Soft Cheese is beautifully wrapped in parchment with a red wax seal and has been a Gold Medal-winner at the British Cheese Awards. Park Farm also produces Kelston Park, Bath Blue and Wyfe of Bath cheeses. All are available at good local cheesemongers and restaurants.  The spa waters are of course the reason for the very existence of the city of Bath and so must be included here, admittedly more for reasons of health than pleasure! The Roman Baths website delicately describes the hot spa water as having a ‘rather unusual taste’. I haven’t tried it since a childhood visit, and a number of teas in the Pump Room spent watching visitors’ reactions hasn’t encouraged me to try again! You can go into the Pump Room without paying an admission charge, but there is a small charge for a glass of the spa water.
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