Why foodies should follow Puns and Buns on Instagram

This account will make you chuckle, says Victoria Stewart
Letitia Clark

Who: Letitia Clark, a London-based baker, illustrator and food writer who recently left her job as a full-time restaurant chef to set up her own business, which she describes as “putting the ‘oo’ back into food.”

Number of followers: 600

Tagline: ‘Buns&Puns: baking buns and drawing puns since 2016. The lighter side of a life in food.’

Featured food: Iced buns in flavours such as lemon and almond or vanilla rose and raspberry, alongside her own pictures of smiling, pun-tastic fruit and vegetables.

Why we should follow it: Because it will make you chuckle, and then instantly wish you could teleport to Druid Street Market to hoover up some buns. Simple.

Letitia Clark

Takes pics with: Clark will either take a picture of her drawings using her phone, or she will scan it into the computer and edit it on Photoshop.

First post: The first print Clark sold was one entitled ‘The French Shall-not’ because she had a friend who was going out with a French boyfriend at the time.

Most popular post(s): “A lot of people really like the ruder ones,” says Clark who is often nervous about putting them up “in case people mothers or elderly aunts might see them. But I think the British sense of humour is amazingly crude, so I’ll go with it! People always like the drawing of the Extra Virgin Olive Oil and the Forced Rhubarb, which sell well, as does anything referencing sex, love and marriage. The Conference Pears, with their tiny briefcases and feet, seem to make people laugh.”

How Puns & Buns came about: Having done art A-level and studied English at university, Clark found after graduating that she was spending all of her time cooking, so trained at Leith’s Cookery School before becoming a chef and working in kitchens including Spring, The Dock Kitchen, and Lyle’s. Realising that the lifestyle didn’t suit her, she went on the hunt to find an outlet for the things that she enjoyed doing which turned out to be writing her blog, baking and illustrating. “Lots of people gave me really positive feedback [on my drawings] and liked them, so I turned them into postcards and giftcards. It’s still pretty early days but people seem to enjoy them, and they always look nice on the market these days.” Until then, drawing had only been something she had done on the side and today she calls it “my way of finding a creative part of the cooking world. Working in a restaurant, a lot of what you do is very repetitive and monotonous. I think a lot of chefs are naturally creative but find that restaurant life isn’t conducive to being that. Many open their own place, but I didn’t have any money. So drawing [and baking] is my way of striking out.”

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How has Puns & Buns developed since then? Clark currently tries to work two days on one part of her business, and three days on the other, describing it all as “a balancing act. The illustrating is actually much quicker and easier, while the baking takes up a lot of time, especially as I do it all from home. Drawing is mostly when I have time to myself, really.” So far she has trialled four or five bun flavours, and would like to work on a savoury one “as a big portion of Druid Street Market’s customers are men and I’d like to do something - maybe cheesey or meaty - that appealed more to them.”

Letitia Clark

Look out for: New bun flavours. In future, Clark would like “ideally like to open a little cafe and gallery space, where I and other people could exhibit and eat.”

Follow Clark on Instagram @puns_and_buns, find more information at letitiaclark.co.uk and her market stalls at Druid Street Market on Saturdays and Chatsworth Road market on Sundays.

Victoria Stewart is a freelance food and travel writer. Follow her on Twitter @vicstewart

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