London-based pastry chef Louis Thompson looks back on the macerated fruit of his Melbourne childhood and the family influences that continue to shape the way he cooks today
AnOther Dish invites chefs and notable food lovers to share a recipe of personal significance, using the food we return to as a way of revealing something about the person behind it.
“My dad loved cooking, but he was loose with it – curious but never especially finessed. If he wanted something sweet, he’d cut up a load of strawberries, drown them in brown sugar and balsamic vinegar, and put the bowl in the middle of the table for everyone to dig into. I was a very fussy eater as a child, but I could eat those endlessly. Growing up in Australia, the strawberries weren’t always as aromatic as the ones you get here in London. The heat means they ripen quickly: they can be sweet without developing that intense strawberry flavour. I think my dad was well-versed enough to know how the two ingredients could hold hands, to coax more out of their flavour. The muscovado and balsamic gave them this extraordinary depth. If you let everything sit, the sugar draws out the juices until you’re left with strawberries in a pool of dark, intensely flavoured liquid. There’s something strange and beautiful about seeing strawberries swimming in something so dark.
“Years later, on my first menu at Spring, there was a roasted strawberry and balsamic ice cream. It was a memory-unlocked moment. Making the dish again, I realised how much of my parents is in it. The food itself is my dad, which is abundant and instinctive. But arranging the strawberries into a flower was my mum. She’s an architect, and I’ve inherited her instinct to refine and construct. My dad gave me curiosity and my mum gave me discernment. This dish is where the two meet.”
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The fashion world has proved difficult to escape for London-based Australian pastry chef Louis Thompson. Raised in Melbourne, he moved to London at 21 to study Fashion History and Theory at Central Saint Martins, where some of the references that still shape his food first took hold: the movement of drapery in 17th-century Dutch painting and above all, William Hogarth’s Analysis of Beauty, with its fondness for organic forms, dynamism and the serpentine line.
Thompson began baking at 21, later working at Violet Bakery before joining Spring as a pastry chef in April 2023. He stayed for almost three years, leaving in March 2026 to work freelance. Fruit now sits at the centre of his practice, arranged into desserts that are generous and striking but stop short of looking overworked.
Fashion, meanwhile, keeps finding its way back in. Thompson regularly works with London label Stefan Cooke, both modelling for the brand and making cakes for its events and projects. One such commission was a monumental, delicious and highly Instagrammed cherry and almond cake for a Stefan Cooke event – an oversized expression of a practice built around fruit, movement and compositions that are meticulous with a healthy dollop of whimsy.
For his chosen dish, Thompson goes back to something considerably simpler: strawberries steeped in dark muscovado sugar and balsamic vinegar, a dessert his father made throughout his Melbourne childhood. Below, he shares his method for making it.
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Strawberries with Balsamic
Serves as many as you’re willing to share with.
Ingredients
One punnet of strawberries, approximately 400g
50g dark muscovado sugar
15ml balsamic vinegar
Method
- Pull the tops from the strawberries with your fingers. Do not use a knife. A knife would ruin their natural shape, probably the most important thing in this dessert.
- Halve the strawberries – now a knife is essential – and put them in a serving dish.
- Add the sugar and balsamic vinegar, then toss everything together gently, coating the fruit.
- Leave the strawberries to sit for 20–30 minutes, during which time they will release their juices and produce a dark, glossy pool of liquor.
Eat them on their own, with ice cream or directly from the serving dish while standing in the kitchen. The amount of sugar and vinegar is ultimately up to you. If you are feeling restrained, this can remain a perfectly respectable fruit-based dessert. Personally, I know it as an indulgent treat that centres strawberries and little else, so I would advise being bold with the sugar. This is not the moment to pretend you are above pleasure.