Elliot’s first introduced Basque cheesecake to the menu in 2015, and it endures to this day — if comparably slept on in the London pantheon for this dessert. Epitomising Elliot’s approach to seasonal wood fired cooking using the best produce from independent suppliers, the cheesecake is given a short burst in the same wood fired oven used to bake sourdough pizzas and breads to create that signature darkly caramelised crust, and the accompanying seasonal fruits rotate throughout the year. Think black pepper-macerated strawberries, poached peaches, pickled greengages, caramel apples, and forced rhubarb.

James Donnelly began trialling recipes for this dessert during the first lockdown, while his restaurant, Donnelly’s at Bermondsey Bar & Kitchen, was closed. After much experimentation and refinement, Donnelly began selling the cheesecakes via his East Dulwich deli, Deli Twenty Two, and organised occasional “cheesecake drops” to London postcodes via Instagram. The cheesecake was such a success it made its way onto the Donnelly’s Restaurant re-opening menu and hasn’t left since, with Donnelly also supplying cheesecakes to all-day eatery Louie Louie on Walworth Road and its sibling Yard Café in Kennington, as well as Christophers Bakery in Herne Hill, where it is available by the slice. It is tall in stature, light and ludicrously creamy.

Basque restaurant Tokova located in Tooting’s Broadway Market offers a Basque-inspired sharing menu that epitomises the traditions of contemporary Basque cooking whilst championing local and wild seasonal produce. Tokova serves its cheesecake with Marcona almonds, which provide pleasingly contrasting crunch, and a tart red berry coulis which cuts through the intense richness of the cream cheese as well as intercepting the cheesecake’s monochrome tones of black burnt crust and white cream centre with a flash of red.

Barrafina’s Idiazabal cheesecake is made with three types of cheese: Requeson, a ricotta-style cheese; traditional cream cheese; and Idiazabal, an aged, pressed cheese made from sheep’s milk from Latz and Carranzana sheep in the Basque Country and Navarre. The latter has a naturally smoky flavour that is accentuated by the burnt crust. It is mostly available as a special at Barrafina Coal Drop’s Yard, where it can be enjoyed at the end of a full meal or at the bar with a coffee or digestif.

乳臭未幹的小孩可以考慮餐館responsible for popularising Basque cheesecake in London. Nigella Lawson certainly sees it that way, attributing its fame first to Santiago Rivera of La Viña in San Sebastian and then to Tomos Parry in her latest book. Brat’s cheesecake pays homage to La Viña whilst emphasising British produce. Brat blends cows’s curd from its cheesemaker St Jude with cream cheese (reserving the buttermilk for rice pudding) and orange zest for the mixture. It’s then cooked over oak in a hot wood-fired oven which lends a light smokiness as well as helping to achieve the slightly gooey centre and signature darkened crust. It’s served year-round with seasonal baked fruits, but forced rhubarb from Yorkshire’s famous Rhubarb Triangle is a resounding favourite.

Chatsworth Bakery opened under lockdown out of chef Tom Mathews and co-founder Sian Evans’ flat in Croydon with the dream of eventually creating an open space for community to come together over seriously tasty food. It now has a permanent site in SE19, offering huge focaccia sandwiches, loaves, and sweet bakes for collection and delivery, including a standout tiramisu version of Basque cheesecake. The mixture contains a generous amount of freshly ground and brewed coffee plus a strong splash of Marsala wine, and the atypical base is made by compressing coffee and marsala-soaked savoiardi biscuits. For those who struggle to choose when it comes to dessert, this hybrid offers the best of two of the best.

Liv’s Baked Goodies was a lockdown success for Turkish born and raised chef, Olivia Benbanaste, whose previous experience ranges from famed NYC restaurant Eleven Madison Park to cooking as sous chef alongside baking specialist Henrietta Inman for a year long pop-up at Yardarm Leyton. Benbanaste began making and delivering sweet and savoury bakes during lockdown, and owing to popularity, Liv’s Baked Goods is here to stay. This honey mascarpone Basque cheesecake hints at the love of baked cheesecake she developed in NYC, whilst incorporating the global techniques picked up whilst working all around the world and a complex honey flavour profile that reflects her Turkish heritage and the seasonal, local approach to baking inspired by Yardarm. The cheesecake is available in two sizes, baked to order, for delivery across London.

Food stylist and developer Kirthanaa Naidu’s Pandan leaf and coconut basque cheesecake rose to Instagram fame after making an appearance as a guest dessert at now-closed Joy at Portobello. Naidu wanted to create Basque cheesecake, one of her favourite European desserts, with flavours inspired by her Malaysian heritage and found the naturally sweet tropical flavours of Pandan and coconut worked particularly well with the lingering bitterness of the crust. The flavour was an instant hit and quickly gained a dedicated customer base. Orders for whole 6” cheesecakes can be placed via DM on Instagram.

Franco-Japanese patisserie Sakurado, best known for its mille-crepe cakes and signature jiggly Japanese soufflé cheesecake, offers three varieties of Basque cheesecake. The classic version is traditional in flavour but has an exceptionally runny centre due to a higher proportion of liquid cream to pressed cheese than most European recipes, whilst the matcha and dark chocolate and durian flavours each bring distinctly East Asian flavours to this classic dessert. The cheesecakes are available by the slice or whole in both the Chinatown and Kensington stores, and can be ordered for local and nationwide delivery.

Side Piece is a Shrewsbury based micro-bakery that has run pop-ups at Clapham Common’s luxury grocery store Trude’s Grocery. The Pump Street chocolate Basque cheesecake is made with a whopping 300g of Pump Street’s 70 percent single estate Grenada chocolate, which lends pronounced fruity notes to the tangy cream cheese, resulting in a rich and complex filling. The addition of a Bourbon biscuit base may be unconventional for Basque cheesecake, but provides structural support as well as a welcome malty crunch. Side Piece also makes a Madagascan vanilla Basque cheesecake with a digestive biscuit base, that offers the best of Basque and NY cheesecake combined. Keep an eye on Instagram for updates of the next pop-up.

Common Ground is an all-day joint in Stroud Green, with a wide range of baked goods including an ultra-creamy Basque cheesecake. It’s a faithful recreation of the original La Viña version, made by combining good quality cream cheese and caster sugar with yolk-rich Cacklebean rggs, a dash of vanilla, gluten free flour and a pinch of salt. It is baked until smoky and caramelised on top yet precariously wobbly in the middle, before being cooled and left to set in the fridge overnight — further improving its texture and flavour. It’s currently available weekends only, and with only 12 slices available, it’s worth setting an alarm.