OUR STORY
Established in 1984, La Rondine is Bedford’s longest-running cake shop. It was co-founded by Salvatore Garganese, who had moved to Bedford from Foggia, Italy in the 1960s in order to join the rest of his family.
Salvatore’s parents and older sister, Elisabetta, had immigrated to England after the Second World War when the country recruited thousands of southern Italian labourers in order to aid the reconstruction boom. Food was a key part of Salvatore’s life from a very young age. From the age of 11, he would cook for his family so there was dinner on the table when they returned home from work.
Having run a number of coffee shops and food establishments during the 1970s, in 1984 Salvatore decided to open up a patisserie. He noticed that there was nowhere for Bedford’s large Italian and cosmopolitan population to enjoy the mouth-watering tastes of Italian and European baking. He named the patisserie La Rondine, which is the Italian word for ‘The Swallow’.
Soon, La Rondine became Bedford’s most popular patisserie, specialising not only in Italian and European pastries but also in celebration and novelty cakes, wedding cakes, cheesecakes, gateaux, flans, biscuits, chocolate toothpaste, cupcakes, pizza, buffets, party food and much more.
A family-run business located in Bedford town centre, Salvatore runs the business with his sister Elisabetta and a loyal and talented team of bakers and decorators. La Rondine caters for different nationalities and religions, and also produces both eggless and Halal cakes.
The bakery receives orders from all over the country and has served some very distinguished guests over the years. These include some legends of the footballing world such as Sir Alex Ferguson and the 2004 Arsenal Invincibles team, music stars Sir Rod Stewart and Jack Savoretti, the Duke of Westminster and supermodel and former Miss Russia, Victoria Lopyreva. La Rondine has regularly appeared on television and in the national media, including the BBC news and ITV news, The Guardian newspaper and has been the subject of a number of food programmes and documentaries, such as Nigel Slater’s ‘Eating Together’ series.
Salvatore’s cakes have also met with the approval of other chefs such as MasterChef’s Gregg Wallace, Jamie Oliver’s mentor Gennaro Contaldo and the late, great Antonio Carluccio.
La Rondine is open seven days a week, and orders can be made online, by phone or in person. A delivery service is also available. So if you have a sweet – or savoury – tooth, feel free to indulge in some of La Rondine’s heavenly delights!
Order with us
Cakes for all occasions
The following cakes and products are also made in our bakery;
Lemon gateau
Pineapple gateau
Double chocolate gateau
Black forest gateau
Coffee mandarin
Chocolate orange gateau
Chocolate rum gateau
Strawberry gateau
Gateau delice
Tiramisu
Chocolate fudge gateau
St Honore
Italian Sorrentino
Chocolate Log
Crostata di ricotta
Charlotte royale
Charlotte russe
Chocolate and strawberry charlotte
Chocolate and raspberry charlotte
Viennese fruit bombe
Blackberry bombe
Chocolate bombe
Chocolate and raspberry bombe
Please call us on 01234 219443/400990 or visit our shop if you wish to place an order for any of these products.