How real food got really sexy

The first European outpost from America's biggest chain of health food stores, it's the largest grocery in town, stocked with more than 10,000 natural and organic items - its 500 staff will help you choose from 400 types of cheese and 40 different kinds of loaf.

Whole Foods is popular with Hollywood's Angelina Jolie and Mischa Barton, but will it be a hit here? The capital is heaving with upmarket organic food stores. Take your pick from our list of the best places to get your organic supplies in style.

Whole Foods Market
Step inside Kensington's new gourmet heaven and you'll want to try everything on display. The good news is staff will happily cut off sliver after sliver.

Start at the temperature-controlled cheeseroom or the cooked-meat counter where 40 types of sausage are made. All produce here is natural, free of artificial flavours, colours and preservatives. Foodies especially will love the dry-ageing case for Scottish beef, the sustainable seafood counter and the olive oil tasting bar.

Want a proper meal? Drop in at one of 13 restaurants, including a champagne and oyster counter (£1.50 per rock oyster), an organic British pub, and tapas, sushi and mezze bars, with total seating for 350 people.

For a picnic in nearby Kensington Gardens, nip in to pick up hot and cold food to go, from £10 pizzas to sweet prawn sashimi from £3, or a superfood salad with edame, green broccoli and omega-3 dressing for £8.

There's also a sweet shop, a gelateria offering 24 flavours of ice cream and eight kinds of creme brulee, the glass-like crusts hand-finished to perfection in front of you.

Here you can mix your own muesli, buy packaging-free pasta by the bag, and grind your own peanut butter.

Dropping into WFM is an experience in itself. There's an in-house DJ during late-night shopping evenings, and it will soon be offering speed-dating events in its aisles.

In the basement Market Hall you'll find eco clothing, natural remedies and body-care products, and hand-baked organic treats for your pets. In the States the chain of stores has come to be known as "Whole Pay Cheque", a nod to their reputation for hefty prices. But 89p for an organic avocado, £5 for a caramelised apple and almond waffle, and £7 for a litre of organic olive oil sound reasonable to us.
The Barkers Building, 63-97 Kensington High Street, W8 (020 7368 4500)

Farm W5
This store's owners pride themselves on knowing their producers by name. Here you'll even find locally sourced Ealing honey; try it with healthy sheep's yoghurt from Ewe Tree Farm (£2.70/500g). The on-site café uses the fresh produce sold in the store, so if there's something you want juiced that's not on the menu, just say the word.
19 The Green, Ealing, W5 (020 8566 1965)

Daylesford Organic
The chicest of the lot: Daylesford Organic, pictured below, puts the glamour into organic shopping. The quality really is exceptional: cheese, milk and yoghurts from

Daylesford's own dairy; excellent bread (try sourdough for £1.99); sauces and pickles, including tomato ketchup (£3.95), and a fine organic meat range, including venison and Aberdeen Angus beef. Eco-friendly types adore the cleaning produce, including rosemary washing-up liquid, £1.75 for half a litre.
44B Pimlico Road, SW1 (020 7881 8060)

Fresh & Wild
Part of the Whole Foods empire since 2004, London's Fresh & Wild deli stores retain their own distinct identity. The Soho branch is great for grab'n'go lunch stuff such as

Poilane bread (£2.25/400g), Laura's Idea calzones and wedges of Fresh Eric's coffee and walnut cake. Upstairs are supplements and natural beauty items, including wonderful organic haircare products by New York's John Masters (from £16).
69-75 Brewer Street, Soho, W1 (020 7434 3179). Branches in Camden, Clapham and Stoke Newington

As Nature Intended
With branches in Chiswick, Ealing and Balham, this 95 per cent organic mini-chain, pictured right, makes the point that you can do your weekly shop in natural style. They regularly run pricechecks against the big supermarket players so prices stay competitive. Pick up basics such as Tushies nappies (£8.99 per pack of 40) and Ecover washing powder (£4.79/1.2kg) or seasonal produce such as English asparagus (£3.29/400g bunch) and strawberries (£1.79/250g punnet).
201 Chiswick High Road, W4 (020 8840 1404)

The Natural Kitchen
A gorgeous new Marylebone marketplace, pictured below, opened only a couple of weeks ago, pipping Whole Foods to the post. Its USP is wild food, not just organic. Fill your basket with mushrooms from the

New Forest plus a bottle of organic bubbly (£39) from Vintage Roots's wine vault in the basement.

Suppliers as diverse as Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's River Cottage, Paxton and Whitfield (for cheese) and the Well Hung Meat Company trade under their own banner. A meeting point for ecogastronauts, with a licensed café that will host evening workshops on subjects such as "How To Butcher A Lamb".
77-78 Marylebone High Street, W1 (020 7486 8065)

Planet Organic
This store, pictured right, is where yummy-mummies pile in for juice, cof fee and homemade muffins along with the weekly shop. Exclusives include Planet Organic's own olive oil from a single Tuscany estate (£10.59/ 500ml). The W2 branch has just introduced a new line of gourmet deli food; branches also on Fulham Road and off Tottenham Court Road.
42 Westbourne Grove, W2 (020 7727 2227)

Here!
What differentiates this friendly store from the field is its 100 per cent organic policy: it has even been nicknamed the "¸ber-organic supermarket" by food experts. Everything here, from the fresh meat counter to the fruit and vegetables and dairy, is guaranteed to be organic. Under the same ownership as the nearby Gossip restaurant, Here! produces its own bacon and hams in the kitchen there (if you see what we mean). Add the home-cured dry-cured bacon (£29.98/kg) to your fry-up to feel good about your hangover.
Chelsea Farmers Market, 125 Sydney Street, Chelsea (020 7351 4321)