We named a croissant after Boris Johnson

If Boris Johnson finds himself out of a job, he will at least know he was briefly a hero in Kyiv cafe society, where he has just been immortalised – in baked goods.

“Boris Johnson is not just a prime minister but is also now a croissant,” announced trendy eaterie Cafe Zavertailo on Instagram this week. The accompanying photograph is a row of pastries with meringue toppings, crowned with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, apparently to represent our PM’s wayward locks. The post has generated more than 3,500 likes.

“We never thought news of our Boris Johnson croissant would reach the UK,” says café owner, Anna Zavertailo, down the line from Kyiv. “That’s really inspiring.” And so, according to Zavertailo, is our leader. “When we got to know Boris Johnson, and saw that he arrived in Kyiv to give his support to the president and people of Ukraine, we immediately got an idea to create a traditional pastry,” she says. “We sincerely wanted to honour Boris for his involvement. That’s why we made a twist on apple pie, the most popular dessert in England, and gave it the name Boris Johnsonyuk – that’s his name in Ukrainian dialect. The pastry came out delicious.”

According to Zavertailo, the Boris Johnsonyuk is selling like hot cakes. “We sell loads of them,” she says. “We can only make 42 at a time, three times a day, but we sell all we make within hours.”  At the equivalent of £2.60 a pop, a BJ bun is a high-end product and out of reach of most ordinary Ukrainians.

The “secret recipe”, says Zavertail, is cinnamon, baked apple, a meringue topping and vanilla ice cream on top “to represent Boris’s hair style”. Of the Johnson barnet, she says: “We love it! We think it underlines his personality.”

Is Ms Zavertailo aware that many in the UK see the PM to be as lightweight as her pastry? Is she even aware of Partygate, and unconvincing votes of confidence? “I understand that the rules should not have been broken, especially by a country leader, but in the end we all are human,” she says. “It’s bad and sad and the responsibility should be taken. But we also think that Boris possesses some amazing qualities as a person, which are important in today's difficult international situation. This should be prioritised.

“We see him as a very brave person and politician. His support is so important for us and for the people of Ukraine. It means so much for us to see that there are people and countries that condemn Russian aggression, stand with us and actively help us to win this atrocious offensive.”

Zavertailo and her colleagues also volunteer for the war effort by providing 1,000 portions of free meals every day to Kyiv’s hospitals and Ukrainian defence forces.

Of her croissant, is she taken back by its sudden international fame? “We did it just for our customers,” she says. “But somehow the news about this new pastry became viral and even reached people abroad. Despite this, we remain humble and just continue to do our work as well as we can. It gives us great pleasure to bring our customers delicious pastries, which hopefully bring them little joy and happiness in these tough times.”