Peter Jenkins, managing director of Le Pain Quotidien on what the new restaurant in the Westgate centre offers Oxford

When our founder, the Belgian chef Alain Coumont, opened an organic bakery at a flea market in Brussels in 1990, he couldn’t have dreamt that in just over 25 years, it would have expanded to a global community of over 200 restaurants in 17 countries across five continents.

Our new restaurant which opened in the new Westgate complex in October is the 31st Le Pain Quotidien to open its doors in the UK, and is a natural step following the huge success we have seen with our Bicester Village restaurant.

The bakery has 111 indoor and outdoor seats, serving breakfast, brunch and supper menus to eat in and takeaway, and we hope that we can offer a home-away-from-home for our customers. Oxford has a vibrant community, full of professionals, students, tourist and families and we think the traditions and values that the city carries are shared with all the beliefs of Le Pain Quotidien.

Our restaurant focuses on quality organic food, community spirit and providing a home from home, and we are already providing a little haven among the hubbub of busy shoppers.

Our food is our main passion. Le Pain Quotidien means ‘the daily bread’, and so, it’s no surprise that we pride ourselves on not only being a restaurant but an outstanding bakery.

We believe bread is best when it is made traditionally and simply and we bring this ethos to all of our recipes. Our bakers blend organic stone-ground flour, sea salt and water with a wild yeast levain starter to create a humble four-ingredient beginning. The dough is then kneaded patiently by hand, and baked in our stone-lined hearths, before being brought out our ovens with that homely fresh baked fragrance. We don’t believe that artificial ingredients or additives add any benefit and want our customers to once again fall in love with bread how it should be baked.

This handmade bread serves as the canvas for much of our menu, and we’re excited to have brought a taste of Belgium to Oxford.

Our menu includes an array of typical Belgian foods. Alongside our breakfast and brunches including avocado on toast, warm Belgian waffles or our smoked salmon tartines (a Belgian sandwich), we will also have hot suppers, including steaming pot au feus, Belgian stews and chicken and leek pies.

Our bakery range also offers customers countless cakes, scones, vienoisseries and fresh baguettes, and in a nod to the city, we source as many local ingredients as possible.

Our handle-less mugs are also famous. When our founder, Alain Coumont, was growing up in Belgium, he went to his grandmother’s house every Wednesday where she would greet him with a small bowl of steaming hot chocolate. When he founded Le Pain Quotidien, he wanted to replicate this childhood feeling of warmth and relaxation for customers, and to this day, our simple coffee bowls still delight, whether they are filled with piping hot chocolate or café au lait, or a traditional breakfast tea.

As well as our food, we also pride ourselves on our community aspect, which is why our rustic communal tables are the centrepiece to all our restaurants. Long enough for all to fit and narrow enough for all to talk, the tables are where friends reconnect and new friendships are forged over a shared appreciation of delicious food and good company.

We hope Oxford embraces our philosophies and most importantly, enjoy the Le Pain Quotidien experience.

Le Pain Quotidien is on the Lower Ground floor of the Westgate centre, near to the John Lewis store