Summer Solstice Celebration
“We opened in St James’s nine years ago and that was the introduction of Ole and Steen to London,” announces Joachim Knudsen, Ole and Steen Group CEO. “Today we have 26 stores in Greater London. We believe we have a good understanding of how Londoners think when they want to enjoy pastries, sweet breads and rye bread. Our new Open Rye range is a collaboration with the celebrated Danish chef Trine Hahnemann. Her deep knowledge of Scandinavian food and love for honest, seasonal ingredients makes this partnership a perfect fit.” Ole Kristoffersen and Steen Skallebaek combined 35 years’ experience of running bakeries when they joined forces opening Ole and Steen in 2008. Ole comes from Copenhagen; Steen, Jutland.
Trine shares, “I am especially happy and proud to be here for this partnership because it is about rye bread. I am rye bread! I use this every day. Rye bread really is at the heart of Danish food culture. It started in the 1800s when it became a trend. You could go into shops and take it home and invite people over. Rye bread can be used with whatever you have in your fridge: potato, sausage, cheese. Rye bread is made out of flour of course and then it has seeds and has a very high percentage of fibre. So this is a really healthy bread and very tasty. It was the first fast food – the first takeaway food.”
She starts a demonstration making one of the new Open Rye range. “We want all the five flavours in fast food. Umami, salty, bitter, sweet, sour. As a human being if you eat something that has the five flavours you get so satisfied. That’s why we love burgers! Smørrebrød, the traditional Danish open sandwich on rye bread, can have all five flavours. The other important thing of smørrebrød is the structure. When you eat something it has to have different textures. You need something soft, something chewy, something crunchy.”
The demonstration is in full swing. “You cut rye bread thinner than say sourdough bread. The first thing I do with a slice is smell it! Rye bread has this wonderful bitter, sweet and also flowery smell – a sense of nature. Smørrebrød actually means butter, bun, bread. The butter is very important because when you put all these toppings on you need something to protect the bread so that it doesn’t get soggy. It is a tradition to always use salted butter and it is part of the flavour combination. We have here cream cheese and I have put some yoghurt, dill and chives in it. Fresh herbs are extremely important for the flavour but also for the decoration. In Scandinavia we are obsessed with fresh herbs! Of course everyone knows salmon is a Scandinavian thing too.”
The layering continues. “Put some slices of salmon on for texture and balance of taste. I chose fennel because it goes so well with salmon and dill. Just raw fennel because you don’t want any more flavours in there. We have all that already combined in this smørrebrød. You get a bit of crunchiness from the fennel. Black pepper is the spice – it has to come from a mill. I just want to say rye bread, salmon and pepper is a match made in heaven! And then I am going to put dill on top. You can never have too many herbs – never. And then cress: this is a purple one. We are obsessed with crest as well. Cress has a sharpness which goes really well with the sweetness of salmon. So we have all the flavours in there.”
“We also get to celebrate my new cookbook Eat Copenhagen,” Trine reveals. “In it is a guide to my Copenhagen. All the stories, all the things I love above my hometown, all the traditional food. It’s an insight into the culinary culture you can experience as a local Copenhagener. Food you can bake and cook at home. Then you can go to all the fancy restaurants! And there’s a little story in there about Ole and Steen. I have worked with them since I was very young. When I was 19 or 20 I used to see Ole in a bar. Copenhagen is a very small town. That whole gourmet revolution in bread that you see in Copenhagen now came from Ole and Steen. They were the pioneers and still make the best rye bread and very good cakes.” Bon appétit! Velbekomme!
