SOFIE
CHEF & FOOD STYLIST
Caroline takes an intuitive and experimental approach to food and design, focusing on evoking emotions and atmospheres. With a background in nutrition and health, she combines responsibility and quality with a playful style that challenges the commercial and conventional. Her work balances aesthetics, imperfection, and experimentation,
always rooted in a strong creative identity.
WHERE ARE YOU POSITIONED IN THE CREATIVE WORLD?
It's a bit hard for me to pinpoint exactly where I fit within the creative field, apart from my role as a chef at a restaurant, which represents the more commercial side of my work. I also work freelance in catering, which I’ve done on several occasions. Through those experiences, I’ve discovered and developed my creative identity.
I have a degree in nutrition and health, where I focused half of my studies on food and management. That’s where I gained most of my professional knowledge about food and cooking. My education also included sociological and psychological perspectives on food, which I find particularly interesting to explore in my work.
I love working with set design because it’s about creating a specific feeling or atmosphere. During my studies, I learned about different dining situations and how they are influenced by our backgrounds and life experiences with food. Translating those insights into practice and tangible creations is fascinating. I think my set designs are characterized by a balance between a very structured aesthetic—often tied to a specific color or shape—and elements that break with perfection, allowing the designs to feel awkward or experimental.
HOW DID YOU ENTER THE FIELD YOU WORK IN NOW, AND WHY DO YOU APPROACH FOOD THE WAY YOU DO?
I think I realized during my studies that something was missing—something personal to me. The program was very compartmentalized, theoretical, and technical. While there was a practical component, it was heavily system-oriented, focusing on production methods and approaches to different food types.
Through my studies, I discovered that I wanted to work more creatively with food, ingredients, and the whole dining experience. This realization came, in part, through the softer disciplines that examined how people experience food through their social and cultural heritage. That helped lay a foundation in me and opened the door to working with food in a way that isn’t just about the meal itself but also everything surrounding it.
WHAT IS ESSENTIAL TO YOUR WAY OF WORKING?
What defines my practice is that it’s very intuitive and quite fluid. However, I do have strong opinions about how things do or do not fit together.
I like to start my process from a decade, a color, a technique, or a place. For example, I might walk into a thrift store and find a cup that references the '80s, and then the '80s will stay in my head for the next few weeks as I explore how meals were arranged and eaten during that time.
There are no strict rules or a fixed style in my practice, so it’s difficult to explain to others what I’m actually doing when I work with my own practice. I think, above all, I’m after creating a feeling within myself and others through food and dining experiences. Of course, it also starts with a taste or an ingredient that I love or find interesting. It’s really important for me to work responsibly with food, and I think a lot about the quality of the food I prepare for others and myself.
Since my everyday job involves doing things in a standard way and delivering a commercial product, I have a strong urge to focus on the unconventional, the "ugly," or simply something far less commercial when I work with my own practice. When I’ve worked on commercial collaborations with my own brand, it’s crucial for me not to compromise my identity. I find it hard to do something that feels like it's created purely to sell. Because of this, I also doubt whether my practice will ever become something I work with full-time.
WHERE DO YOUR AESTHETIC SENSIBILITY COME FROM?
I think my aesthetic comes from many places. It’s shaped by my childhood, my family, and the people around me, but also by the city I live in and the places I’ve visited around the world. It’s really a mix of influences.
What’s essential, though, is that I love a good theme. I enjoy working with a specific color, contrasts, or drawing inspiration from a particular decade, place, or person. These elements often evolve into something I can turn into a creative product.
For example, if I visit a thrift store and find a cup with strong references to the 80s, I’ll obsess over the 80s for two weeks. I’ll think about what people ate, how they created their dining experiences, and how to incorporate a bit of kitsch or ugliness into it. I find beauty in things that are slightly off or forgotten, things that carry a sense of imperfection.
DID YOU EVER CONSIDER TAKING A DIFFERENT PATH THAN THE ONE YOU`RE ON NOW?
I’ve always been uncertain about what I wanted to achieve in my career. I felt compelled to choose something I truly enjoyed outside the context of work—and that has always been food.
It became the only thing I could see myself working with at this point. That said, my daily job includes a structured and commercial aspect, where I produce the same product repeatedly within a framework I didn’t create.
At the same time, I’ve built a parallel world for myself that is more open, fleeting, and creative. This balance allows me to experience the best of both worlds—one grounded in structure and one driven by freedom and creativity.
HAVE YOU HAD A PARTICULAR MILESTONE OR TURNING POINT IN YOUR CAREER?
I’ve loved cooking for as long as I can remember. It’s hard for me to pinpoint a specific moment when I knew I wanted to work with creating meals and dining experiences in a more creative direction, but it has certainly been crucial for my practice to have the opportunity to work with different clients and, of course, to work as a chef in my full-time job.
WHAT ROLE HAS COPENHAGEN PLAYED IN YOUR WORK?
Copenhagen has been the place where I’ve felt I could let go of my ideas and at the same time, feel that they are met with openness and curiosity. Copenhagen is a city full of contrasts, and these are especially what I’ve been very drawn to. Beyond that, Copenhagen is a city full of diversity, and there are many places to visit and people to meet, all of which I feel help nurture my creativity and provide inspiration for my practice.
ARE THERE ANY SPECIFIC PLACES IN COPENHAGEN THAT PLAY A ROLE FOR YOU?
I love places in Copenhagen that have a particular atmosphere, one that feels complete. As I mentioned, I’m very drawn to atmospheres. I love Sjællandsgade Bath, an old bathhouse in Nørrebro, where there’s a special energy, and I always leave feeling calm. Another place I really enjoy is Sing Tehus on Vesterbro. They have lovely tea, and you can drink it in their cozy courtyard. For a good breakfast or lunch, which is very accessible to everyone, I really like going to Alis Bakery in Nørrebro. You get your food on a tray in the best canteen-style, and it’s very affordable with delicious Middle Eastern food. If you want to venture a little outside the city, like everyone else in Copenhagen, I really enjoy going to Klampenborg to walk in Dyrehaven or take a stroll at Bakken and feel like a child again.
WHAT DO YOU SEE AS YOUR BIGGEST STRENGHT?
I believe my greatest strength is my ability to trust my gut feeling. This applies both to the creative things I enjoy doing and to the commercial collaborations I choose to pursue, as well as the clients I want to work with, particularly in the catering side of my work. It's something I haven’t always had the confidence to rely on, so it feels really good to be at a point where I trust that what I create is, at least for me, worthwhile. I know that not everyone will like the product I offer, and that’s completely fine.
WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED ABOUT YOURSELF THROUGH YOUR WORK?
I’ve learned to be brave and find peace in the fact that not everyone I meet will agree that the product I create is great. I’ve also learned that I can’t feel a sense of professionalism in my work if I don’t let go of my fear that what I deliver isn’t good enough or that I’m not good at what I do. I’ve struggled a lot with this. I’m really not a particularly competitive person, and for many years I saw that as a weakness, but now I’ve reached a point where I’ve made peace with it and try to see the positive side: you don’t have to be the best to enjoy what you do.
WHERE DO YOU DREAM OF TAKING YOU PRACTICE?
I dream of taking my practice to a place where it can help people feel more connected with each other and inspire them to open difficult conversations about food, from a more psychological or sociological perspective. I am really interested in food shame, and I think it would be incredible to open up a conversation around it.
BUY T-SHIRT DESIGNED BY CAROLINE
The 20% profit from Caroline Sofie's sold t-shirts will be donated to LMS:
The National Association Against Eating Disorders and Self-Harm in Denmark.