"Skipper is a bakery and local farm deli in Østerbro run by us, Carolina and Emil. We’re a small bakery with huge ambitions. Not in terms of becoming a chain or opening across the city, but huge ambitions within the four walls we’re sitting in right now. "

Caro: "We were actually both school teachers when we met each other. And then, I think a bit randomly, one year I got Emil a sourdough course for his birthday."

Emil: "Back then sourdough – or actually just a proper, high quality bakery – barely existed. Only a little more than 10 years ago there was nothing. Claus Meyer had started experimenting in his small bakery in Jægersborggade, Emmerys was baking some organic bread, but otherwise it was all factory bread. I was in my mid 20’s at the time and at the course it was basically just me and a bunch of elderly women. Learning about sourdough on a Wednesday night. I was completely hooked. The next day I called Meyers and asked for an apprenticeship."

"Very quickly after Emil started baking, we got the chance to be part of opening Brød at Enghave Plads from scratch, with Emil as head baker – even though, on paper, he was still just an apprentice. And I think from that moment we were already dreaming about having our own place, which three years ago finally became Skipper."

"Skipper is our 5th child! We searched for a place for a long time, and eventually this slightly random spot in outer Østerbro came up. It had been a bakery for more than 100 years, which gave it a lot of history but also meant plenty of bakers had failed here before us.

It turned out to be the perfect location for us. There are so many people here longing for local life, and at the same time we’re facing Østerbrogade with all the traffic and energy that comes with it. Skipper is that mix of local and leben."

"We’re very much a local bakery. We live just above the shop, we’re here every single day, and we want to have a relationship with everyone who walks through the door. Our produce is local, our cups are from a ceramicist nearby, and our furniture and trays are built by a local carpenter. We’re also a small farm deli, curating the best eggs, milk, cheeses, flour and more from local producers.

And then we’re a bakery for everyone. We’re one of the only places open at 6AM, so craftsmen can drop by on their way to work. We bake in big enough quantities for someone who needs to pick up 20 croissants at once. We want to be here for the nurse just off a night shift as well as the tourist looking for a world-class pastry."

"Our pistachio croissant. And our Skipper bread is something special too!"

"Sourdough! And a unique focus on the craft of baking – because the audience is here for it. People are literally touring bakeries, trying a pastry here, a bun and coffee there. That means you can open a small bakery with just a few people and a very specific niche, and customers will come. Because so many are doing such a good job, we keep each other sharp. We don’t see each other as competitors but as contributors to a culture that has grown in this city around bakeries. There’s so much talent coming here from all over the world. We even have French bakers coming to learn how to make croissants. How crazy is that?"

"While at Meyers I met Bøje Lomholdt, another apprentice at the time. He had been a film photographer for many years, and then in his early fifties he decided he’d rather spend his time baking. In 2012 he met the legendary Chad Robertson in Copenhagen and went to work for him in San Francisco. When Bøje came back, he’d learned to bake the bread that made Tartine into such an institution in the early 2000s. Tasting that bread felt like a point of no return for us.

It was the same later when we opened Brød at Enghave Plads and people were queuing all the way out onto the street from day one. What we were serving was so much better than the industrial bread people were used to. It was like they’d been waiting for it without even realizing it."

"It’s impossible not to mention Claus Meyer. He was revolutionary and innovative when he started. And it was at Meyers that I met Bøje Lomholdt, who for me is one of the most important figures. Right after Brød he opened Bøjes Brød north of Copenhagen (now Batting Bakery), which is still one of the best bakeries in Denmark."

"You have to start your day at Skipper. Get here at 6AM when we open, have a seat outside with a bun with cheese and a cup of coffee, and watch the city slowly wake up. Then go to Batting in Charlottenlund and afterwards visit Summer Canteen in Taarbæk. From there, take the ferry to Ebeltoft and visit Duo, this incredible little bakery in the middle of nowhere. If you still have room, finish at Jumbo in Aarhus before heading back to Copenhagen."