Conversations with Anna Søgaard of Bistro Freddie
Welcome to our first conversation of 2024!
We are beyond thrilled to release our newest series of Conversations With. It’s a project that has been ongoing for almost 3 years now - born out of the fact that we spend near enough all our time talking about food, recipes and restaurants.
We’re starting strong with our first conversation - Anna Søgaard is Head Chef at Bistro Freddie, she’s also a Co-founder of SuppHER supper club, she’s also great.
Bistro Freddie (from the same family as Crispin and Bar Crispin, which we also love) has been booked up since it opened in Autumn last year - this makes total sense as not only is the food genuinely delicious but it’s the sort of place that you just want to while away hours sitting and eating and drinking.
On a grey and rainy day (all involved a little bit hungover) Anna made us the most delicious Apple & Frangipane Tart while we asked her all about the first 4 months of Bistro Freddie, her life as a chef and where she likes to eat.
Could you tell us about what you’ve created for Conversations with - what you’ve made, why you’ve made it etc?
I decided to make an apple frangipane tart as it is a recipe that has had a big influence in my career in the way that it was one of the dishes I cooked for my initial tasting with our director Dom Hamdy for the head chef role I have now. He loved how short the crust was so in a way I guess you could say its the recipe that got me my job.
Did you always plan on becoming a chef, what was your journey like?
I definitely did not think from an early age that I would be a chef. I studied communications in the states and towards my senior year I had a big crisis in that I had no idea what i wanted to do and had no real interest in what I was studying. But i worked in a restaurant part time while studying doing front of house and loved the restaurant world and loved cooking, which is what led me to go back to Denmark to go to cooking school and see where that would take me.
The menu Bistro Freddie has such a clear style - do those parameters make it more or less difficult to develop new recipes? Has there been anything that you really wanted to put on the menu that just didn’t fit?
There were definitely some dishes that we tried out during the development stages before we had a clear style and vision of what we wanted to be that didn't make the cut. We realised very early on that we wanted to do honest cooking with food people can find a sense of nostalgia in and combine classics with new interpretations but that it should all feel recognisably like a French/English bistro. In a sense I think we're still trying to figure out who we are and where we want to take the menu. especially with all of the chefs now contributing their input and ideas. Its a collaboration between a small and tight knit team where everyone has their say which is one of the best parts of our kitchen I think.
Tell us about SuppHER - how it came about, are there any events that you did that you were particularly proud of?
SuppHER started as a fundraising dinner put on by just me and my former colleague Kim McBride who was the somm at Erst where I was sous chef. We wanted to raise money for Trafford rape crisis which is a Manchester based charity. We soon after the event had loads of women in hospo contacting us via instagram asking to do another one or telling us about a women’s charity they’d love to help support. So it turned into a supper club and we did so many events and grew our community to the point where last year we officially became a community interest company and have grown our board of directors which now includes our brilliant GM Sinead at Bistro Freddie. We have loads of events in the pipeline but in London and up north. My favourite event was probably the collaboration we did last year with Cloudwater brewery. They did an IWD campaign where they feature women in various fields on their label and brewed a beer by all of their women brewers. We hosted a dinner featuring a diverse group of women chefs who each cooked a dish to celebrate the release of the beer.
What did you look for when you were building your Bistro Freddie team
To be honest I was more interested in finding people with diverse experiences who could bring something new to the table. work experience didn't seem like the most important thing. This approach really paid off in the end as we built a team of interesting and fun people who all brought a different and new viewpoint to the kitchen set up.
Apple & Frangipane Tart
Tart case:
130g cold cubed unsalted butter
250g AP flour
3 tbs iced water
1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
1 small pinch of salt
Tart filling:
200g ground almond
200g butter, softened
200g sugar
4 medium to large eggs or 200g
pinch of salt
For topping:
3-4 apples, sliced thin
2 tbs honey
1 Ts ground cinnamon
Juice of 1 lemon
Pinch of salt
For the tart case, start by cutting butter with flour and salt. Crumble butter with flour until it forms a clumpy sand consistency. In a separate bowl, mix water with ice cubes and add the vinegar. Once water mixture has chilled for a few minute, take 3 tbs of the cold water and add to dough. Add salt and knead till it just comes together. Form into a disc, cling film and set aside in fridge for 4 hours or ideally overnight to hydrate.
Once ready to roll out, roll into a large flat round shape on a floured surface and use a rolling pin to transfer it into the tart baking dish.
Set aside for 30 minutes to cool in fridge before baking.
The line the pastry filled tart case with parchment paper and use beans or rice to fill entire case to weigh down pastry. Bake at 180C for 25-30 minutes until golden and bottom is almost entirely baked through. Then remove beans and parchment and brush with egg yolk. Bake for another 5 minutes
Until glossy then set aside to cool for 15 minutes.
Add frangipane filling to pastry crust and smooth out so that the top is levelled and even on all sides.
In a separate bowl, mix apples, honey, salt and lemon juice and let sit for 10-20 minutes. Then spread over top of frangipane I whatever pattern you like, pressing down lightly into the frangipane mixture.
Bake tart for 30 minutes, covering top with foil if it's getting too dark. Let sit for 15 minutes before transferring out of tart case and slicing.
Thank you so much to Anna and Bistro Freddie for such a wonderful day!
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