A Danish Breakfast - Caroline Feiffer

Even though I’ve never been to Copenhagen, it’s left a strong imprint on my being. Everything from the effortlessly minimal and abundantly unfussy interior point of view, to the swoony muted palette of whites, grays and soft blues that balance the warmth of their favored pale wood tones, to the food which has been more celebrated recently than any other global city, Scandinavia is high on my list of places to travel and Denmark is on the tippy top of that list.

Most of the design blogs that have informed my Amagansett home stemmed from, yes you guessed it, Scandinavia. Emma’s Design Blog, Scandinavian Retreat and My Scandinavian Home acted as my go-to trifecta of beauty and inspiration. And even more recently many of the tastemakers I’ve found myself following Instagram – like-minded lovers of design and food – have been from Copenhagen. It’s come into focus that I swoon the Danish!

The insta feed I’ve been finding the swooniest of all is Caroline Feiffer of‘ ‘The Feiffer’s’. I’ve admired her stunning feed for quite some time. I have such an appreciation for her refined scope, which is light and airy and absolutely influenced by the coastline and her travels. From the palette to the content to the composition and the products, I absolutely can’t get enough. The Feiffer’s is truly a curated destination, that’s both visually impressive and inspirational, as well as being a web boutique for items worth owning and knowing. Caroline and her husband/partner Steffan have what I can only describe as an impeccable eye and they’ve succeeded in making me swoon from across the globe.

As fate would have it, Caroline (who used to live in NYC) recently planned a trip stateside and reached out to me to cook and create! She wanted to share the Danish breakfast routine she and Steffan engage in every morning; it’s truly a ritual. There’s a calming beauty to the series of steps that start their day together. Day in and day out, it doesn’t change, ever – perfectly softboiled eggs with flaky sea salt, half a grapefruit, a bowl of strained fullfat Greek yogurt with swirls of homemade blackcurrant coulis, and a pot of black hot dripp coffee. To me it’s absolutely fascinating since my breakfast is incredibly varied each and every day! It really got me thinking – so I decided to prepare a classic weekend breakfast with Caroline, which I will share this Friday on The Bite!

Though Danish design is simplistic at its core it always contains an element of juxtaposition, whether in its high-low approach or the extremes of using bold black accents in an all white space. So it made sense for me to juxtapose my breakfast ritual with Caroline’s. Once again a virtual stranger and I have been brought together by our shared aesthetics, our love of design and beauty, to become dear friends. As Caroline shared, “Instagram is a community for creatives – the visual storytelling gives a glimpse on the visual mind of the curator and I guess you instantly know if there’s some sense of connection just through visuals.” There are differences to all of us – our culture, our language, our location, our eating habits, how we live in our homes – but there are far more similarities that unite us. Here’s to celebrating friendship plain and simple. To common ground!

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Caroline Feiffer

The Feiffers

SWOONISMS.....

CAN YOU SHARE THE GENESIS OF YOUR BRAND? WHAT WAS THE INITIAL SPARK THAT INITIATED YOUR VISION FOR THE FEIFFERS?

We created The Feiffers because we simply couldn’t resist. We are both creative and have an aesthetic view on life and our surroundings and really wanted to share our inspiration and some of our favorite objects, so we built The Feiffers Lifestyle web boutique and inspirational source, from a personal believe in combining refined lifestyle essentials in a non-static web layout where content is core and products are accompanied by beautiful visuals, stories and anecdotes. Inspiration is meant to be lead and the versatile selection of designers and products are our personal favorites and necessities and reflect our lifestyle.

HOW WOULD YOU BRIEFLY DESCRIBE THE ETHOS OF YOUR COMPANY?

Our company ethos roots in personal curated content. We believe that synergy and inspiration is important and that art aesthetics and quality craftsmanship create a more beautiful everyday. We both have a visual mindset, a natural curiosity on original crafts and a never-ending hunger for travel and cultural insight. We set out with the idea of creating an impressive lifestyle web boutique offering a refined selection of objects worth owning and knowing of, objects we love our selves. We constantly source for inspiration and therefor inspiration is lead – we want to share our inspiration and hopefully inspire while doing this.

PLEASE TELL ME ABOUT THE SWOON-WORTHY PRODUCTS YOU CURATE AND SELL?

The products that we curate, sell and source are all personal selected, they are our favorites and all have high quality in common – we love creators that put great effort in what they do because they wouldn’t do it any other way. I guess we are a bit quality and craft obsessed, somewhat perfectionist – definitely thorough and care for originality and classics.

WHAT ITEMS FROM THE FEIFFERS TRULY REPRESENT YOUR BRAND?

We wouldn’t be without classic carbon knives in the kitchen that only age with beauty. Soft organic cotton bedding – really there’s nothing like fresh and crisp bedding that’s some of the best things I know – gives me that certain feeling of home. Just like soft bedding casual “live in” soft staples fills up our wardrobe, creatives mind and an active lifestyle means clean slates and easy wearable basics such as tee’s and sweatshirts.

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE COPENHAGEN’S DESIGN AESTHETIC?

Copenhagens design aesthetic is very simple, light and airy. We have a design heritage that includes important furniture designers and makers e.g. Kaare Klint, Mogens Koch and Hans J. Wegner just to mention a few of our favorite Danish. We think Copenhagen represents fine and classic craftsmanship that is made to last both design and quality wise. For us however the design scene is maybe sometimes too Nordic and we often find us self holding on to that very core of our quality and craftsmanship heritage while taking great inspiration from travels, restaurants, art and culture in general. We are both very drowned to coastal living and often look towards sunnier climates for inspiration. I think American design in general is a bit more eclectic diverse and bold – definitely with a lot of self-esteem and courage.

TELL ME ABOUT YOUR BREAKFAST ROUTINE…..

We are both early starters and usually up and out during the week, but when we are enjoying mornings together our breakfast routine involves perfectly softboiled eggs, with flaky sea salt, half a grapefruit meat cut loose, a bowl of strained fullfat Greek yogurt with swirls of homemade blackcurrant coulis, toasted seeds and nuts, dried fruit and berries when in season and a pot of black hot dripp coffee. Flipping through various inspirations e.g. magazines, tablet, cookbooks the paper etc. – that’s the perfect morning.

YOU’D BE LOST IN THE KITCHEN WITHOUT…..

I would definitely be challenged without good knives and my ice cream maker..

WHAT IS YOUR CLASSIC GO-TO RECIPE YOU MAKE WITH YOUR EYES CLOSED?

My lavender honey ricotta ice cream and a classic crisp green salad with just the right amount of my lemon parmesan dressing with lemon zest and juice, flaky sea salt, black pepper, finely shredded parmesan, a good quality olive oil and fine chives.

FIVE INGREDIENTS YOU COULDN’T LIVE WITHOUT?

Olive oil, lemons, truffle salt, eggs and parmesan..

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THE FOOD MOVEMENT IN COPENHAGEN?

The food movement in Copenhagen is generally very simple, centered around seasonal produce i.e. nordic, it’s clean and somewhat classic yet the scene is creative and has a young and energetic majority – it’s an occupation that has become very modern. We are known for green and healthy food and I think the modern interpretation is representative of just that.

ALL-TIME FAVORITE RESTAURANTS IN COPENHAGEN?

For my favorite restaurant in Copenhagen, I would have to say Atelier September even though it’s neither a restaurant nor a café, but something creative in between. Frederik Bille Brahe, the chef, our friend and founder of Atelier September, is an excellent example of the above described creative food movement, but he also represents something very unique that you wont find elsewhere in Copenhagen. His food is situated around seasonal greens, with dishes that often only consist of a few, but high quality ingredients. All Frederiks produce and pantry are carefully sourced, and are personally curated – because they are the best. His signature is definitely simple and green, but always with a twist, e.g. yogurt with fermented zucchini jam that is both sweet and ginger infused with matcha tea and basil.

YOU HAVE LIVED IN NYC – WHAT BITS OF NYC HAVE YOU TAKEN HOME AND INCORPORATED INTO YOUR LIFE AND BUSINESS?

I lived in New York for nearly ½ year. I loved the pulse and the life this city have to offer this I miss plus the enormous diversity in the population and resulted creativeness. While I loved every bit of this time period I also missed the intimacy and quietness of Copenhagen, but I guess you kind of always miss what you don’t have, except for sun and summer – that I always miss.

FAVE NYC EATERY?

For classic breakfast I love Lafayette Bakery, for drinks and good vibes the Marlton Hotel and for dinner just to mention a few; ABC Kitchen, Estela, Navy.. I could go on so many good places.

HOW DOES COOKING AND CREATING MAKE YOU FEEL IN THREE WORDS?

Creative, calm and happy.

I couldn’t imagine a day without creative thoughts. I feel blessed that I get to do what I love. So narrowed down to one word – very Lucky indeed.

WHAT IS YOUR IDEAL MEAL? WITH WHOM?

All kind of seasonal greens especially just when they peek and have that young pure and honest taste – that’s when the magic happens just simple interpretations to keep that fine taste of the specific produce in center of the dish e.g. fresh spring asparagus perfectly blanced with a drizzle of good olive olive, salt and lemon zest. Oh and I love love love a whole fish on the grill – the who know who he is and where the ideal location is… hinch: Summer, Southern Europe and the sea.

CAN YOU TALK A BIT ABOUT OUR INSTA-LOVE AND EVENTUALLY MEETING?

I think the beauty of Instagram is that it is such a great digital community for creatives – the visual storytelling gives a glimpse on the visual mind of the curator behind and I guess you instantly know if there’s some sense of connection just through visuals – and that genuine connection was definitely there both through the visuals and everyday creativeness shared on Instagram and later when we eventually meet and created breakfast together. It’s so lovely to meet creatives alike and feel that mutual connection of creating beauty – Athena you are a girl of my heart with endless inspiring skills.