Troels Bendix has lived a long bread adventure. Troels left his native Denmark for London in 2001 and started a successful artisan bakery. The wholesale bakery specialised in sourdough breads, pastries and sweets and supplied shops, restaurants and hotels including Brindisa, The Providores, Clarence House and The Lanesborough. During this time, Troels developed the in-house range of artisan breads for one of the UK’s leading and most respected supermarket chains.

Feeling the need for new challenges and to live and work outside London, Troels left the city for West Sussex in 2011 with his partner Giovanna Ticciati. He became one of the founders and creative director of The Hungry Guest, a delicatessen with its own bakery, where the bread won several World Bread Awards. Giovanna runs a multi-disciplinary design studio and designed the interior of the shop and the original branding.

Troels left The Hungry Guest in 2015 to start a bakery and café in partnership with an old friend. As they were planning the new venture Troels had a mountain bike accident and sustained a serious head injury. He was in hospital for three months and had to learn to walk and speak again. With characteristic quiet steeliness, Troels has studied recipes and baked almost every day since.

SØDT began in Troels and Giovanna’s kitchen with friends and neighbours collecting their bread from the house. The business quickly outgrew the space, Troels found premises a short walk from home and, together with Giovanna as creative strategist, The Hygge Bakery began in earnest.

The adventure continues…