Sofie Loirendal
Sofie's journey in becoming a pizza maker was out of the ordinary. She was living in Stockholm, working as a project manager in marketing and advertising, but as the family grew, the decision was made to move to Öland where she became involved in local politics. Alongside politics, Sofie also tried her hand at working in the local bakery with a summer job at Kaffestugan i Böda, and she really enjoyed it. So much in fact, that when the opportunity to become partner came up, Sofie took it with ittle hesitation. As a co-owner, Sofie took responsibility for the cold buffet and a new investment in pasta dishes. And, after an inspirational trip to Italy, she set up the bakery to serve pizzas in larger volumes and with better and more well-thought-out ingredients than before.
Sofie, who has always been fascinated by pizzas, thought that despite her fascination that she would never be so nerdy about the subject – but she was wrong! Curious to learn more about pizzas, she went on one of Paulo Roberto's trips to Italy and was fascinated by the Italian ingredients. She later also attended a pizza course with Sandra Mastio in Malmö, Sweden.
Sofie gathered knowledge of the various ingredients as well as inspiration, and gained a solid understanding of the importance of the raw ingredients. She refined her dough-making skills, as well as her choices of topping. She realized the difference made by oven temperature, and how the dough rose at higher temperatures. After a few years of working on a small scale with a low-temperature oven, Kaffestugan i Böda decided to invest in an electric, high-temperature pizza oven.
Sofie packed her unique dough and visited BIC (Bakery Innovation Center) Scandinavia in Fristad, Sweden to test-bake her Öland dough in a pizza oven from Sveba Dahlen. The results were good – Sofie's pizzas and the pizza oven from Sveba Dahlen was a perfect match, with the dough really came into its own.
Confident with both the oven and the dough, Sofie entered Sveba Dahlen's regional pizza competition, Smålandsmästerskapen. Proud and happy, Sofie took home a gold medal, knowing that she'd accomplished something big and had gained recognition for her dough and choice of ingredients.
Motivated to compete more, Sofie signed up for the Swedish Pizza Champion Cup. Unfortunately, she wasn't quite as successful as before. On February 1, 2024, Sofie once again competed in the Pizza Champion Cup. This time it was the Nordic Championships and the category was Nordic Best Gourmet Pizza and Sofie ended up in an impressive third place.
Sofie attended the Sveba Dahlen's stand G:20 during the Fastfood & Café Stockholm fair on January 31, 2024. Sofie were baking beautiful pizzas all day and if you were visiting the fair hopefully you got to a tasty pizza slice or two.
