Sweeat Sneak Studio: Food Made Creative

These are the days of shiny blush-colored donuts and soft vanilla chia pudding. Food is definitely a thing right now. In between avocado sandwiches, triple unicorn cookies and other new culinary fads, all things beautiful and eatable are blossoming with no near end in sight. 

In our series about Cool Copenhageners, we invite you to meet interesting people from Mermaid Stories' hometown who tell us their stories and let us take a glimpse on their work. Meet the young women behind Sweet Sneak Studio who have not only enriched the Instagram feeds of many happy followers, but also already made their mark in Copenhagen's food scene.

Where did it all begin?

Our adventure began during our Master’s studies at Copenhagen Business School. Next to lectures and exams we felt like doing something “real” and started to organize pop-up cafés on a regular basis. In the beginning it was just for fun – we simply loved to organize events, create food concepts around the different locations, even create a brand all around the project, and eventually also spread a little bit of happiness among friends and followers. As companies started to approach us to help them with adding the extra spark to their events, we quickly realized the potential of our way of thinking about food for branding and communication and incorporated Sweet Sneak Studio in spring 2015. 

How did your company evolve from the pop-up bakery towards what the business is about today?

The pop-up bakery started only as a fun project, but it ended up being the perfect framework for testing all our ideas and concepts, get tons of learnings and sharpen our skills on all levels. We were happy to receive a lot of media attention through our pop-ups and could that way spread the word about what we were passionate about. Both those factors were the perfect foundation for transforming Sweet Sneak into a serious business. 

What is it typically that brands or shops ask you to do when hiring you? How does the process look? 

Our focus is always on telling a story through food. For each project, we create a customized concept and coordinate the execution of it. That can be the food concept for a branding event or company festivity, but also about how to tell a culinary story online and trigger people's emotions that way. One of our most favorite events was an event with the Danish furniture design company Muuto for the launch of the new collection themed "Dusty Rose and Tangerine". Here, we translated textures, colours and shapes into a sweet cake collection, so the food perfectly integrated into the products and made the entire presentation experiencable with all senses. 

A good example for a digital culinary experience is a project we had with Bahlsen, the biggest cookie brand in Germany. For them we developed new recipes that can be created with their already existing products: cheesecakes made with their gingerbread stars, cake pops make of their marzipan loaf etc. They share those recipes and images on their social media channels to activate their community, make them get creative and share their very own Bahlsen moments. That's a beautiful project. 

Who are the people behind Sweet Sneak and how do you know each other?

Antje, Brini, Katrin, Martje and Theresa – originally all from Germany and Austria, we all met during our Master’s studies at Copenhagen Business School a few years ago. We share a passion for the joy of food and are usually full of ideas on how to express that. Today, Antje, Brini and Theresa work full-time on Sweet Sneak Studio. 

Why food?

Food is a wonderful tool to work with. Everyone needs to think about it several times a day and has a strong connection to it. The interplay between tasting, smelling, hearing, feeling and seeing makes food highly emotional and lets us create true memorable experiences. 

What has been your favorite photo shoot so far, and why?

Every couple of months, we book a day into our calendars that is dedicated to purely experiment with new ideas, materials and techniques. Those are our favorite photo shoots! 

Is there any food that is more difficult to photograph than other? 

Ice cream on hot summer days!

What is the most difficult part of photographing food in general?

To find the little invisible something and to express a special atmosphere in the images. That’s what accounts for real good photography.

What makes your photos special – do you do something others do not? 

I think that for all the images we shoot we put a lot of heart into it and care a lot about the subject, less than the actual format. If you are taking pictures of food, you have to actually be into it to find the right angle for putting it into a frame.  

Who would you like to shoot for in the future? 

A big international food magazine!

Lastly, can you recommend three Instagrammers we all should go follow? 

We love to get inspired by all kinds of media and materials for our setups. Among our current Instagram favorites are foodies like @themarshmellowist (we are crazy about Marshmellows at the moment!) as well as the account of a Parisian flower shop featuring the most amazing colours (@pampa.paris) or conceptualists like @melonblanc.

➸ If you haven't become hungry yet, have a look at Sweet Sneak's delicious Instagram account or the account of their studio for more impressions. Following their Facebook page is also a good idea.

Sweet things are just your thing? Then also have a look at our interview of hard candy creator Samira (Drops by Samira) or with Emma Bülow, founder of the luxury marshmallow brand The Mallows in Copenhagen.

Interview by Mermaid Stories
Photos: Courtesy of Sweet Sneak Studio