Parisian bistro favourites combined with traditional British staples are reinterpreted with a Nordic flair at this newcomer to Shoreditch. Jungmin Seo takes a seat

A nna Søgaard confesses she did not expect her snail flatbread to become the signature dish on her menu at Bistro Freddie. Although the head chef would personally always choose snails when eating in bistros in Paris – her favourites being Bistrot Paul Bert and Allard – she was a little hesitant about putting escargots on the menu at the latest Crispin Group opening in London’s Shoreditch.

“People are not necessarily used to eating snails, so sometimes they just try them for the sake of seeing what a snail tastes like, but then they end up loving them,” she says. She buys the snails from family-run business Dorset Snails and blanches them before braising for two hours in a court bouillon (water infused with garlic, parsley and lemon zest) until they are “quite similar in texture to a mussel”. They are then chopped and served on a grilled flatbread dripping with a rich tarragon butter.

Søgaard always wanted to share her own take on Parisian bistro culture, despite starting her career in Nordic fine dining. After spending her formative years between North America and Denmark, she enrolled in a four-year chef training programme at Copenhagen Hospitality College after studying communications in the US.

She was sous chef at a Nordic small plates and tasting menu restaurant called Bodil in Copenhagen before moving to Manchester for the opening of natural wine bar and restaurant Erst in March 2018, where she was based for five years. But London was calling and an opportunity to move to a “large capital city where the food scene is really booming” arose, leading her to head up the kitchen at Crispin Group’s third restaurant, the 45-cover Bistro Freddie.

Ahead of the launch, the team conducted weekly tastings to come up with new dishes, some of which, she says, elicited the response “this is it”, while others were “no, absolutely not”. In fact, the fried plaice, curry sauce and fried capers almost didn’t make the cut, but Søgaard’s love for fish and chips, sparked during her first visit to London as a child, saw her push for it on the menu where it is now a firm favourite.

“I wanted to do something that was familiar with a buttery, mild, spiced curry sauce that is kind of similar to what you would have at a fish and chip shop,” says Søgaard, who sources the plaice from fishmonger, Flying Fish.

The sauce is made from shallots, garlic, leeks, fried ginger and apple, which are sweated down. Whole spices, including cardamom pods, coriander seeds, cloves, star anise and fennel seeds, are added, followed by turmeric, mild curry powder, white wine vinegar and vegetable stock. Once it is cooked, it is blended and strained and emulsified with butter.

“I’ve always been a huge lover of sauce, it’s just such a great opportunity to add flavour to something, which is why our BF sauce – the brown sauce we do with the house sausage – is one of the sauces we’ve played around with the most. We want people to say ‘that’s staple Bistro Freddie, that’s not just HP’,” Søgaard says. The BF sauce, which contains apples, onions, ginger and prunes, is tangy and sweet, complementing the savoury flavour and meaty texture of the sausage.

Elsewhere on the menu is eggs mayonnaise, anchovy and fried parsley; chicken and tarragon pie; and milk and blackcurrant ice-creams with a delicate brandy snap. While Søgaard reinterprets traditional sauces, her restaurant also pays homage to Selin Kiazim and Laura Christie’s Turkish restaurant Oklava, which occupied the same space as Bistro Freddie until its closure in January this year. Like her predecessors, who sought to create a business with equitable structures under strong female leadership, Søgaard places huge importance on a gender-balanced kitchen.

“I’ve always been the only woman in kitchens and this industry is built in a way that is not geared towards women’s lifestyles, and that’s why it’s been such a male-dominated field. There are so many talented women out there, so I wanted to create a restaurant that would make space for them,” she explains.

Søgaard hopes Bistro Freddie will feel welcoming for diners, too, especially with the 12-seat counter that wraps around the open kitchen. “We love interacting with our guests,” she says. “All my chefs are so personable and we want people to feel they’re a part of that.”

From the menu

Snacks

• Alma mill baguette, cultivated butter £4.50
• Eggs mayonnaise, anchovy, fried parsley £5.50
• House sausage, BF sauce £8

Starters

• Mushroom parfait, pickled mushrooms, grilled bread £8
• Snail flatbread, garlic and tarragon butter, chicken skin £13.50

Grill and mains

• Grilled cabbage, roasted celeriac purée, hazelnuts £14
• Fried plaice, curry sauce, fried capers £23
• Chicken and tarragon pie (to share) £38

Desserts

• Milk and blackcurrant ice-creams, brandy snap £9

74 Luke Street, London EC2A 4PY

www.bistrofreddie.com