Copenhagen Bakery was opened by John and Donna Thomsen to bring traditional European baking skills to Christchurch.

The attractive café at 409 Harewood Road, Bishopdale Christchurch serves a wide selection of tasty treats, which are also available online.

John trained as a baker and konditor (confectioner and pastry chef) in Kloster, a small town on Denmark’s west coast. He came to New Zealand to work in The Danish Bakery, where he met his wife, Donna.

The couple opened Copenhagen Bakery in 1987 and have just celebrated 30 years in business in 2017 and provide a taste of Europe and Scandinavia with a kiwi feel and flavour.

The Copenhagen Bakery caters to all tastebuds with its wide selection of freshly filled bread rolls, paninis, ciabattas, bagels, croissants, pide’ and pastries, of many flavours, hot pies, savouries and sausage rolls which line the shelves on a day-to-day basis.

Popular European sour dough breads include the Danish black bread called “Ryggebrod”. The bakery is passionate about the long fermentation sour dough process and has won many awards for their European sour dough breads including the sunflower and linseed multigrain, kibbled rye, German rye, pretzel, Italian focaccia, ciabatta, Turkish pide’, French baguettes and broiches.

The breads are all naturally fermented over a few days have no preservatives or additives, and are very nutritious and high in fibre. Because of the long processes, the bakery requires at least 2 full days notice before placing orders.

Each day the bakery selects a variety of tasty bread rolls, bagels, paninis and croissants which are filled with quality salads and meat including ham off the bone and real chicken.

Baked goods are consistently made fresh throughout the day to keep up with the customer demand.

The bakery has not only been a business success, but has also gained numerous awards, and John continues to be awarded prizes for quality goods based on a blend of craftsmanship and the best-quality ingredients.

John has won numerous awards for his pies over the years at the National NZ Supreme Pie Competition, including three golds and a silver for a chicken with asparagus and cashew nut, sweet pastry fruit pie, vegetarian and mince pie.

The awards are proudly displayed throughout the shop and are reflection of their thriving business and well earned success.