Who Is Frida Bäcke?
Frida Bäcke is one of Sweden’s leading pastry chefs, known for her technical precision, creative desserts, and deep understanding of Nordic flavor. She has worked at some of the country’s highest-ranked restaurants, including AIRA and Frantzén, and has represented Sweden as part of the Swedish Culinary Team, earning medals in both the World Cup and European Championships.
Today, she runs her own pastry studio Socker Sucker, and for the second consecutive year, she has been chosen as the pastry chef for the Nobel Banquet — an honor reserved for only the most accomplished chefs.
Sometimes our spices end up in very special places. This is one of those moments.
This Year’s Nobel Dessert: Wild Raspberry, Sloe & Warming Spices
This year, Frida’s creation is a celebration of Nordic berries, texture and elegant, warming spice.
The dessert features a sorbet of Swedish sloe berries, brightened with orange and perfumed with allspice, our Quang Nam cinnamon, and Sri Lankan cloves. It’s paired with a baked fresh-cheese cream flavored with bourbon vanilla, a brown-butter cake, a buttermilk caramel, and a crisp of buckwheat and oats.
The plate is finished with a forest-raspberry consommé infused with spruce tips — a remarkably pure, aromatic broth that ties the whole dish together.
It’s a dessert built on acidity, warmth, craftsmanship, and clarity — and here you can watch Frida prepare it step-by-step.
Why These Spices?
The Story Behind Our Whole Cloves
Highly aromatic and rich in eugenol, cloves are actually the unopened buds of a vibrant red flower that grows on tropical evergreen trees originally native to the Molucca islands in Indonesia.
Clove Tree, Kandy, Sri Lanka
For over 2,500 years, cloves were among the most traded spices in the world — prized by the Chinese imperial courts, used as incense in Roman rituals, and beloved in medieval European baking.
Our cloves grow in small-scale spice gardens outside Kandy, Sri Lanka, where the climate produces large, oil-rich buds bursting with warm, fruity, powerful aroma.
Press the stem with a nail and you’ll see essential oils release instantly — a hallmark of quality.
Partner Farmer Upathissa with harvest of cloves
They are intense, so a little goes a long way. And in pastry, they bring structure, depth, and a warming backbone that pairs beautifully with wild berries like raspberry and sloe.
The Story Behind Our Quang Nam Cinnamon
Our cinnamon grows at 1,500 meters in the highlands of Quang Nam, central Vietnam, on the borders of Laos. This ancient variety — locally known as Tra My Cinnamon — is indigenous to the Truong Son forest and has been cultivated by local communities for centuries. The tree is considered sacred, valued for both medicinal properties and its uniquely aromatic bark.
This heirloom cinnamon (Cinnamon Laurilei) matures slowly — taking 10 years before reaching peak quality. Farmers make a single cut at the base, letting the bark dry naturally for weeks before harvesting. This traditional method traps the essential oils and produces a cinnamon with a deep, spicy-sweet flavor unmatched by any other variety.
Most of it never leaves Vietnam. When it does, top chefs in China buy nearly all of it.
We understand why — we use it in everything from broths and tomato sauces to braises and cinnamon rolls.
When Great Ingredients Meet Great Craft
At The Pepper Quest, we work directly with farmers and producers to find spices that carry identity, terroir, and clarity of flavor. Seeing them used at the Nobel Banquet — in a dessert built by one of Sweden’s most celebrated pastry chefs — is a moment of pride.
Because craftsmanship recognizes craftsmanship. And extraordinary food begins with extraordinary ingredients.
Taste the Same Spices Used at the Nobel Banquet
Explore the cinnamon and whole cloves featured in Frida Bäcke’s dessert. Their aroma speaks for itself.
