Kasper Bjørke’s Interview & Kitchen Mix

Hi Kasper, welcome to The DJ Cookbook, we’re delighted to have you! Let’s get cooking and mixing, shall we?

My pleasure to participate!

Q: First things first, have you drank any Glögg to officially start the holiday season? Is there a special family recipe or secret ingredient that you would like to share with us?

A: I'm having weekly Glögg sessions with some friends during December. It's great to get a Glögg buzz on in the afternoon… There are a few restaurants in my neighborhood that make brilliant Glögg where they put all sorts of alcohol and spices in it and they keep their recipes secret. The only alternative version I know to the traditional red wine Glögg is the one made with white wine, which gives me a light headache but it's also somehow sweeter...

Q: What are you listening to at this very moment? Birds chirping, the wind, the rain, traffic, your computer’s fan, testing a new track, your own breathing, the thoughts in your head?

A: Listening to “Oneness", the brilliant jazz album by Matthew Halsall from 2018. In the background my son is playing with his Pokemon… schools are closed here due to restrictions so it's an extended Christmas holiday...

Q: Danish holiday food is not to be messed with, can you give us a breakdown of a traditional Danish Christmas meal?

A: There is always an abundance of thick brown sauce, red kale that’s been slow-cooked in a pot with sugar, jam, and spices, potatoes that has been fried in caramelized sugar and butter - and then there is the meat. Usually, it's a whole duck roasted in the oven, there is also often a pork roast - and some serve turkey or goose...
As I'm heading towards being a vegetarian/pescetarian it's getting more and more difficult each year to digest the meat but I will most likely have a piece of duck and then feast on the sides and most definitely the dessert which is "Rice ala mande" - a cold rice porridge with bourbon vanilla and chopped almonds and then turned in whipped cream.

Q: Tell us about Danish Christmas beer.

A: I guess the one people consider the original is by the brewery Tuborg. It's dark and heavy and quite strong. I have had my fair share in my late teens and it never ended well.
There is an official "J-Day" here in Denmark, the day when they release the Tuborg Julebryg (Christmas Brew). People go mental.
All the microbreweries have made more fancy versions of Christmas beer… but I am not really a beer guy… rarely drink it.

Q: As a child what did you look forward to eating during the holidays?

A: Always the warm rice porridge with cinnamon and sugar on top and a scoop of butter... I still love it today and luckily my kids do too, so we have it around once a week all through December (and usually all the way until spring, haha)

Q: Do you have a favorite Christmas song that you enjoy dancing around the Christmas tree?

A: I always liked Silent Night. It's beautiful and very solemn… sadly my mother cannot sing to save her life so the whole singing around the Christmas tree part has always been a bit of a weird but hilarious event in my family.

Q: Describe the perfect Smørrebrød.

A: I can tell you that my all-time fave is herring in curry with a soft-boiled egg on top.

Q: Are you a Frikadeller, Flæskesteg or Stegt Flæsk med persillesovs type of guy?

A: As mentioned I am not really eating meat anymore but the best flæskesteg I ever had was from Hindsholmgrisen, a small organic farmer in the rural part of Denmark and it was fantastic.

Q: What is the perfect Danish street food?

A: The obvious choice would be the traditional Danish Hot Dog. There are now a fair amount of modern, veggie hot dogs to be found around Copenhagen, so it's no longer as one-dimensional as it used to be, which is nice.

Q: What is the inspiration behind this mix that you have selected for us?

A: I basically just intuitively selected some of my fave disco/post-disco and Italo tunes and made a Kitchen Disco Mix! Hope you will enjoy it at your next kitchen party...

Q: Let’s create a 7-course dinner menu based on the 7 tracks on Sprinkles Nite Mixes. Which track would you pair with the hors d'oeuvre, soup, appetizer, salad, main course, dessert, and mignardise?

<strong>A: Haha, great idea! So this is my spontaneous Sprinkles 7 Course Nite Mixes Menu with 7 fantastic guest chefs from around the world:

Hors d’oeuvre: Prom Nights mix of Grace

Soup: Phunkadelica´s Siculo Disco Mix of Biarritz

Appetizer: Eden Burns remix of Running

Salad: 1-800 Girls Remix of Glassy

Main Course: Roman Flügels remix of Baybi

Dessert: Storkens Remix of Kites

Mignardise: Boys Shorts remix of Mirage

Q: What do you look forward to in 2022?

A: I'm looking forward to releasing the next Quartet ambient album (which is a follow-up to The Fifty Eleven Project that came out in 2018 in Kompakt) and then hopefully playing some DJ gigs again!!
I still haven’t been abroad due to restrictions and cancellations but at end of January, I have an all-night back-to-back with Storken in Stockholm. Crossing my fingers it will happen!!!!

Q: Kasper, thank you for being part of The DJ Cookbook! We wish you and yours a safe, healthy, and prosperous 2022. God Jul!

A: Thank you for asking me to join - wishing you and yours a Merry Xmas and all that Jazz… Here´s to a much better future!

PS: We’ve been obsessed with Sprinkles and Sprinkles Nite Mixes! We love them :-)

A: Thanks so much!!! Appreciate that!!

If you haven't yet, don't miss out on Kasper's latest Album titled Sprinkles and the epic remixes that accompany it. You can find the album here and the Mixes here.