There was a time when being very good at pastry seemed enough.

You mastered the dough, understood temperature, knew exactly when a cream had reached the right consistency and, eventually, perhaps opened your own place. The identity came afterwards.

Lately, I have the feeling the order has changed.

Some of the most interesting young food businesses seem to begin with a much bigger question: what should my world look like?

Technique is still essential, obviously. Nobody has ever been saved by beautiful branding and a disappointing croissant. But technical perfection has become something of an entry requirement. What makes us remember a new bakery, pastry studio or tiny restaurant is increasingly the point of view around it: the way the food looks, the photographs, the packaging, the room, even the particular sense of humour that runs through everything.

Food is starting to behave a little more like fashion or art.

And Spolsky Studio is a very good example.

I came across the Copenhagen-based pastry studio in exactly the way we discover most things now: one image, then another, followed by considerably more scrolling than originally intended.

The work belongs to pastry artist Majka Koryciak, who divides her time between Copenhagen and Paris. Spolsky Studio is still young but its visual language already feels remarkably confident. Koryciak’s creations range from abundant berry cakes and delicate meringues to sculptural forms and references to older styles of pastry, all filtered through a very contemporary eye.

They also happen to be extremely Rarefied.

I say that with the entirely scientific criterion that looking at them makes me want to book a flight to Copenhagen, find out where Majka is serving dessert that week and then somehow arrange my life so I can have one every Sunday.

You do not need to see the logo first. After enough images, you begin to recognise the decisions. That is what artists and designers spend years trying to achieve: the moment when the work begins to carry the author with it.

Images courtesy of Spolsky Studio.

And this is where food becomes especially interesting to me.

A pastry chef still has one obvious responsibility: the thing has to taste good. But that is no longer the only thing we notice.

With Spolsky Studio, the eye comes through almost immediately. After a while you begin to recognise Majka’s work without needing much context. The proportions, the decoration, the slightly nostalgic references, the way everything feels generous without becoming heavy.

There is surprisingly little public biography around Majka Koryciak, and maybe that makes the work stand out even more. The identity is already there in the desserts.

This feels very contemporary to me. A new food business today is rarely only about making something well. People remember a place because it has a world around it, and because that world feels specific enough to belong to someone.

Spolsky Studio has that.

The desserts are beautiful, obviously, but they also feel personal in a way that makes you remember them later. And in our case, slightly dangerously, they make Copenhagen feel much closer than it actually is.

I would very happily have Spolsky somewhere in my weekly routine.