Copenhagen, the gastro-capital of Northern Europe

Twenty years ago, in a city that has always cultivated its love of design, but not necessarily its love of gastronomy, the idea of a Nordic cuisine asserting its identity, its terroir, emerged. following in the footsteps of the Danish film collective Dogme95, created in 1995, a group of Scandinavian chefs, including René Redzepi, launched their manifesto in 2005. And it worked! And very well indeed. The new Nordic cuisine was born, attracting journalists, gourmet travelers and chefs-in-training. The simplicity of the early days gave way to new and varied expressions. This fertile ground gave birth to a generation of chefs, Danish and otherwise, who came to Copenhagen to train, and then often decided to stay, as the lifestyle is quite good here, in a setting that encourages creativity. In the Danish capital, cuisine and design are never far apart. Not only in the decor of the restaurants, but also in the creative approach, in the freedom to innovate shown by the chefs who, like designers, seek out new ways of cooking, thinking about the restaurant experience and even inventing products.

A generation trained abroad

Bo Bech is far from a beginner. Although he may not be the best-known chef outside Denmark, he is undoubtedly the best-known in his own country, having opened two successive gastronomic restaurants and hosted a television show. Bo Bech is one of those who, at the turn of the 2000s, were at the forefront of the effervescence shaking up a nascent culinary scene: " There are 5.5 million people in Denmark. We were brought up by parents who thought we were magnificent, but who told us that, to succeed, we had to study, travel and learn languages, because nobody, apart from a few Swedes or Norwegians, understood us. When it came to gastronomy, we had no voice. We simply copied the "grandes cuisines". To train, we had no choice but to travel to France, Italy or England, working in the shadows and virtually for free. The moral of the story is that, when we came back to our country, we had become very well-trained young chefs. "In 2004, Bo Bech opened Paustian, a year after René Redzepi's Noma. As for Rasmus Kofoed, he won one Bocuse d'Or after another, opening Geranium in 2007. Nicolai Nørregaard founded Kadeau Bornholm in 2007, followed by Kadeau Copenhagen in 2011. in turn, they welcome countless trainees and apprentices. CVs are full of evidence of (sometimes whirlwind) stints in Scandinavian kitchens. After more than two years at Noma, Christian Puglisi opened Relae in 2010 (closing in 2020). Kristian Baumann joined him after working alongside René Redzepi. In 2015, he opened his first restaurant: 108, interrupted by Covid, then a second, where he laid the foundations for what would become Koan. A gourmet table where he marries the elegant simplicity of Scandinavian cuisine with Nordic ingredients and Korean flavors.en, the country where he was born (adopted at a very young age by Danes) and to which he only returned as an adult. my aim is to show that Korea and Denmark can meet," explains Kristian Baumann. And to accept the fact that it's OK, that you don't have to be one or the other. Some of the chefs who have worked here for five or ten years, then return to the USA or Hong Kong, take with them a vision, a sensibility, and combine it with their country of origin. This is how the Nordic movement remains relevant and alive. It's a bit like what we saw with Catalonia and Spain. El Bulli stopped, but gastronomy came out stronger. Because many of the people who were the heart and soul of El Bulli have blossomed. If I can make this restaurant today, it's thanks to the work of those who were there before me. "

Bluffing vegan cuisine

Since 2020, Ark has been showcasing its vegan cuisine. A cuisine far removed from clichés and pastiches, not loudly proclaiming its status, but seducing above all by its refinement. The two co-founders of Ark (now a group with three establishments) are Australian Jason Renwick and Briton Brett Lavender. The latter is not vegan, but he has put his cooking expertise to work on this proposal. A challenge. he says: " Vegan is a subject that many chefs don't want to tackle. When a vegan customer comes into a restaurant, it's often a hassle. With twenty-three years' experience in gourmet restaurants and luxury accommodations, the one thing I'd never done was cook exclusively with plants. I thought it would be interesting. The hardest thing was to make our vegan cooking not taste like vegan cooking. The stereotype being that it's boring and not tasty. As a non-vegan, my aim was to make dishes that I would be happy to eat. Those who love meat, dairy and have already said they would never eat vegan leave the restaurant blown away. "To advance his cuisine, Brett Lavender did not have an R&D team at his disposal, as has long been the case at Noma. From this famous laboratory came, among other things, a book that has become a reference, dealing with a subject that, while not new, has become central to contemporary kitchens: fermentation. as a result of this work, a new entity was born in 2022: Noma Projects, whose mission is to offer the general public some of the products used in the restaurant. Mushroom garum, wild rose vinegar, dashi concentrate, yuzu hot sauce... Twenty or so creations - including seasonal ones - designed to spice up cuisine, especially vegetarian cuisine. rené Redzepi thought that Noma had some fantastic products that could be made accessible to as many people as possible," says Thomas Frebel, Creative Director of Noma Projects. The core of our business is to ensure that they have the same taste, the same quality as those served at Noma, without allergens or additives. Our laboratory is flexible - all the equipment is on wheels - to accommodate the wide variety of products we make. One of our dreams would be to have fermentation "galleries" or workshops all over the world. We're currently in Copenhagen, but what if we decided to reopen a pop-up in Mexico? We might come across an incredible ingredient we'd love to work with. "

Chocolate made from spent grains

The research kitchens of Denmark's top restaurants have given rise to a generation of chef-researchers-entrepreneurs in search of new ingredients, new tastes, and environmental issues. In the Endless Food kitchen, a pastry chef melts what, at first glance, looks like chocolate. Same color, same consistency, same technique. However, THIC (This Isn't Chocolate) is essentially a product made from spent grains, the residues left over from brewing the cereals used to make beer. Endless Food was born of a meeting between Maximillian Bogenmann, head chef and then R&D manager at Amass, where he met Christian Bach, operations manager. The third partner was none other than chef Matthew Orlando, the founder of Amass, a restaurant opened between 2013 and 2022 renowned for its responsible, zero-waste cuisine.

at Amass, we wanted to be as local as possible," explain Maximillian Bogenmann and Christian Bach. We no longer imported lemons or olive oil. But what about coffee and chocolate? We knew that, without them, people might stop coming to the restaurant. We wondered if we could do it ourselves. at this stage, we were in contact with a brewery that was producing massive quantities of barley residue. In most cases, this ends up in a landfill or is used as a source of biofuel. Initially, we didn't just try to make "chocolate", we made a hundred different prototypes using the spent grains. I think the first one that looked like chocolate was, to some extent, an accident. We thought: what happens if we subject this product to the chocolate-making process? Of course, what came out was a long way from where we are today. It tasted like cardboard, but had the color and appearance of chocolate. "From test to test, they eventually came up with a product with a taste, texture and use similar to that of chocolate. To make a lasting impression and remove any ambiguity, they named it " This Isn't Chocolate ". They presented it to chefs, who in turn tested it, and sometimes adopted it. An apprentice at a Copenhagen patisserie even inadvertently used it for pains au chocolat - and no customer complained!

at first, we were targeting restaurants," continue the creators. But where we really understood its potential was in discussions with the big chocolate companies. They told us about their concerns regarding the long-term supply of cocoa. This is a plant whose cultivation has a strong negative impact on the environment. Cocoa prices have soared while production has fallen. The industry's major companies are looking for new solutions. This is undoubtedly why we managed to secure a meeting with the head of one of these companies. He contacted us after a comment we posted on LinkedIn about the fact that, instead of starting to grow cocoa in Southeast Asia, there were other, smarter and more sustainable solutions. "We can imagine that, in the not-too-distant future, chocolate bars could contain some of their product mixed with cocoa, with no impact on taste. It's not a foregone conclusion, but the market for This Isn't Chocolate is certainly large-scale.

This is how, over the last twenty years - a short time in the history of a country - an ecosystem has developed around gastronomy and its products. The Nordicity of the early days and its copies have given way to mixed cuisines and the emergence of food start-ups supported by public and private funds. We're in a country where it's okay to take risks," concludes Noma's Thomas Frebel. As for the quality of life - that famous hygge - is it as good as people think? except for winter, I'd say yes," says Cristina Megias, Production Director of Noma Projects, originally from Spain. It would be impossible for me to go back to my country and do the kind of work I do here in Copenhagen. "