New Nordic nosh

Copenhagen’s Noma may not have won its expected third Michelin star this year but 14 others were still awarded to restaurants in the Danish capital. Richard Orange visited four of them
P91 New Nordic Nosh
1 May 2012

Minutes after I’d polished off the first taster dish of a mini food tour of Copenhagen, I was told I’d come at the wrong time. “We’re really struggling,” grinned Frederik Hvidt, the chef and owner at Marv and Ben, a basement restaurant just across the canal from the Danish Parliament. “Within a month, everything will be here.”

Until late April, the central tenet of “New Nordic cuisine”, the Copenhagen-led movement which insists that everything must be locally sourced and seasonal, is hard to uphold.

The pickled chervil seeds that gave an aniseed bite to the dish of bone marrow on roasted rye bread, foraged last summer near the restaurant’s garden, would soon be out, said Hvidt.

The menu at Relae, in the trendy Norrebro district, was dominated by beetroot and Jerusalem artichokes, among the few root vegetables still at their peak.

And Den Røde Cottage, based in an old forestry officer’s house in an affluent beach-front suburb, had run into a shortage of baby leeks.

“We are looking forward so much to spring,” Anita Klemensen, one of the pair who runs it, told me. “Out here in the forest, you get so many herbs.”

The only good news, it seems, is a sudden glut of Michelin stars.

Noma, the restaurant that pioneered the city’s now world famous “ultra-local” food movement, looked so certain to win its third Michelin star that Time Magazine put its chef, René Redzepi, on the front cover. But it didn’t get it.

And as if to make up for it, the Michelin guide scattered stars onto other Copenhagen restaurants that loosely follow Noma’s New Nordic precepts.

Relae, Grønbech and Churchill, Geranium and Den Røde Cottage all won their first Michelin stars, while Marv and Ben received a Bib Gourmand, which picks out “good food at moderate prices”.

Many Danes were scandalised at the perceived snub to Noma. But for visitors this can only be good news.

Ever since 2010, when Noma succeeded El Bulli to title of ‘the world’s best restaurant’, in Restaurant Magazine’s “50 Best” list, you’ve needed to book three months in advance to get a table, and even then been likely to get beaten to it. Now, you don’t need to.

Christian Puglisi, 29, a Dane of Sicilian origin who opened Relae a year ago, worked as a sous chef at Noma for two and a half years, and also served a year under Ferran Adrià at El Bulli. But his menu starts at only 355 Danish Kroner a head (less than £40), making it one of the cheapest Michelin-starred meals available anywhere.

“I think it’s a paradox that the creative kitchen is always set up in a fine-dining restaurant,” Puglisi argued. “We want to cut everything to the bone and still do what’s important in terms of gastronomy.”

Rasmus Kofoed, who runs Geranium, won last year’s Bocuse D’Or, the annual chef’s competition.

“It’s a very precise style of cooking,” said Will Kingsmith, Kofoed’s Australian sous-chef, as I watched his team deep-frying a thin coil of potato at exactly 180°C. “But it’s Nordic food, preserving things and salting things.” The restaurant has the “fine-dining” atmosphere Puglisi is trying to escape, and the basic menu — eight mains, eight canapés and three appetisers — costs 1148 Danish Krona (about £130) a head.

Grønbech & Churchill is a rare rebel. “We don’t want to do another copy of the Nordic Kitchen,” Rasmus Grønbech, a towering, genial Dane, said. “We are fighting for our gastronomic freedom. Why can’t we use olive oil just because we are in Denmark? But he also wants to move away from heavy, French-influenced cuisine, towards lighter, fresher food, based predominantly on vegetables.

Grønbech’s set menu starts at 500 Danish Kroner (about £60) with a great spot right by the entrance to Copenhagen harbour.

None of them can beat Den Røde Cottage for location. Surrounded by forest a short train ride out of Copenhagen, it seats just 30 people in winter. The atmosphere is civilised, with Danish designer chairs, Royal Copenhagen china, and modern lighting.

“We’re making Nordic food but we have wooden tables and no tablecloths. We’re very relaxed,” said Anita. “The restaurant is so different from a normal Michelin star, we weren’t expecting it.”

But she and her partner Lars Thomsen bring creativity to simple ingredients. In Onions, Onions and Onions, they conjure four intensely different flavours from the humble bulb, serving it puréed, pickled, fried, and turned into a dark, meaty bouillon.

Given what these newly anointed Michelin star restaurants can do at a time of chronic shortage, it seems well worth a return trip in summer to see what they make of abundance.

DETAILS: COPENHAGEN

easyJet flies from Gatwick to Copenhagen, returns from £132, easyjet.com

Where to stay:

Relae, Jaegersborgade 41, restaurant-relae.dk

Den Røde Cottage, Strandvejen 550, Klampenborg, dengulegottage.dk

Geranium, Per Henrik Lings Alle 4, Parken National Stadium, Geranium.dk

Grønbech & Churchill, Esplanden 48, Amaliegade 49, gronbech-churchill.dk

Marv and Ben, Snaregade 4, marvogben.dk

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