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There’smore toDanish cooking than just that place
beginningwith ‘N’, as Rosie Birkett discovers thismonth
A LOTONHER PLATE
There’s No(ma)
limits
they have a rainbowof fresh produce
just outside their kitchens.
Another natural-living chef, Jonas
Mikkelsen, at Hotel Frederiksminde
in the fjord town of Præstø, just
walks into the forests surrounding
his plush restaurant to find an array
of fresh, wild herbs ripe for the
picking. He uses the likes of sorrel,
woodruff and chickweed to flavour
his dishes: poached quail’s egg in a
broth of smoked bone marrowwith
crispy chicken skin is typical fare.
In the northwest of the country,
ex-Noma chef Claus Henriksen is
similarly focused on working from
the land. At DragsholmCastle
(
dragsholm-slot.dk
), his 13th-century
property, he sources exceptional
ingredients from suppliers in the
nearby Lammefjorden, reclaimed
land from a former body of water
with incredibly rich, fertile soil that
makes for enormous vegetables.
If you think the
Danish food
revolution
starts and ends
in the capital
city, you’ll be
missing out
IF I HAD A EURO
for every
time I’ve read (or written) about the
Danish capital’s newfound gastro-
hub status, I’d be booking myself in
for lunch at Noma, the city’s most
famous foodie venue, pronto – or
at least in October, when the next
tables become available. Because
that, my friends, is the catch-22
with these epoch-defining eateries.
As soon as they become famous,
you’d be hard pressed to actually
get a seat.
Fortunately, there’s an exciting
foodmovement that’s spreading its
wings way beyond the 42 berths at
the world’s best restaurant – all the
way into the Danish countryside.
At KnuthenlundOrganic Farm
(
knuthenlund.dk
), in Stokkemarke
in the south of the country, owner
and fourth-generation farmer
Susanne Hovmand-Simonsen
produces delicious, award-winning
sheep and goat’smilk cheeses,
yoghurts, honeys and rare-breed
pork, as a reaction against Denmark’s
heavily industrialised pork and
agricultural manufacturing. Even
her approach to keeping the bad
bugs off her crops is natural, putting
“hunter insects”, like spiders and
beetles, in her fields as a pesticide.
“I’mvery inspired by the New
Nordic kitchen and thewhole
philosophy of workingwith the
terroir,” Susanne tellsme. However,
unlike the denizens at Noma,
Denmark’s rural chefs don’t need to
wait for deliveries fromsuppliers –
Quite simply put, if you think
the Danish food revolution starts
and ends in the capital city, you’ll
be missing out. This is one of the
reasons why British-expat chef
Paul Cunningham has actually
chosen to relocate his kitchen from
the bright lights of Copenhagen’s
Tivoli Gardens to the rural, west
Denmark inn Henne Kirkeby Kro
(
hennekirkebykro.dk
), where
he has a 4,000m
2
garden at his
disposal.
So, when you plan your next
visit to Copenhagen, be sure to
pack your compass and head into
the wilds...
You won’t be
disappointed –
and you just
may get
a table
too.