Revolution in Denmark

The gastronomy bombshell known as Noma has influenced a whole generation of restaurateurs and sommeliers, leading to an extraordinary burst of creativity, finds Elsebeth Lohfert.

Søren Ledet
Søren Ledet

Gastronomy in Denmark took its first steps to the stars in the mid 1970s when  a Danish businessman began importing French chefs. Today, chefs are celebrities featured in lifestyle magazines and newspapers, with their own TV programs and competitions. This has had the positive effect of attracting talented males to gastronomy (but not women – ambitious Danish girls study medicine). The energy, drive and creativity you find today in Danish gastronomy is due to this young generation of dedicated personalities for whom excellence and nothing less is the goal.
 

Starry offerings

In the green oasis of the Fælledparken – the largest park in Copenhagen, where cattle once roamed and executions were held – is the stadium where the Danish National Soccer team plays. Here you can also find Denmark’s first three-star restaurant.  

Enter the office block and take the elevator to the eighth floor, and the door opens to the mecca called Geranium: Modern design is elegantly juxtaposed with a view across the Copenhagen skyline, and the Swedish coast across the belt. Here you’ll find Søren Ledet, the wine director, general manager and co-owner of Geranium. Before he and Rasmus Kofoed opened what’s now known as ‘the first Geranium’ in 2007, he worked as assistant head chef at Noma and Hotel D’Angleterre.  

At the initial Geranium situated in the Kings Garden, both partners worked as the chef, and decided they would work two weeks each in the restaurant and then the kitchen.  Søren Ledet volunteered to take the first two weeks in the restaurant – and never returned to the kitchen. “I didn’t know what the front-of-house staff did, but I was aware their personalities could have a great impact on the guest experience,” he says. “There was a whole new world for me to master and I began studying both the wine and all the serving aspects.” Ledet undertook the Danish sommelier qualification offered by the Court of Master Sommeliers, and in 2012 won the European Coupe George Baptiste competition, and came second in the World Championship.

From the beginning, Ledet was only interested in biodynamic and vin nature wines, and put together a varied list. But guests kept asking: why don’t you have this or this or this? “We had, for instance, many American guests, so I started buying some of the top Napa Valley wines, thinking that when they saw something they knew, they would have more confidence in the many unknown wines I had on my list.”

This became a success and Ledet gradually expanded to more classic wines.

Today, Ledet still serves biodynamic wines, but the wine list is also supplied with top names from Italy, Spain, France, Australia and the US, thanks to a new investor, Lars Seier Christensen. As for what’s next: “South Africa, Hungary, Slovenia and Georgia,” says Ledet. “Rasmus and I look each other in the eyes – and we are never 100% satisfied. There is always something to do better. Three stars put you under an obligation.” But he says they don’t work for the three stars, but for the joy of transporting guests somewhere else for a while. 

Going bistro

Bistro owner Christian Thorsholt Jacobsen was born in 1986 to parents who were both chefs, and grew up north of Copenhagen. Although his parents weren’t keen for him to follow in their steps, the restaurant world became his as well. Only for him it was about the wine: “Wine is both culture and facts, not only part of the culture but the very essence of the culture in the winegrowing countries,” as he puts it. 

Restaurant Anarki is today his daily playground and its name – anarchy – is a conscious choice reflecting his approach: Wine has no limits. There are no rules, no dogmas. Not a no to vin nature, not a no to classic wine, and not a pros and cons warfare. “You are blinkered if you focus on just one side. You can find good wine all over the world, you just have to go and find it.” And that’s what he does: he spends a lot of time travelling to find wine for his restaurant.

Previously, he worked in Copenhagen, Hamburg, and in London, for Copenhagen Concepts, the parent company behind the restaurants Mash, Le Sommelier, Umami and Umamigo. Despite a busy schedule as operations manager and head sommelier, he qualified for national and international competitions, winning the Danish Sommelier Championship in 2013 and then 2015, The Nordic in 2011 and, earlier this year, he came sixth in the Best Sommelier of the World competition.  “You can know everything about wine, but what’s most important is that you can use it in a dialogue with your guests,“ says Jacobsen. “In the 80s and 90s, people couldn’t get enough of material goods. Today, that has changed. There are other priorities, like presence and togetherness – that’s why the experience industry is thriving and the fashion industry declining.”

He says that the middle segment is strong and growing in Copenhagen, reflecting a more Mediterranean lifestyle. “It’s at the small bistros and brasseries you get the best food and the best wine buys. The food is honest and good, more than it’s presentable. It’s here talk and conversation thrives.”  And it seems there’s even more to come: “It’s like a long wave of focus on quality, a Zeitgeist to do your outmost.

Being proud of what’s going on in Copenhagen and being part of it.”

Wine menu pioneer

Christian Aarø is president of the Danish Sommelier Society, as well as being the owner of the two-star restaurant AOC and No.2, an informal version of AOC. He has been in the trade since 1989 and is a three-time Danish Champion and one-time Nordic Champion.

In 2000 he worked as a sommelier at the restaurant called Restaurationen, one of the early pioneers in the gastronomy movement. Here it’s said he made history by putting together a menu based solely on wines from the Loire Valley, which turned out to be the commercial beginnings of the now strong vin nature movement in Copenhagen.

The TV star

Another pioneer is Tim Vollerslev, engaged in both national and international sommelier education. After being a semi-finalist in the Asi Best Sommelier of the World competition in 1983, he stopped competing and began his long career as a judge and jury member of European and Nordic competitions. In 1989, Vollerslev co-founded The Danish Sommelier Association, at a time where hardly anyone knew the word ‘sommelier.’ “The change in Denmark has been amazing,” he says. “Twenty years ago when I began presenting myself as a sommelier, people laughed and said I was a very pale Somalian.

And the argument for drinking a wine was ‘it’s good because it’s popular’. Now you get an explanation and the sommeliers are respected and well paid.”

In 1998, Vollerslev became a star on television, talking about wine on Good Morning Denmark. Today he remains an active jury member and a wine writer for the newspaper BT.

The political statement

Bo Bratlann became, at age 25, a server in a restaurant in the harbor of the fashionable suburb of Rungsted, north of Copenhagen. He was intrigued by the wines, and began taking sommelier education, attending tastings while at the same time upgrading himself by moving to the one-star Michelin Restaurant Formel B. A classically French- oriented kitchen with an equally classical wine list, he says: “Ten years ago, fine dining was almost always French.” 

This was not the case at Noma. Bratlann applied for a job to get to know their philosophy and soon found the vin nature and biodynamic wines that Noma serves much more to his liking. To learn more, he went to Piedmont in 2011 to work with biodynamic producer Cascina degli Ulivi. “My private rebellion,” he says, when asked why he went to Italy and not to France.

Then American chef Matt Orlando decided to leave Noma to start his own restaurant and he asked Bratlann, now returned from Italy, if he would be the head sommelier and restaurant manager. Amass was the name of the new restaurant they opened in July 2013, to instant acclaim. Reports at the time said that Amass received “the greatest international interest in a new Danish restaurant ever”. All of this was due to Orlando’s previous achievements not only at Noma, but also at Le Bernardin, Per Se and The Fat Duck.  

Amass is situated at the hip Refshaleøen, originally an island, and an industrial site in the harbor of Copenhagen. For more than a 100 years it was home to the shipyard Burmeister & Wain, closed in 1996 after it went bankrupt. The abandoned buildings are now used for all kinds of creative endeavours, with Amass among them, on 736 square metres of what used to be a tool depot for the shipyard workers. 

It’s here that Bratlann creates his wine menus for his organic-certified restaurant. He doesn’t subscribe to “rules or dogmas. You have to be loyal to the dish and we seldom pair with other than wine. If we do it will be saké or cider. Sometimes they have a dish that’s only on the menu for two days – I like that, it makes it all more exciting.” He says it’s even better when they have met the wine producers and know them well enough that they can get creative. “In Copenhagen we have a lot of fantastic wine importers. There is such a great selection of biological, biodynamic and vin nature wines with a wine style that goes well with our food – they have a different acidity, are more alive.” Not only that, but the wine list only features European producers. “It’s a question of CO2. If I had a restaurant in Australia I would not buy European wines. It’s a political decision. We do what we believe in – others can do what they want.” 

Bratlann continues: “The culinary scene has exploded. There is an incredible lot of talent and you get so much value for your money at the moment in Copenhagen.” He explains that Noma has acted as a magnet for international talent, which has opened up new possibilities for the city. Many of those drawn to Noma remain in Copenhagen and go on to develop new food venues and new philosophies. “And there is a friendly professional atmosphere, with everybody wishing each other well for the common good.”

 

 

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