With off-the-wall dishes like butterfly wings or simple local products, restaurants in Denmark, the recent darling of the culinary world, are outdoing each other to emulate Noma, a soon-shuttering three-starred eatery.
Tucked away at the far end of an industrial zone in an old shipyard, Alchemist is turning food into gold, offering its fortunate-enough visitors — the single set menu costs 4,900 kroner ($707) — a “holistic experience” consisting of 50 “impressions”.
“The ambition is to change the world through gastronomy and try to make a very immersive experience (by) bringing different artistic fields into the culinary world,” says Alchemist’s 32-year-old chef, Rasmus Munk.
And that experience is drawing crowds. Around 10,000 people are usually on the waiting list at Alchemist, which serves 52 people a day.
Behind a heavy bronze door, diners are plunged into an almost mystical ambiance, including music and light effects and a contemporary dance performance.
A first room is reserved for the bite-size amuse-bouches.
Guests then head into “the dome” for the rest of the meal, enjoyed under a cupola screening colourful scenes of ocean life ravaged by plastic pollution, followed by anxiety-inducing news reports.
For one dish, caviar is placed in the pupil of a fake eyeball made from dried cod broth. Here, titillating diners’ minds is almost more important than teasing their tastebuds.
“My favourite part is when people begin to debate and create some interaction with the food and experiences,” says Munk, whose establishment has two Michelin stars.
Noma, ranked the best restaurant in the world several times, announced in January that it would close for good at the end of 2024 to reinvent itself as a food laboratory.
But Denmark has a long line of restaurants that continue to attract foodie tourists.
On Monday, five new eateries were awarded their first Michelin stars.
– Stars in an old asylum –
A hundred kilometres (62 miles) west of Copenhagen, diners can have a completely different gastronomic experience at Mota.
Located in a former psychiatric hospital, the restaurant is quiet, simple and bucolic, and gives pride of place to local products.
But despite the tranquil feel, Mota, recently opened by another star of Danish cuisine Claus Henriksen, is “a place where you’re allowed to do a lot of crazy things”.
Surrounded by an abundant flora and fauna offering up mushrooms, asparagus, algae and hake, Henriksen picks what he can from his nearby surroundings to compose his menus.
“Twenty years ago we did a lot of classic French, Italian cooking… We forgot our own products,” says the 42-year-old chef.
Even the wine menu features local bottles, which are gaining renown amid Europe’s warming climate.
The focus on local Nordic flavours and ethical cuisine — a movement started by Noma founder Rene Redzepi — has enabled restaurateurs to reinvent Scandinavian cooking, and reap the financial benefits.
