IF YOU HAD TO wager a guess as to how many Michelin stars that the city of Copenhagen has, what would you say? Similar enough figure to Dublin’s five?
Actually, the Danish capital has an astounding 19 Michelin stars, awarded to 15 restaurants. It’s a city in which restaurants like Noma are creating seasonal, ‘super-focused’ menus that only include say fish, or vegetables. And Kevin Powell is loving it.
The self-styled food trailblazer (the mind behind Gruel Guerilla and some of Ireland’s most exciting restaurants including Dublin 8 spot Meet Me In The Morning), is one of four Irish personalities taking part in The Danish Experiment.
The web series created by Carlsberg will see Kevin, street artist Maser, stylist Jo Linehan and Kodaline bassist Jay Boland discover what they can learn from Copenhagen to take to their creative careers back home. It will follow a group as they explore the Danish way of living, learning what makes them so different to their European counterparts.
They’ll travel to Copenhagen for four days and be paired with a local creative, exploring how the Danes could influence their approach to interior design, art, music and food.
Here he explains which Danish food trends we can expect to start seeing on our menus, and of course, in our Instagram feeds.
1. A reinvention of your favourite restaurants
You may have heard of Copenhagen’s restaurant Noma, a mecca for foodies Europe-wide. What makes it so interesting is it’s reinvention, says Kevinl: “Now it’s Noma 2.0 – their new version, which they just reopened – they moved and built a whole new place. They closed the old Noma and now that’s a place called 108.”
And some of the talent inspires new restaurants explains Kevin: “Whenever I visit a city my favourite thing to do is to find out where I’ll have my first breakfast. There’s a place called Atelier September which is owned by ex-Noma staff guys that I can’t wait to try.” We can already see this in Dublin’s brunch scene venturing into evening offerings.
2. A focus on local ingredients
Places like Noma create season-specific menus based on just fish or just vegetables. “That’s my favourite thing about the way Danes cook, they just do what they want with local food and that’s what I’m into here in Ireland” says Kevin. In fact, we’ve already seen the impact of that on the Irish restaurant scene:
“I think the Irish restaurant scene has been influenced by Scandinavian eating. We have lots of similarities in what we grow and what we produce and stuff like that, and I think provenance is becoming a big thing for Irish people.”
3. An influx of tasty street food
With the openings of places like Eatyard, street food in Dublin is echoing the huge street food scene in Copenhagen, but our strict restrictions are keeping it from really getting to their level, explains Kevin:
“Even Temple Bar Food Market go through this rigmarole each month where they have to apply for permission. I think we could have amazing street food in our future – there are so many people doing such interesting things so once they get out and about to do it, it’s going to be great.”
But what does Kevin recommend ordering at Copenhagen’s street food markets? “Their most popular street food is their hot dogs so go for one with a little crispy onion and a few gherkins.” We can easily get onboard with that…
4. Seafood getting a whole lot more popular
“The Danes focus on their coasts a lot and on their fish. As an island, we’ve always been a bit funny about fish but we’ve got all this amazing sea around us and seaweed and stuff like that” shares Kevin.
“I think Danes’ love of coastal living could remind Irish people that fish isn’t only for dinner on a Friday”
5. The rise in pickled and fermented foods (bear with us)
Kevin will be packing something kind of unusual in his suitcase before he hits Copenhagen: “I’m bringing like things that I’ve foraged from Dublin City and fermented over the last two years.” He hopes that his creation will reflect the way that “Danes take old styles of cooking and modernise them.”
You might not love the idea of something like pickled fish, but Kevin urges you to give it a try: “I love pickled herring and they do amazing pickled herring but that will kind of split opinions. For me, it’s amazing and the different flavours they can get into the fish is just amazing, you have to try it and you have to risk it.”
6. The importance of mate dinner dates
It’s not just about being adventurous with your food choices, it’s also about eating with the right people. “I think we can learn from the fact they respect what they eat and they’re really interested in it. They’ve this real good habit of eating as a family.”
“People eat out together, they’re very social people when it comes to food, they love organising to meet up, they take the time to eat together which I love.” Sure, we’ll take any excuse to plan a fancy dinner with the gals.
Want to find out what makes Denmark one of the happiest places in the world? Keep an eye out for the first episode of The Danish Experiment, which will be unveiled on TheJournal on June 14th. Follow Carlsberg Ireland on Facebook and Instagram to tune in to the series and for behind-the-scenes edits . Enjoy Carlsberg sensibly, visit drinkaware.ie.
