New Nordic Cuisine

Inspired by the culinary revolution in Spain and the Italian Slow Food movement, top Nordic chefs, Nordic Ministers of Food and key actors within the gastronomic field are strieving to develop a vital and attractive New Nordic Cuisine.

By Kristian Walby

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Focus is on the various potentials in the Nordic raw produce and how to bring new life to the taste, the healthiness and the awareness of its potential. The loyalty to the authentic Nordic culinary treasures is expressed in a Manifesto for the New Nordic Kitchen (see excerpt below).

Claus Meyer, Danish gastronomic entrepreneur and culinary ideologist, has been a key force behind the initiative.

- We have lost knowledge and awareness of our regional cuisine and are no longer certain how to define tasteful Nordic food, Meyer says in a press release.

- There seems to be an overflow of splendid Nordic raw produce with the same gastronomic qualities as delicacies from the Mediterranean cuisine. They however do not seem to gain the same status in our culture and are therefore not priced at nearly the same level. 50 different wild berries grow in Finnish forests, but when were they ever offered for sale in Denmark? The Nordic Gene Bank has registered more the 130 different kinds of horseradish, all with different taste, but is it the right one that we grow?

Meyer runs, together with partner and head chef Rene Redzepi restaurant “noma” (short for “Nordisk Mat” meaning Nordic Food) in Copenhagen. In spring 2007 noma was awarded two stars in the Michelin Guide – only 3,5 years after opening. The same month noma is ranked as "World's best Restaurant" in both 2010 and 2011.
Meyer has hosted more than 300 tv shows in Denmark and will be featured on New Scandinavian Cooking with a full 13-epsiode season during 2007.

Read more about Claus Meyer

The purposes of the New Nordic Kitchen

To express the purity, freshness, simplicity and ethics that we would like to associate with our region.

To reflect the different seasons in the meals.

To base cooking on raw materials which characteristics are especially excellent in our climate, landscape and waters.

To combine the demand for good taste with modern knowledge about health and well-being.

To promote the Nordic products and the variety of Nordic producers – and to disseminate the knowledge of the cultures behind them.

To promote the welfare of the animals and a sound production in the sea and in the cultivated as well as wild landscapes.

To develop new possible applications of traditional Nordic food products.

To combine the best Nordic cooking procedures and culinary traditions with impulses from outside.

To combine local self-sufficiency with regional exchange of high-quality goods.

To cooperate with representatives of consumers, other cooking craftsmen, agriculture, fishing industry, food industry, retail and wholesale industry, researchers, teachers, politicians and authorities on this joint project to the benefit and advantage of all in the Nordic countries.

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