Salvador deli? Meet the Danish chef who turns fine dining into art

[Celerity]

Rasmus Munk’s creations are more Turner prize than JMW Turner — punters at his Alchemist restaurant are treated to a six-hour immersive experience

https://www.thetimes.com/world/europe/article/alchemist-copenhagen-food-art-denmark-bnrmsgm9f

https://archive.li/iXDpH


“Impressions” at Alchemist — named, clockwise from left, Andy Warhol, Tongue Kiss and Burnout Chicken
PHOTO SREN GAMMELMARK

https://alchemist.dk/

Every so often a chef comes along who bowls over their contemporaries by mastering the art of plating. If we eat with our eyes, they give us a bellyful. Gordon Ramsay famously credited his mentor, Marco Pierre White, as the culinary artist of the modern age when they manned the burners at White’s restaurant, Harvey’s. “He put food on a plate like no other,” Ramsay recalled. White, though, was insistent: “Mother Nature is the artist, we’re just the cooks.”

The internationally acclaimed cooks of Copenhagen might disagree. The Danish city that has become a site of pilgrimage for foodies is now spearheading a movement to recognise food as art. Leading the charge is Rasmus Munk, 34, whose two Michelin-starred restaurant, Alchemist, can be found in a former Royal Danish Theatre set-building workshop. The Danish culture minister, Jacob Engel-Schmidt, addressed the country’s top chefs at the restaurant last month.


Rasmus Munk
MATHIAS EIS

“Food does what art has done at its very best — it bypasses reason and speaks directly to the senses,” Engel-Schmidt said. “A dish can hold memory, emotion and identity within it as well. Like art, food bypasses rational thought and communicates through the senses making a universal language through emotion and memory. Gastronomy belongs in the same conversation as art.” While cooking has been awarded Unesco cultural heritage status in the likes of Japan and Italy, Denmark hopes to be the first nation to legally classify cooking on the same level as painting and ballet. A vote in parliament would be needed to pass this successfully.





When moving Alchemist to its present location, in an old industrial harbour, in 2019, Munk sketched his own designs for five different rooms to welcome a maximum of 52 guests, four nights a week. If Munk is an artist, he is probably a bit of a Manet — his menu’s 50 courses are described as “impressions”. These are prepared across four kitchens and delivered by 115 members of staff throughout five “acts”, followed by an “epilogue”. These are printed and delivered, much like a theatre programme, at the end of the immersive experience, which lasts at least six hours. Munk is no shrinking violet when it comes to his goals. “Since the start of Alchemist, my biggest ambition has been to change the world through food,” he told The Times.

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Munk said he had taken two million requests for bookings at Alchemist
SOREN GAMMELMARK


One of the dishes at Kadeau


A work by the goldsmith Nicolai Appel, with food by Brian Mark Hansen

[niyad]

1. Thank you so much. I was not aware of the UNESCO Heritage status,

nor of Denmark's efforts.

[Celerity]

2. yw niyad!