Everybody talks about Nordic cuisine, but why not make your experience of the sought-after kitchen a bit more local? At Michelin restaurant Kadeau, they present Nordic cuisine with a special focus on the terroir of Bornholm. The menu is inspired by the sunshine island’s specialities, centred around conserved summer ingredients.
The restaurant pretty much oozes Bornholm. The colourful plates are from a local pottery called Lov i Listed, the decorations – both in the restaurant and on the plates – are inspired by the terroir, and the toilets play natural sounds from the island.
Peek-a-boo appetisers
Dining at Kadeau can be quite a peek-a-boo experience. This is however, in my opinion, a big part of its charm. We started off by getting eight different appetisers. The first one was cleverly placed – and almost hidden – in a box of wood shavings, but there in the middle we found two little divine pieces of Jerusalem artichoke with chanterelles and sea urchin emulsion. Just one bite, but a real ‘cadeau’ for your tastebuds.
I could write page after page about every single one of the appetisers as they were all unique, tasteful and quirky in their own charming way. But given my constraints, I can only mention the two that impressed us the most.
Firstly, the crispy sour dough and lichen, which were placed on bark and branches – another truly great disappearing act. The crispy dough not only looked, but also tasted incredible.
And the duck hearts with chive flowers and hay. They were served in a bowl with junipers, placed on sticks ready to dip in a cress emulsion on the side. What a pity that the hearts were too small and the cress emulsion too delicious.
(Photo: Marie Louise Munkegaard)
Wine with a story
After the appetisers and almost an hour’s dining, one of our attending waiters asked if we were ready for everything to really kick off? A bit overwhelmed, we nodded, and so our eight-course Bornholmer feast began.
The menu was accompanied by specifically chosen European wines. The wine philosophy at Kadeau is “energy and elegance over power and muscle”, something that works well with the gentle, but expansive and often surprising flavours on the plate. Kadeau prefers wine that tells a story, like for instance Yoyo’s red wine KM31, which is named after the distance to the winemaker’s love – and who doesn’t like a nice side-dish of romance?
(Photo: Marie Louise Munkegaard)
Dining in sunshine
The courses more than lived up to the appetisers. From a lovely squid and oyster inside a pickled red onion with parsley and wild herbs to fermented asparagus with woodruff and sheep’s milk, to the chicken feet with leeks, gooseberry juice and a burned butter sauce. It was a true food journey, if there ever was one. And it all ended with two desserts of blackcurrant and new rhubarb, before we had coffee and sweets of course.
At Kadeau you don’t only get some of the best food Copenhagen has to offer, you also get a piece of that famous island sunshine. It might be far from Bornholm in miles, but it’s very close at heart.
KADEAU
Wildersgade 10, Cph K; open Tue-Sat 18:00-24:00, Thu-Sat 12:00-13:30; 3395 0799, kbh@kadeau.dk, kadeau.dk
