There is no conflict between a better meal and a better world.
— Rene Redzepi
Chefs have a new opportunity - and perhaps even an obligation - to inform the public about what is good to eat, and why.
Scandinavian-Danish cuisine was something quite rustic, mostly known for pastries and smorgasbord cuisine, which in itself has become a joke.
I can tell you one of the most surprising ingredients I've ever found. Perhaps five years ago on a beach I saw this herb that looked exactly like chives. I put it in my mouth and started chewing and, surprise, it tasted exactly like coriander.
I still cook at home. A lot of chefs I think don't cook at home. But I still do, I love cooking at home, I love having friends.
I think that in our part of the world, Scandinavia, we are one of the pioneers of showing that gastronomy can be something - high gastronomy can be something very, very present and doesn't have to involve, you know, what is perceived as the normal luxury items that belong in a high gastronomy restaurant.
I know every movement of my kitchen.
I started my cooking 'career' aged 15, almost 20 years ago. At the time it was quite a shock suddenly working 75 to 80 hours a week, without time to play football or other sports.
Fifteen years ago, France was the promised land of cooking. So I looked at a map, found five restaurants and faxed them to ask for a job. Within five minutes, I got a reply from the then three- star Le Jardin des Sens in Montpellier.
The restaurant industry is brutal.
I can't crack jokes because I don't have any.
When you start at catering college, nobody prepares you for a book tour or public speaking.
When I turned 15, I left school having failed to make the minimum grade. With little direction I enlisted at the local culinary school. Here the academic demands were less rigorous.
Learning about issues such as sustainability and locavorism are things that you need to have as part of you as a chef because it will make you cook more delicious food.
In my home I tend to eat a very simple version of what we cook at the restaurant, which is vegetable-oriented, with a little bit of fish and very little meat. For instance, a dish in my home could be steamed spinach with spruce, where I take a spruce branch and put it in the pot and that infuses into the spinach.
Take a trip to the forest and experience the greatness of getting on your knees and picking your own food and going home... and eating it.
When people are grownups they're grown ups. They make their own decisions you know.
A gastronomical supermeal didn't necessarily have to involve the things I had brought from other top kitchens.
If you see someone in the kitchen that has good hands and a quick brain, then you need that person to be in the front of everything.
Fine dining is an occasional treat for most people.
I never cooked at home - my father was the chef.
When you get close to the raw materials and taste them at the moment they let go of the soil, you learn to respect them.
I only have the restaurant. If I do other things, it's only to do with the restaurant.
Close interaction with farmers and scientists can expose the chef to new flavours that can be used to delight diners.
Appetite as it relates to the human being, the person. How do you find appetite for what you do? How do you relate to appetite? How do you get appetite, not only for a meal but also to do the work you do?
I would love to eat a really great burger, but it doesn't exist in our part of the world.
My last meal on Earth, I would love it to be a bowl of blueberries with cold cream.
I've never had anything but the freedom to do what I wanted just as long as it made me happy.
I had turned down other head chef jobs. I didn't want to take over someone else's cuisine. I wanted to start from scratch.
I'm a bit of a glutton - I eat too much of all that is good to eat.
People will travel anywhere for good food - it's crazy.
If you see how a plant grows and you taste it in situ you have a perfect example of how it should taste on the plate.
All of the people who work in the kitchen with me go out into the forests and on to the beach. It's a part of their job. If you work with me you will often be starting your day in the forest or on the shore because I believe foraging will shape you as a chef.
There's no media training. In cooking school, there's not even manager training. You learn the fundamentals of cooking. Everything else is learning by doing.
