Copenhagen Rick Stein's Long Weekends

A change is as good as a rest, they say.

So a long weekend not too far away

and not obvious like Paris or Rome,

a place where I can take in some local history,

a bit of culture,

but of course it's the food that will always be the key.

So if you like what the experts say is the best food in the world

or you're partial to a fishy open sandwich

followed by a rollercoaster ride, then this could be for you.

# Hey, Rick, where are we going this weekend?

Copenhagen!

# Are we flying a few hours away

# For some delicious food they say

# So, Rick, make the booking

# And let's get cooking

# And get those taste buds going this weekend. #

Well, I'm very pleased to be back in Copenhagen.

I've only been here once before, about 12 years ago.

I don't actually remember the food as being particularly good then,

apart from, I think it was called Smorrebrod, something like that.

These big, sort of, open sandwiches that were so colourful.

-Smorgasbord?

-Not smorgasbord! Smorrebrod.

Something like that. I might not have it quite right.

But I just thought they were wonderful.

But then, over the years, I've been reading about new Nordic cuisine,

about how they're very, very keen just to give you dishes

made from local ingredients

and they don't like olive oil, they don't like tomatoes,

anything that doesn't come from Denmark.

But also I've been reading about the Danes

and apparently they're about the happiest people on Earth.

But just at the moment, just out of the airport, I'd quite like a beer.

The Danes make very good beer.

-Hello.

-Hello.

-Welcome on board.

-Rick, my name is. It's nice to meet you.

-Hi, Rick.

-Please come inside.

-This looks fun.

This looks really nice.

That's fabulous.

I can feel I'm at sea. I'll sleep well with that.

What a beautiful view.

Look at that building over there. That's fantastic.

Like medieval Copenhagen.

Something new here, something Victorian there.

What a lovely room, what a lovely view.

Wonderful, wonderful, Copenhagen - salty old queen of the sea.

'Breakfast on the top deck

'more or less right slam in the middle of the city.

'OK, it comes out of a machine and it's not brilliant

'but look where we are!'

I have to say I'm very happy to be here.

This is the first time I've arrived on one of my weekends away

and it hasn't actually been raining, or, more usually, snowing.

'Cycling is a great thing to do.

'I haven't done it for about, well, going on about 50 years.

'Memories of distant summers came flooding back.

'Everyone who comes here comes to see the Little Mermaid

'and so very little she is.

'And Hans Christian Andersen wove her into the tragic tale

'of a young princess of the sea who sacrificed her true identity

'to become human.

Once upon a time this was a Viking fishing village,

'before it became a great sea port.

'From my limited experience,

'Copenhagen is an extremely cool place.

'You can sense that everywhere you go,

'in the bars and restaurants, in the markets and around the harbour.

'It seems stuffed with good, convivial people,

'friendly and agreeable all the time.

'It's as if they've come from the Nice People Department

'at central casting.'

I like it here, I really do.

I was trying to think what it is I like about Copenhagen.

I think, first of all, there's no high-rise buildings.

I love places like New York but you almost get a sense of panic

in a big city with big buildings.

And the other thing I like about it is it's quiet.

You can hear yourself think, you know?

And I think the reason for that is that half,

well over half the transport in Copenhagen is by bike.

And the nice thing about the bikes is they're not that special.

They're just very ordinary bikes.

If you said to someone from here, "What sort of bike have you got?",

they'd say, "I don't know, it's just a bike."

It's not like back in the UK where you think,

"How many gears have you got? Have you got 160 or 200?"

And also the ridiculous clothes that people wear back home.

You know, that Lycra.

I couldn't be seen dead at my age in Lycra,

especially with the padded bottoms. That's the bit I really hate.

But here people just wear what they need to go to work.

The other thing I've noted is that everybody looks healthy.

They must be having a good diet. They must be eating plenty of fish.

'I know that Copenhagen has a new cuisine

'but I wanted to touch base with its traditional gastronomic roots.

'And that is the open sandwich on rye bread

'and this is the oldest place in town to get it.

'Schonnemann.'

'Famous for its smorrebrod.'

Fabulous.

This is...

the traditional smorrebrod

but it could be different kind of toppings.

I came here to Copenhagen 12 years ago

and I just remember this above everything else

as being really special.

I found a lot of the food then was very similar to British food.

A lot of roast meat and lots of vegetables.

But this was your little jewel -

the jewel in the Danish crown was these.

Smorrebrod.

Smorrebrod. Smorrebrod.

It's trying to get that last 'd'. Do it again.

Smorrebrod.

Smorrebrod.

Exactly!

'Now this is why I like it so much. It's the rye bread.

'The black bread covered with lard

'and then herrings

'and then apples, celery,

'onions and cream.

'Probably sour cream.

'Capers, nasturtium leaves and chervil

'and probably a few other bits of leaves in there as well.'

Erm...

Utterly delicious. Very...

..very fresh.

It tastes healthy and good for you.

You have the sweetness, the sourness, the...the bitterness.

Everything which you need to have a full dish.

-And then you need to have schnapps.

-As well?

Schnapps is very good.

'Oh, dear. I was hoping she wouldn't say that

'but it would be very rude not to.'

One complements the other.

I could become quite addicted.

Oh, yeah.

Mm.

Yes. Lusciousness, that's the thing.

'Most people who come here for a long weekend

'come to try the new Nordic cuisine.

'It's taken the world by storm.

'Yes, it's moss and bugs, flowers and bark,

'berries and leaves,

'and there's no chunky chef's knives or big ladles...

'..but tweezers.'

This is arguably the most famous restaurant in the world, Noma.

It's in a really nice old warehouse that used to be filled with

salted herrings, whale oil and seal skins from trade with Greenland.

And the reason it's the most famous is because really Noma

was the restaurant that put new Nordic cuisine on the map.

And what is new Nordic cuisine?

Well, it's an almost puritanical belief in local ingredients.

You can't even use lemon juice.

And when I first heard about it, I thought this was ridiculous.

And indeed I was at the Restaurant Magazine Awards in 2010

when Noma was recognised as the best restaurant in the world.

At the time, even, I thought, this is ridiculous,

but, gradually, it's grown on me.

Gradually, this idea of sticking to what is local

has become more and more meaningful, even to an old bloke like me.

Now, then, if you're asking,

yes, I'm here and there's Noma, but why aren't you eating there,

I have to say to you,

it's because somebody forgot to get me a reservation and I can't get in!

'So, there's a thousand people at any given time

'clambering to get in here,

'including me, it seems.

'Well, such is life.

'But success breeds success

'and in this place there are many restaurants

'who have embraced the whole concept of new Nordic cuisine

'and those in the know say that Geranium is the place to go.

'It's on the top floor of Copenhagen's football stadium

'and it's got gold, silver and bronze Paul Bocuse statues,

'as well as being the only three-star Michelin restaurant

'in the whole of the country.

Like all these new Nordic cooks,

they get their inspiration from what surrounds them.

Here, it's a tree,

a horse chestnut, right outside the kitchen window.

And they make it into a dessert, using dried prune puree.

and woodruff flowers.

So new Nordic.

So Copenhagen.

The head chef and inspiration behind the restaurant, is Rasmus Kofoed.

Hello, Welcome, Rick, to Geranium kitchen.

Very, very honoured to be here, I must say.

Yeah, no, it's a pleasure to have you.

I'm just really interested, because the kitchen,

or part of the kitchen, is right out here with the customers.

-Yeah.

-That's quite unusual.

We can be closer to the guests, and look them in the eyes.

I think it's important, it's important for me

when I go out and eat that I can see the people that are cooking for me,

because it comes from the heart, and that's important, I think.

I mean, here we serve about 20 servings during the night.

-We just have that menu.

-Gosh, how lovely.

Just think of that, 20 servings.

-You start a service and you haven't got 237 to do, you've got 20.

-Yeah.

-So you can really concentrate.

-Yeah.

But I think that's what is so special about your style

of cooking, really, isn't it? The attention to detail.

For me, it's not a job.

I mean, I don't count the hours. For me, it's a way of living.

And I love this world of gastronomy, with so many layers.

-Well, can we see something?

-Yes.

We start with this one,

-which is inspiration from my childhood.

-Famous.

-So...

-Signature, almost?

Yeah, it's one of my signature dishes, and the funny thing,

it took me two years to develop this razor clam with edible shells.

Yeah. So, they're edible, but what are they actually made of?

So, the shell is made from a really thin wheat dough,

-and then we paint them with algae powder...

-Ah-ha?

..and with charcoal powder.

And actually, some of the biggest compliments that we could get here

is the guests leave the shells, because they think it's natural.

So, this here is tartare of razor clam, tarragon parsley,

a little bit of lemon zest and then sour cream.

Put the razor clams back,

safe between the two shells and then we serve it.

-Fabulous.

-So, now it's finished - and I would like you to taste one.

-I'd love to.

-And...

Yeah, of course we have to explain that razor clam,

and it's with edible shells, so they really understand it.

It's delicious.

I think we British are generally too cynical to take this sort

of restaurant food to heart. I really do.

Eating pebbles from a beach?

Yes! It's fun, it's different. It's salted white salmon.

Never heard of that before.

It's dill jelly, a little touch of ocean spray,

for that fresh beach feel.

It's frozen dill juice and fresh cream with horseradish. Try it!

So, you simply just use your fork, dig it in the green stones,

dip it in the cream with the horseradish juice,

get a little bit of the granita, and have some fun.

It's a sort of symphony of dill, I think, first of all. A lovely...

There's no herb quite sort of northern tasting...

But also, I mean, it's always a matter of your eye as well,

and looking at the presentation, the pebbles, the green colour,

the dill, it just...

-Yeah, it's pretty intellectual.

-Mm.

-It really is.

Thank you. Thank you.

RICK LAUGHS

A local politician said, 'No-one comes here for the sites.'

What sites? They come here for the food.

But that doesn't actually mean you have to spend something like £300

a head for a fine 20 course tasting menu, matched with excellent wine.

No, it could well be a hot dog in the city's popular Paper Island.

In fact, we had a brilliant crew lunch there. I love crew lunches.

They serve food from all over the world.

I met up with Marie Holm, a famous food blogger here,

and she's intensely proud of how the new cuisine has evolved.

-Wow. God, that smells so nice.

-Yeah?

-What do you recommend, then?

Well, I was thinking, er... Hot dogs would be nice, yes.

And what to drink with it, then?

Er, typically, you would have a chocolate milk,

-actually a cold chocolate milk.

-That would be good?

I had one too many beers maybe, last night?

MARIE LAUGHS Chocolate milk will be fine.

Yes, and it's a perfect hangover cure for you, I'm sure.

-Hi.

-Hi.

-Hi.

-Could...? Are you going to have one?

-Yes.

-Two hot dogs.

-Two hot dogs.

-Mm-hm, the classic ones.

-What name can I write on the order?

-Rick.

-Rick.

-Yes.

RICK LAUGHS

Hot dogs here go seriously over the top.

A bit like their open sandwich, the smorrebrod.

They'll never know when to stop.

Stop there!

Stop!

Thank you.

But I like mine simple and classic.

A bit of mustard mayo, nicely sweet with a bit of a kick.

Tomato sauce - well, it has to be, doesn't it, really?

Fresh onion

and then fried crunchy onions.

No, not too many.

Hold it.

Perfect.

Takke.

-Right.

-Nice.

-And the weather's so good.

-Mmm.

Oh, my God.

SHE CHUCKLES

Yeah, this is the problem with hot dogs.

They're lovely, though.

-You would never eat this on a first date.

-No.

I've got to look after my shirt.

Mmm, I don't think I'll eat any more at the moment.

-I really want to talk about the food scene in Copenhagen.

-Yes.

Tell me how it is.

Yes, I mean, it's changed tremendously

during the last 10 or 15 years.

I grew up in the countryside and

no-one was really interested in food, basically.

I mean, food was just gasoline, right?

So and that has changed big-time.

I remember it was always that thing, do you eat to live, or live to eat?

-Yes, exactly.

-People just ate to live, it's the same in the UK.

-Yeah.

-But this sort of place, imagine this 10 or 15 years ago.

-That wouldn't happen.

-It would have be a paper store.

-Yes.

At the time, you know, you would spend your money on,

maybe just with travel, or go to the movies

but you wouldn't use your money on food.

Not, not the same way that you will today.

So in that way it has changed.

Actually, I did notice one thing, it's not very Danish the food here.

No, that's true.

-So what about Danish cooking?

-Yes.

I think the great thing about the whole Nordic Cuisine,

the Nordic food movement is that it just...

It like poured down all the layers of food, really.

People are also, they are very much into home cookery as well,

in a way that they didn't used to be,

at least when I grew up or actually maybe 10 or 15 years ago.

So that's the very good thing about this whole Nordic kitchen movement,

is that it's for everyday people, as well.

Well, I'm relieved to find that Denmark has a favourite dish.

It's not about picking little things up in tweezers and putting them

on a plate, it's something you can do at home, that I can do at home.

Quite simply, it's fried belly pork with lovage,

new potatoes and a parsley sauce

and it's delicious.

I must say when I was in Copenhagen and watching all those chefs

doing all those intricate, little dishes,

I sort of almost got to a state of despair.

I thought I could never do anything like that.

Then I discovered this dish.

I actually had it and lovely, just fried pork,

lovely new potatoes, parsley sauce

and I discovered that actually in 2014

it was voted Denmark's most favourite dish.

Lard - up until recently it almost had to have a health warning

but now those that know such things

say it's not so bad for you after all.

There we go.

Lovely slices of belly pork.

I just really like this dish.

It's like something you might find in the UK

but it's Danish.

That little bit different,

I don't know if we fry belly pork like that?

The thing that I really liked about it was this,

this is lovage.

They boil the potatoes with lovage.

It gives a slightly different flavour to your new potatoes.

Sort of slightly parsley,

slightly celery flavour

but it's very pronounced.

I occasionally use to write dishes for fish with lovage

but only a tiny bit

because it's really, really strong.

In these potatoes, lovely. Lovely lovage.

I must say that's very satisfying, lovely brown.

It's looking so appetising.

I mean, that's what really excites me, cooking.

I don't think I'd be any good at making clam shells out of pastry,

and painting them various shades to make them look like razor clams.

I'd just be hopeless

but this is what I like doing.

Just get a bit more pepper on there.

So now the parsley sauce, which is the easiest thing.

First of all, some butter in a warm pan,

stir that around.

Then an equal quantity of flour.

I like to cook this out now

until the flour smells nutty.

There we go.

There's a nice nutty smell coming out from that.

Now the milk, and I just add that in about three thirds

and stirring all the time

and, as the sauce thickens, then I add the next third.

That's looking extremely nice

but this is the really important bit to me,

is I'm actually now going to use some of the potato water

to thin that bechamel down

and that's got the flavour of the lovage in it.

Just look at that water.

It's got a lovely green tinge to it, a beautiful flavour.

You don't want too much lovage

but a bit is really, really beguiling.

So just let that cook down.

That's lovely.

Now just heaps and heaps of parsley.

Just stir that in.

Maybe a little bit more of the lovage water

just to thin it down a bit.

We're ready to serve up.

Doesn't that pork look golden?

And the potatoes with a hint of lovage,

so Scandi,

and finally the parsley sauce.

I know it's not New Nordic but it's nice.

Velbekomme as they say over there

for bon appetit.

It isn't just food that makes for a brilliant weekend.

I know it's important but if it was solely that,

I'd be pushed along in a wheelbarrow by the end of this series.

Now may I recommend this gallery,

it's called the Glyptotek.

You won't be disappointed and just look at these sculptures

from all over the ancient empires of the Mediterranean.

And more modern stuff too.

This is a Rodin

and here is his most famous work, The Thinker.

That's supposed to be the poet Dante

pondering over his Divine Comedy.

And this, this room is full of marbles

so sensuous by the French sculptor, Marqueste.

All this was the passion of a famous brewer,

Carl Jacobsen.

This is him here.

And here. In his latter years, he's known to have sported

a red rose between his teeth,

saying it added to the beauty of his life.

A flamboyant man, one might say.

Money was no object.

His pockets were very deep.

This is just wonderful.

You have got to come here on your weekend away.

What I really love about it,

it's about the power of a dynasty,

about the power of a family brewing and selling beer.

Probably, it says,

the world's most famous beer, brewed by Danes.

I'm pleased to say the beer legacy lives on

in the latest architecture.

Well, London's got its Gherkin,

Paris has the Pompidou Centre

and Copenhagen's got its six-pack!

I like this restaurant.

It's called Kadeau

and it's run by a young chef, Nicolai Norregaard.

And the thing is here,

he was brought up on a small island called Bornholm.

Each year in late spring, for a few weeks,

he shuts up shop and goes home to collect leaves, buds,

bark and flowers

to give his food a distinct flavour of his homeland.

It's just such a beautiful restaurant, Nicolai, first of all.

I mean, I love the kitchen.

I've never seen such a relaxed...

What's the word in Danish for this sort of comfort?

-Hygge.

-Hygge.

-Yeah.

It's got bags of that.

I'm just so taken with all these pickles.

Why do you think it's so important to preserve nature

in this sort of way?

Why not just freeze everything?

The winters here are very cold.

We need to expand the library of tastes and stuff during the

winter so that's one of the reasons why we pick away.

How do your chefs respond to this?

Most chefs just work in kitchens.

How do they feel about going off to the island, Bornholm,

and gathering stuff.

-It must be so nice for them.

-I hope so.

Never have I been to such a calm kitchen.

I think I'm in one of those arts and crafts classes where

contentment abounds.

Lots of cutting and gluing

and shifting things around until they're just right.

This is fascinating.

I mean, gosh this is hard work.

Imagine you've got a lot of customers.

-It's very painstaking.

-It is.

It's a tart filled with caramelised whey

and cowslip essence.

That is so Little Grey Rabbit, really.

It's sort of...

Lovely.

And these are the silver fir

and again they're preserved in vinegar.

Silver fir cut into little strips like this.

And now the humble Savoy cabbage leaf

takes centre stage.

Blanched in stock of seaweed,

wrapped around kale,

radicchio and wild rocket,

dunked for a few seconds into the seaweed broth

and then oysters,

sliced grilled oysters

dressed with oyster vinaigrette

with green strawberries, parsley and hemp.

Hemp(?)

And it's dusted with last year's pea flour.

Pea flour(?)

What else?

And that's delicately put on an emulsion of oysters

and that's just one course

out of 20!

Wow, look at that.

-This is kale.

-Kale and cabbage.

A bit of wild rocket.

Wild rocket and some herbs, cress.

Delicious.

We always tend to do this.

We always like some combination,

some sort of combination of oysters and kale and cabbage.

Always.

On the plane on the way over,

there were these guys really, really looking forward

to coming over to Copenhagen.

They'd saved up their money, they're just coming to eat.

People travelling to eat is getting very big.

It's like the new fashion in some way.

Chefs are, you know, the stars.

I don't know why though, but...

-You're a star.

-No.

-I mean, you are.

-I mean, your kitchen's fabulous.

-You are.

No! I was just thinking, I'm a bit old

and this sort of food, I'm late coming to it

but to me it's a bit like painting.

It's like you framed something.

You framed an idea.

I'm just going to have to redo...

THEY CHUCKLE

I'm just going to have to redo my whole life as a chef.

A shame but...

Times change. You know...

I really liked talking to Nicolai.

I just thought they really do capture those sort of

fragrances and essences of Danish countryside.

I was really impressed.

You didn't actually feel you'd like a couple of lamb chops

and maybe some mashed potato

and some runner beans and some gravy?

I see, I see.

You stick to your beef and instant gravy

and I'll go foraging for chefs.

-Each to their own, I'd say.

-Whatever!

BIKE BELL RINGS

When I first heard I was going to Copenhagen,

my first thought was, of course, New Nordic Cuisine, followed very

swiftly by the remote possibility of meeting the actress, Sofie Grabol.

It was she who played the part of the detective,

Sarah Lund in that fantastic series The Killing.

She wore the same jumper for weeks on end.

She never wore make-up.

She put her work before anything.

For me, she opened the door into what it was like to be Danish.

So do you live around here, then?

I live right around the corner.

-Well...

-I just walked over here cos my bike is flat.

-Ah.

And so lucky man that I am,

I got to meet her in her favourite pub

round the corner from where she lives.

Haven't you been to Noma?

-No.

-Oh...

-And you know what?

-We can't get in.

I look at it, it's right across from where I live.

It's a lovely building.

She ordered her usual, a non-alcoholic apple wine.

I'm so overwhelmed by meeting her,

I'll have whatever's going.

-Do you want to sit here?

-Yeah, why not?

Thanks a lot for having a chat.

You're welcome.

I mean, I first came here 12 years ago and, to be honest,

if you asked me then what was special about Denmark, I'd say,

"Very nice butter, lots of bacon,

"the Danish flag, which is very attractive,

"and a very happy king and queen."

But, since then, the place has completely changed

and I think that's partly to do with you.

Well, that was actually,

that's what made me most proud of the success of The Killing

in the UK, actually, was that first of all nobody had expected it

to be received that warmly and not even the BBC.

Obviously, I've been asked a lot by British people

"Why did The Killing become such a success?"

And, I don't really know.

I think, first the audience just liked the story,

they liked the whole universe of The Killing,

but very quickly it became clear that they started noticing

much more than the whodunnit story.

They started to be interested in our furniture, our culture,

our city, our language,

our food.

So, really it's to exchange stories like you do with television

is really an exchange of culture.

I think that is what was so good in The Killing and that's why it is,

-although it was dark.

-Mm.

-And unpleasant.

-Mm-hm.

You kept seeing these little glimpses of another life,

of a lovely street of houses,

or an interior that you just thought,

"Wow, that's good. That's good."

Well, hearing all your praise of my country makes

me very proud, and I think the Danes,

we love when people praise our country

because we're very proud of it but we won't let it show.

I think the Danes, um...

We like a flat structure.

We like, we don't like people sticking out.

As soon as someone has a high status, or something,

we knock them down.

Um, we have a law

called Jante Law,

which has like, er,

I don't remember how many commands but the first one is

don't think you're worth anything

and then they just go on, and on.

So we're not very, um...

..flamboyant.

I suppose that's like the Sarah Lund, really.

-You know, not really...

-Yeah.

-..doing the job.

-She was quite understated, wasn't she?

-She was.

-Yeah.

-Yes.

Yeah.

This rather non-descript area used to be

the main meat-packing centre for Copenhagen.

It was, as you can see from this very beefy '30s statue,

meat writ large.

Most of its former residents have now moved elsewhere,

leaving lots of empty property,

perfect for restaurants and bars,

Especially with a slightly untidy, Bohemian look.

A place where young, avant-garde diners will be jolly pleased

to sit under fuse boxes, pipes and bare brick.

Anders Selmer of Fiskebar

was one of the first to open

and his speciality, like mine, is fish.

When we opened there was one fish restaurant.

-It was kind of old, dusty.

-Yeah.

And sushi bars.

There was nobody doing fish here.

-There are still very few, actually.

-How come?

Well, I think we lost the tradition,

we did lose the tradition of eating fish.

I mean, the Vikings ate a lot of fish and we ate

a lot of fish all the way through until the '50s, '60s

when we started to do only convenience when we did food.

We didn't want all the difficult parts.

It difficult eating fish, it's got bones in it, you know?

You have to do, you have to be, it's a delicate matter.

You have to be precise. You have to know what you're doing.

Mom and dad was going to work so, you know,

there was no time for being careful and delicate.

I think it's true in the UK,

-people don't like bones, do they, for a start?

-No.

People don't like dealing with fish.

It's not just the bones, it's the smell.

-They say we don't like the smell of cooking fish.

-Yeah.

I love the smell of cooking fish. I love the smell of cooking herrings.

-When it's fresh.

-When it's fresh!

-But it has to be fresh.

-Absolutely.

And that's the thing. Fish is not cheap.

I mean it's not a cheap restaurant, but it's...

That's what I can't... People say, because I have fish restaurants too.

People say they're too expensive.

-I say, "Have you seen the price of fish?"

-Yeah.

-That's the thing.

We just make a modest profit.

-And we do.

-We do.

-Or lose money.

-And lose money, I know we lose money.

BACKGROUND CHATTER

Well, I must say, this piece of hake

looks absolutely lovely.

Honestly, that is a perfectly cooked

fillet of hake.

And here I'm told we have pine

and horseradish emulsion,

pickled cucumbers,

Spanish chervil

and asparagus.

I mean, it's lovely.

I mean, that is... I mean...

I'm a simple soul.

What I really like is a fillet of perfectly fresh fish,

perfectly cooked and that's what I've got.

I can only say that all the rest of the things

make it taste even better.

So...

Again this is New Nordic food, but...

..it suits me perfectly,

because I've got a lovely fillet of fish!

I like this area of town.

It's not glamorous, it's not that expensive

and the restaurants and bars are still trying really hard.

It's the sort of place I wouldn't mind staying until,

well, maybe the early hours, even at my age!

Well, as soon as we said our goodbyes and gone to bed,

someone decided to throw a party.

How inconvenient!

To sleep, or not to sleep, that is the question.

I think it's coming from the Tivoli Gardens.

I'm going there tomorrow.

I feel like going there now.

FIREWORKS BANG

Bicycling to breakfast.

What luxury!

I must say, this is so Copenhagen.

And this bakery is brilliant, one of the best here.

And, naturally, they bake fabulous buttery Danish pastries,

a great and much-loved delicacy invented by Viennese bakers

who came to Copenhagen when most of the local bakers went on strike,

and so they just baked the same way as they did in Vienna.

Needless to say, the locals love the multilayers

of caramelised pastry and they couldn't do without them,

and neither can I.

I was thinking of doing a little book called

My Breakfasts Across The World because I love breakfast.

It's got to be accompanied by a really good coffee and I'm

thinking of breakfast in France where you get that high roast coffee

and you have those lovely baguettes

that cut into long slices with butter and apricot jam.

Perfect.

In Germany, you've got ham and you've got cheese and sometimes

lovely coffee but people like a glass of champagne with it, as well.

Here, it's got to be Danish.

What I really like are the Danish pastries.

Here they've got them so well done,

The snail, the snegl.

And their coffee is fragrant and soft

and very, very Danish.

It is my long weekend and although it's not connected to food,

there's something I had to see.

Many an Aussie friend has said, "If you're in Copenhagen, Ricky,

"you've got to go there."

So a few miles out of the city,

there's a church. Wow!

Bagsvaerd Kirke.

It was designed by Jorn Utzon,

the man who created the Sydney Opera House,

I think my favourite building.

But Utzon had a particularly bad time from many a local critic

down under and so, being an enormous fan of

Sydney's fabulous Opera House,

I just had to come here.

Well, I didn't know what to expect.

I know this was built straight after Utzon built the Opera House

in Sydney, which I know so and love so well

but this is unbelievable.

I mean, to me, this is what Danish design is all about.

Simple, all built out of concrete,

lovely wooden pews.

It's just...

It actually makes you feel quite spiritual

and yet it's so modern.

When I think of all the trouble that he had building the Opera House.

I mean, apart from anything,

nobody could build the shells

but also loads of people disliked it.

But, he was lying on a beach when he was coming back

from all that in Hawaii.

He looked up at the sky and saw these clouds

and that's the inspiration for this ceiling.

You can imagine him sitting here in one of these beautiful pews

and saying, "At least I've done something right."

This is the Red Cottage.

It's quite famous,

and it's only about 20 minutes from Copenhagen.

It sounds a little bit like the start of a

Hans Christian Andersen fairy story.

A little cottage set in a wood, not far from the sea.

And it's run by Anita Klemensen,

Copenhagen's only Michelin-starred female chef,

and her fellow chef, Lars Thomsen.

So what are we looking for?

A herb that tastes a bit like cucumber and seawater, oysters.

Yeah?

-So you want this one?

-Oh, no, you do it.

-Yeah, yeah.

-OK.

-It's fine.

-So you take it...

-You take the small top ones.

-OK.

-If you want to taste one of them?

-Yeah, I would.

The small ones are quite good.

-Do you like it?

-Mm.

I'll tell you what, it takes a bit like cucumber,

but actually to me it's also a bit like borage.

You know the little blue flowers that you put in Pimms?

Yeah.

We're going to have it together with a roast and because you have

the very sweet and very heavy taste of the roast,

it's quite nice with something more structured and bitter.

This seems like a lovely thing to do, Anita.

What does it mean to you?

-Having the restaurant?

-It means a lot.

-Yeah?

That's why we came all the way out here, actually.

We had a restaurant in the city before and this is just, you know...

It makes more sense to go every day and pick the herbs.

Of course, we have some of the things that we know are in season,

so we know that we can use the herb.

Yeah, every day we know that we can use the onion cress and

a lot of other stuff, but every day we find something new and we

will put that into one of the dishes.

How do you know you're not going to get poisoned?

-We've tried it before.

-Oh, you've tried it before?

-Let me try a big leaf.

-It's a bit more bitter.

-Oh, God.

I pulled the whole thing up by the roots. Very, er...

Mm. That's really nice. And what would you have this with, then?

Right now, we serve it with lightly salted scallops and seaweed,

-rosehip, some different things from the beach.

-From the shore.

-And the shore, yeah.

-So it all matches?

-Yeah, exactly.

I'll go up to the bushes here for the rosehip leaves.

-So wild roses.

-Yeah.

Wild roses. That's the rosehip.

So is it normal to use the wild herbs in the UK, or...?

Erm, yeah, we do a bit. I suspect we got the idea from you.

-What would you do with this, then?

-We'll pickle the whole leaf.

Such a nice smell. We have them in white as well.

They're a bit more heavy in the smell, actually.

-They're just over here.

-That's good. I'll put them in my box.

-I haven't got much there.

-OK, you can have them.

-Thank you.

It's probably because they're wild.

-They've just got such a beautiful fragrance.

-Yeah.

-And I think they get even more intense when you pickle them.

-Yeah?

Now for a really good lesson in new Nordic cuisine.

Anita serves crispy rye bread adorned with oyster mayonnaise

with smoked oil gel from the juice of pickled strawberries,

and now pickled green strawberries,

pickled green tomatoes,

ramson berries - these are pickled too -

ramson leaves,

onion cress,

ramson flowers,

hay ash - yes, hay ash,

the ash from burnt hay -

and a poached egg underneath the rye bread.

Again, another perfect example of this new cuisine.

Well, I had this really funny thought, to me,

when I was watching this being made.

If I'm not confused, I haven't been concentrating enough,

because there's so many things going on there.

But what I was thinking was the emollient effect

of that poached egg,

the yolk just glistening around everything, and it's really good.

It's really well thought through

because you've got the green strawberries, the green tomatoes...

And I really like the smoky mayonnaise.

They make that by burning hay and mixing it into

a mayo and you've just such lovely, smoky tone in this.

You've got the tartness,

you've got that lovely sort of lusciousness from the egg yolk

and a bit of smoke as well, and a bit of texture from the rye bread.

It's really, really good fun. I mean...

I sort of wish I could do stuff like this, but you know...

It's just a little bit too complicated

for an old geezer like me.

It's a nice building, that.

-Sort of looks like a bit of a lager can, really.

-Special Brew?

'My son Jack, who's also a chef,

'happened to be here for a wedding this weekend.

'And so I thought it'd be a great idea to go to the

'Tivoli Gardens together.'

FANFARE PLAYS

'I had planned to go on my own, but father and son together,

'the sort of thing he'd run a mile from ten years ago.

'People say I eat too much on these long weekends.

'I must watch that.

'I love this place. I immediately sense what it's all about.

'Old-fashioned family values that haven't changed very much

'since its creation 170 years ago.

'The main reason I came here was to have

'a ride on this wonderful old rollercoaster.

'It's made of wood and it rattles and it creaks and it groans.'

RATTLING

Do you like rollercoasters?

I don't think I've been on one quite as wooden as this one before.

-Well, it's been here a long time.

-Yeah.

Here we go. Do you think this bit's going to be all right?

Yeah, we'll be fine.

SCREAMING

LAUGHTER

You can't help but scream!

LAUGHTER

It even has a brakeman.

Just imagine leaving school here and becoming

a trainee brakeman at Tivoli.

Gosh, what kudos.

Better than being a centre forward or even a chef.

'Hand on heart, that was so exciting.

'That'll go to the top of my long weekends.

'It's an absolute must in Copenhagen.'

I've got such a big grin on my face.

You can imagine, you know, Walt Disney coming here in the '50s,

when he was thinking of building the first Disneyland,

-he would have been enchanted by this.

-Yeah.

Funnily enough, I do think

Disneyland's got a sort of element of...

of this, this sort of fairy-tale kingdom.

I think you'd find that as well in the cooking as well,

that they kind of...

They sort of invoke the sort of Scandinavian sort of, you know,

mythology of kind of old methods of preservation and you can...

You know, and they've all got beards.

-They all look like Vikings, you know. It's so funny...

-So do you.

Yeah, I know. It's so funny that, you know,

20 years ago in a French-style kitchen, you would never think

of any chef having a beard or any facial hair and now in sort

of Scandinavia it's sort of like a standard issue.

Well, enough of this chat.

I think we ought to go and find one of your lovely restaurants to

-have something lovely to eat.

-Fantastic. Can't wait.

'This is Danish Sunday lunch, big time.

'This restaurant is called Groften's.

'It's an institution here at Tivoli Gardens.

'It serves traditional Danish food. The usual suspects.

'Not a sea buckthorn or a beach dandelion in sight.

'However, it serves fried breaded plaice,

'steak tartare -

'I love steak tartare with capers -

'raw herring -

'now, I could eat that all day long -

'gravlax - love it with rye bread -

'prawns in mayonnaise - well, yes, obviously -

'a sort of old-fashioned hash with sausage in it -

'not entirely my cup of tea -

'and their pride and joy,

'fish balls.'

They're really interesting, these fish balls.

They're sort of much more close-textured than ours,

our fish balls, don't you think?

-A bouncy texture, isn't it?

-Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Like a Thai fishcake.

Yeah, but lots of fish in them.

I think what's nice is that this is like Sunday lunch, isn't it?

Yeah, it's a very different restaurant to anything I've

ever seen in Copenhagen. Everyone's happy. It's sort of Denmark in...

The microcosm of Danish culture just in one room.

I'm told that Groften's in the Tivoli Gardens

is the biggest restaurant in Denmark.

It's really old-fashioned, but I loved it.

Very colourful and friendly, but their biggest selling dish is

fricadelle, fish fricadelle,

that fish-fishcakes with remoulade sauce.

I must say, that's a lovely bit of cod to go into these fish balls,

although I think we'd probably call them fishcakes.

There we go.

Now, I'm unfortunately having to use a food processor.

I love chopping things by hand, but...

You know, there were days when a food processor was revolutionary.

Now, it's, "Ooh, it's a bit boring." So some cream in there.

And now some flour.

I'm told that the secret of a good fishcake, fish ball, is not

too much flour, so there's not too much flour there, and now an egg.

Just one egg.

And finally, some pepper, and I'm using white pepper here

because I really like the flavour of white pepper in a fishcake.

I'll generally go for black, but this time white. And then some salt.

About a teaspoon of salt. That's not too much.

You need plenty of seasoning in these.

Otherwise, they taste a bit bland.

So here we go.

Good. There we go. Look at that. Now turn that into a bowl.

This dish is really old.

It was first recorded in the 1700s,

and I think it's like many other countries, it's poor people's food.

The idea, of course,

is you used fish with flour to make the fish go a lot further.

'Now, dill. Very Nordic.

'Lemon zest. Not very Nordic.

'Capers. Love 'em.

'And now mud pies.'

What I like about these fishcakes is they're not deep-fried as

most are. They're shallow fried,

just in a bit of butter, and it's just how my mother always

used to make fishcakes when I was little.

They never look so neat and tidy if they're shallow fried,

but they look more sort of rugged and more appetising.

I do like cooking in butter.

You have to be very careful cos it burns so easily,

but the smell of hot butter!

I often think, you know, with steaks, they're always char-grilled,

but actually if you cook a steak in butter, it tastes so much nicer.

And certainly these are going to taste good. Look at that.

Well, this is the remoulade sauce that goes with the fishcakes,

and actually it is all about the remoulade sauce.

First of all, some cream in there.

Just whipping that a little to just get it stiff.

And next, some chopped gherkins.

Now, there's a lot of ingredients in this remoulade.

The traditional French ones have got about a third of them, but I had to

get them all in because it is such an important dish to the

Danish that I just didn't want to leave any stages out.

Next, chopped capers, chopped chives. There we go.

Next and very important, curry powder.

They use it more as a condiment than as a sort of curry flavour,

just about a teaspoon of curry powder.

Now, chopped onion. A lot of very finely chopped onion. In that goes.

French mustard now, a good heaped teaspoon of French mustard.

And now tarragon, and I do think that's important in there.

They love tarragon. The Danes and the Icelanders love tarragon.

Fresh tarragon in there.

Wow, this is a lot. Lemon juice, in it goes, and finally, mayonnaise.

Now just whip that all up together and a little taste.

Well...

..I would have said maybe one or two many notes, Mr Mozart,

but I'm sort of thinking,

if you're a new Nordic chef about a hundred years ago,

you would have made a remoulade and it goes back to the 1700s

like this, because you could.

Now, to serve up.

Well, my mother would have lined them up one by one,

separately on the plate.

But us chefy blokes like to see a nice tilt, like so.

And now for the remoulade. And voila!

It's really good.

'It's my last day.

'Goodbye, trusty hire bike.

'Incidentally, I should have put my hand out when I want to stop.

'Sorry about that.

'I've really enjoyed my foray into new Nordic cuisine.

'But I'm looking for a balance between the new and the old.

'Something classic that I recognise, maybe with a Danish twist.

'And this is Gammel Mont,

'an old-fashioned restaurant run by Claus Christensen.

'He's about to cook my favourite fish of all time, turbot.

'He seasons the fish with sea salt,

'and then makes sure it's covered with milk.

'He squeezes lemon juice into it, some black pepper, and that'll

'take about, I reckon, 17 minutes until it's moist and yielding.'

So this is very much the sort of food I like.

Maybe it's something to do with my age, Claus,

but the new Nordic, did you think that...?

-Does that work for you, all that...?

-It doesn't work for me.

You know, they use stuff like this and stuff like that,

but they are innovative and creative,

but sometimes I think they forget to make food.

It's more like art.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely, you know, lots of flowers, lots of herbs,

but nothing inside.

But I guess it's just young people wanting to sort of kick

the old geezers out. Like, you know, this.

Yeah, but they have to, they have to kick us out.

I'm an old man in this branch, and when I was young,

I tried to bite the old man from behind as they do now.

They just put us away, saying, "We're much better than you."

And we say, "Yes, you are."

As long as we can make and prepare our food in our own way.

Well, I think in my view, I remember when I was a youngster,

I once had a dish on with...

Fish cooked three different ways -

three different fish, three different ways,

three different sauces.

-Yeah, yeah.

-And now I look back and I say, "What was I on?"

Yeah, because you couldn't taste anything.

You couldn't taste anything.

Tiny kitchen, just me and a couple of chefs trying to knock this

sort of stuff out, and that's one of the other things.

I mean, to put all those little...

To get the tweezers going everywhere, it's a lot of work.

-Yeah, yeah, yeah.

-But in time they'll learn.

-Yeah, yeah.

But I like it. And the young chefs are rock stars.

'Well, this looks right up my street.

'I was beginning to think about the emperor's new clothes

'when it came to new Nordic cuisine.

'But I just feel, looking at this turbot and the cabbage,

'like I've just found the most perfect shirt and trousers.

'This'll do me fine.

'Call me old-fashioned, call me what you like,

'Nordic cuisine, I suspect, is here for a very long time to come.

'And so is turbot, cabbage and butter sauce.'

Oh!

This is just lovely.

The lemon butter, the beautifully fresh turbot, the cabbage,

When people say to me, "What are my favourite fish?"

I say, "Turbot, sole, sole, turbot", either way. King and queen.

-People...

-Astonishing good health there.

-Thank you.

-Unbelievably lovely food.

-Thank you.

-I'm back. I'm home.

'So that's it.

'Well, what do I think about the new Nordic style of cooking?

'For a start, it's made an enormous difference

'to the food landscape here.

'And more so to the coffers of the Danish economy.

'And it's also made me think, as a restaurateur,

'about keeping things local.

'Mind you, I couldn't work without lemons or olive oil.

'All I'd say is that if you like something new and challenging

'over a long weekend, you couldn't find a better place.'

# Hey, Rick

# Where we going next weekend?

# Are we flying a few hours away?

# For some delicious food they say

# We can try dishes and aroma or Barcelona

# For something more exotic though the spices of Morocco

# Yes, you can take your pick

# And even break the ice in Reykjavik

# So, Rick, make the booking

# Let's get cooking

# And get those taste buds going next weekend. #