Green, rolling hills formed by the Ice Age; sandy seashores washed in art-inspiring mild; and fertile farmland feeding Michelin-starred cooks and pioneering winemakers—this is not Tuscany, however Denmark’s Odsherred area, simply an hour’s drive northwest of Copenhagen.
“When I first came here in 2009, there were no proper restaurants, and the region didn’t have any sense of pride in their offerings,” says Claus Henriksen, a Michelin-starred chef who left world-renowned Noma for all times—and work—in Odsherred.
For centuries, Odsherred was often called Copenhagen’s pantry, supplying substances that landed on town’s tables. Chefs nonetheless revel within the distinctive substances discovered right here, however now, the area is greater than only a purveyor. Increasingly it has change into a culinary vacation spot in its personal proper, because of a string of remarkable new eating places which might be rooted not simply in Odsherred’s terroir, however its neighborhood and identification as nicely.
For Henriksen, Odesherred has supplied an unlikely setting for his personal eating places. Turning down an impressive avenue of century-old poplars, I arrive at Anneberg Kulturpark, the place the red-brick buildings with crawling vines as soon as housed a psychological asylum with 1,000 sufferers and an equal variety of employees. A couple of years in the past, a non-public investor determined to provide the advanced a brand new lease of life and switch it right into a hub for meals, artwork, and culinary entrepreneurs. Henriksen, and his restaurant, Mota, was among the many first to maneuver in.
“Seeing the scale and the potential of this place, I couldn’t resist,” says Henriksen. At Mota, which earned a Michelin star inside 8 months of opening in 2022, the menu is a showcase of hyperlocal merchandise. There are dishes like hake baked in sugar kelp from seaweed pioneers Dansk Tang (Noma’s seaweed provider), seaweed beer from Deeper Roots, brewed within the asylum’s previous hearth station, and sauces made with Nordic tempeh from Contempehrary.
All of those entrepreneurs have joined Henriksen within the advanced, working in buildings simply throughout from the restaurant. Henriksen, in the meantime, has additionally added two extra ventures of his personal into the previous aslyum: Fru Klausen, serving smørrebrød, and Erba, a pasta restaurant working on native grains.
“Why import when I have everything here?” he says, motioning towards his neighbors. Henriksen additionally insists on making his personal dishware, whereas the flooring, the intricately ornamented ceilings, and the furnishings are all crafted in Anneberg’s carpentry workshop. After dinner, visitors can keep onsite in Gæstehuset, the place the wardens’ former rooms have since been transformed right into a guesthouse.
Though Anneberg has all the trimmings of an awesome weekend getaway, it is only one anchor in Odsherred’s blossoming scene. Half an hour’s drive away by rolling hills, a cobblestone path results in Dragsholm Castle, a 800-year-old fortress turned Relais & Châteaux-member lodge with an encircling moat and views of the Sejerø Bay. The fort sits on the Lammefjord, a polder drained by the fort baron within the 1800s, a transfer that turned the seabed into a few of Denmark’s most prized farmland, well-known for carrots, potatoes (among the culled specimens are reborn as premium vodka on the close by Nordic Soil distillery), and farmer Søren Wiuff’s sought-after asparagus.