Rasmus Munk
Rasmus Munk (born April 18, 1991) is a Danish chef and restaurateur. He is the founder and co-owner of restaurant Alchemist in Copenhagen. Alchemist was named “Best Restaurant in Denmark” 2020 by the restaurant guide White Guide in October 2019.[1]. Rasmus Munk has coined the term “Holistic Cuisine”[2] to describe his cooking style.
Biography[edit]
Munk grew up in the town of Randers in Jutland, Denmark. Originally planning to be a police officer or mechanic, he was talked into applying for catering college by a friend – and after that food became his all-encompassing interest. Munk quickly took to competitive cooking and participated in several student competitions as well as Worldskills and the National championships for young chefs. In 2011 Munk was selected for the Junior Culinary Team of Denmark and a few years later he joined the National Culinary Team of Denmark.
After working at the Michelin starred London restaurant North Road (now closed) during 2012, Munk was appointed Head Chef at Restaurant Tree Top at Munkebjerg Hotel in Vejle in 2013.
Munk opened his first own restaurant – the first incarnation of Alchemist – in Århusgade in central Copenhagen in 2015. In the small bar setting Munk served 40–45 dishes to 15 diners a night, gaining notoriety for his inventive, visual and occasionally provocative dishes. The two most talked about dishes from this period were the ashtray and the lamb tartare. The ashtray[3] (a spin on the Danish classic dish ‘Brændende kærlighed’) was served as a statement about lung cancer. The lamb tartare dish was served inside a lamb’s heart together with a cherry sauce in a blood transfusion bag and an organ donor card. The campaign resulted in getting 1500 people to sign up as organ donors in Denmark, as well as making international headlines[4]. Munk closed the original Alchemist in 2017.
Current activities[edit]
After two years of building, the new incarnation of Alchemist opened on July 4, 2019[5]. Thanks to the partnership with investor and co-owner Lars Seier Christensen, Munk could realise his dream restaurant inside an old shipyard in the former industrial district of Refshaleøen in Copenhagen, a part of town being described as one of Copenhagen's right now most creative scene for art and gastronomy [6].
Munk defines his cooking philosophy and the experience at Alchemist as “Holistic Cuisine”. Inside the restaurant a menu of 45–50 edible impressions are accompanied by performers and art installations as well as visual tech: the main dining room consists of a planetarium dome with a diameter of 57 feet. Under it guests dine at a winding bar, surrounded by 3D-animated projections, for example an indoor rendition of the aurora borealis and giant jellyfish floating among plastic bags. Another room is an installation by NYC-graffiti artist Lady AIKO, conveying the multicultural vibe of New York, and a light and sound installation takes diners through a maze of LED-lights, that comments on the struggles of the LGBTQ-community.
Alchemist has been described by international media as The World's Most Ambitious Restaurant[7], A Jaw-Droppingly Paradoxical New Frontier in Fine Dining[8], Delightfully Batshit[9] and a place where food becomes a vehicle for political statements [10]
Signature dishes[edit]
- Plastic Fantastic. A comment on the fact that up to one third of all cod caught in Northern Europe contain plastic. Even in the Mariana Trench at 11 kms depth microplastics are found in the tiny shellfish who live there. The dish consists of a grilled cod jaw brushed with smoked bone marrow and grilled. It is topped with a cream of Comté cheese. The “fantastic plastic” that tops the dish is made from a dehydrated cod skin bouillon.
- Food for Thought. A tribute to foie gras producer Eduardo Sousa who figured out a way to produce natural foie gras from wild geese that land in Spain once a year to feast on acorns and olives before migrating further south. The dish consists of sautéed foie gras in a Madeira casing topped with yuzu gel and aerated foie gras.
- Burnout Chicken. Chicken feet are served in a cage with the same diameter as the floor space a conventionally farmed chicken has to its disposal. To eat it, you must first set the chicken free of its cage. The dish is made from a deboned chicken wing stuffed with a soufflé of chicken, glazed with teriyaki sauce infused with lobster and topped with burnt hay.
Awards[edit]
- Best Restaurant in Denmark 2020, White Guide
- Breakthrough of the Year, Danish Dining Guide (Dansk Spiseguide) 2019
- Innovator of the year, White Guide 2016/17
- Breakthrough of the Year, Danish Dining Guide (Dansk Spiseguide) 2016
- Young Chef of the Year, White Guide Denmark 2014/15
References[edit]
- ↑ "Alchemist is the best restaurant in Denmark in 2020, according to the Danish White Guide". White Guide. Retrieved 2020-01-10.
- ↑ Brønnum, Louise Beck; Munk, Rasmus (2019-04-01). "Holistic Cuisine – A focus beyond the plate". International Journal of Gastronomy and Food Science. 15: 32–35. doi:10.1016/j.ijgfs.2018.11.009. ISSN 1878-450X.
- ↑ Rasmus Munk prepares his signature ashtray dish with crab at Alchemist, retrieved 2020-01-10
- ↑ "Restaurant turns diners into donors". BBC News. Retrieved 2020-01-10.
- ↑ "A Meal of 50 Courses over 6 Hours. Is this the future of Dining?". www.bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2020-01-10. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "Little but lethal: Copenhagen's exploding creative scene". SilverKris. 2019-10-17. Retrieved 2020-01-10.
- ↑ Repanich, Jeremy; Repanich, Jeremy (2019-07-19). "Art, Activism and Eating: Inside Alchemist, the World's Most Ambitious New Restaurant". Robb Report. Retrieved 2020-01-10.
- ↑ Abend, Lisa. "Inside Alchemist, Copenhagen's Jaw-Droppingly Paradoxical New Frontier in Fine Dining". Vanity Fair. Retrieved 2020-01-10.
- ↑ Miranda Collinge (2019-09-06). "Rasmus Munk Creates Food That Asks Questions And Blows Minds". Esquire. Retrieved 2020-01-10.
- ↑ "Inside Copenhagen's experimental new restaurant where dishes are political statements". The Independent. 2019-07-19. Retrieved 2020-01-10.
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