Scan Magazine | Restaurant of the Month | Denmark
The ingredients are always fresh, seasonal and local, and the menu takes its inspiration from French cuisine.
Restaurant of the Month, Denmark
As local as it gets: between the forest and the beach At restaurant Lieffroy, ingredients are always fresh and seasonal – rendering the freezer redundant. By Lene Bech | Photos: Lieffroy
Restaurant Lieffroy does not just have an open-door policy but a no-door policy: guests in the restaurant can look directly into the kitchen. Owner Patrick Lieffroy insists that this creates a personal atmosphere: “It means that we have a good dialogue with our guests. Many come into the kitchen to say hello or are curious about how something was made.” The restaurant, which seats 50-60 guests, is named after its two co-owners, Patrick Lieffroy and his father, Jean-Louis Lieffroy. The name itself reflects that the owners want to keep things personal, says Lieffroy junior. But it is not the first time that the father-son duo works side by side in a kitchen; before opening their own place in 2010, the two worked in the same restaurant for over a decade, and many of the Lieffroys’ regulars have followed them here.
In the restaurant, the regulars enjoy a panoramic view of the Great Belt, side by side with a wide range of people, locals and visitors alike. It was important for the Lieffroys to create a menu that is a gourmet experience of a very high quality yet within a price range that allows for that diversity amongst the clientele. The menu consists of three courses – with the option of several add-ons – and changes every other week to ensure that the ingredients are always fresh and seasonal. “All ingredients are fresh – we don’t use the freezer for anything,” Lieffroy says, adding that the restaurant uses several small, local producers, and buys in small numbers. Local farmers provide everything from strawberries and raspberries to asparagus and pointed cabbage, while fish is always bought locally in
Nyborg. Every morning, Lieffroy calls up a local fisherman to ask him what he has available and when he will be at the harbor, “and then we’ll be waiting for him down there,” he says. Some ingredients are collected as locally as in the restaurant’s own back garden, where they grow herbs, while the idyllic location right between the forest and the beach is also put to good use. Wood sorrels are found among the trees, and beach cabbage in the sand. The wine menu changes along with the general menu, offering mainly European wines that go well with the Frenchinspired cuisine. Lieffroy describes a relationship with his wine vendors that appears typical for the restaurant: “We have visited a lot of the producers and know them personally.” For more information, please visit: www.lieffroy.dk
Issue 68 | September 2014 | 75