NICOLAI NØRREGAARD
“I always thought that I would become a designer or an architect, something creative. There was always something creative going on in me” WG speaks with Nicolai Nørregaard...
Chefs find their passion for cooking – tell us how did you find your way into the culinary field to become one of the most sought-after chef!
My background is very different from most chefs. I have no culinary training, and found my way into kitchen by luck more than determination. I grew up in a very culinary family, with a granddad that inspired me to cook, taste and the importance for great produce. He was not a chef, although he didn’t do much else than cook. He grew his own vegetables and fermented his own fish. He was always in the kitchen cooking for everyone who felt like stopping by, me included. Although he passed away many years ago, yet I can still taste his sauces and stews. My grand uncle had a smokehouse. (Smoked herring and salmon is the pride of Bornholm, and the most sought for product of all time. Bornholms has more than 500 small smokehouses – many of them built in private homes – that were all active some 50-100 years ago. Today only a handful are active) My grand uncles “Kowsky’s Smokehouse”
106 - WG March 2018
was one of the last ones to smoke in the old way on open fire and it was considered to be the best smokehouse (lucky me), but unfortunately it had to close when he died ten years ago. So those two influences has been very strong for me. Always surrounded by people with intense passion for culinary craftsmanship and the importance of produce. Food was the number one thing in my family. My mom and dad were divorced, my step dad (who was vegetarian) and my mom moved to a biodynamic self-supplying community (with me of course) which also had its influences. Although it sometimes felt a bit too much of a hippie thing. But today I very much appreciate the philosophy I was brought up with, and I work by those codes today. I always thought that I would become a designer or an architect, something creative. There was always something creative going on in me. But after fooling around, and not being able to find my way it never happened. I worked in restaurants and hotels and simply couldn’t get out of the restaurant business. It was too exiting. I also cooked at functions in my spare time. When we decided to make our own restaurant, I just got stuck in the kitchen – which was the most natural thing in world. I suddenly found my place, and also found a way to let out my creative steam. And I never left it.