Newer Nordic

A cohort of Copenhagen chefs are looking to their Asian roots to reimagine the city's restaurant scene.

- Mary Holland

AT GOLDFINCH RESTAURANT, the table is crowded with steamer baskets and plates loaded with scallop and sesame toasts; tiny, crispy shrimp with garlic and chile; and pork wontons dressed with black vinegar, chile oil, and cilantro. A pillowy black leather booth curves around the table itself, which looks out onto a room with jet-black ceilings, gilded wallpaper, and cherry red barstools. It's easy to take in this scene and imagine yourself in Hong Kong or Singapore-until you're jolted back to Copenhagen by the room's Danish-speaking diners.

Being at a high-end restaurant in Copenhagen without a foraged berry or a piece of sourdough served with fancy butter in sight actually feels refreshing. And while an elevated Cantonese restaurant wouldn't appear out of the ordinary in most modern metropolises, in Denmark's capital-famed for its hyperlocal, seasonal New Nordic cuisine-it is. That's exactly why Australian-born chef Will King-Smith and his Canadian Chinese partner, Megan Leung, opened Goldfinch. "There was a huge hole in the market for diversity," says King-Smith.

King-Smith came to Copenhagen in 2010, around the time Noma was first ranked No. 1 on the World's 50 Best Restaurants list, an event that stirred intrigue among chefs abroad. "It had just started to get interesting; something was bubbling," says King-Smith. He worked his way up to become head chef at Geranium, one of the city's only three-Michelin-star restaurants. For years, he primed and prepped his share of cod, celeriac, and fermented cabbage, but eventually, he wanted to do his own thing. Today, he does just that at Goldfinch, incorporating some of Leung's mother's family recipes into the menu, including her much-loved XO sauce.