01 June 2026
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Few restaurants feel as significant to modern Nordic dining as the twin forces of Kadeau Bornholm and Kadeau Copenhagen. With the latter having just earned our ultimate award of Three MICHELIN Stars, their creative, produce-centred cuisine from Chef Nicolai Nørregaard is ready for its moment in the spotlight. What’s more, as the MICHELIN Guide enters a new era with its Mindful Voices, the Kadeau philosophy built around homegrown ingredients and an extensive preservation programme truly feels like cooking for our times.
Here, we delve deep into what exactly makes both Kadeau restaurants so special with the help of Nørregaard himself. From why the Bornholm island is unique to the differences between his island and city restaurants, the Kadeau co-founder’s insights shed light on one of the Nordic Countries’ most fascinating culinary stories.
There’s No Place Like Holm
The Kadeau project may now include two restaurants – and it’s the Copenhagen branch that’s taken the headlines this year – but it’s important to remember that everything started in Bornholm. Nørregaard was born on the island, in the town of Svaneke, and its influence can still be felt in every fibre of his cooking, whether you’re on the island itself or just getting a taste of it via the Danish capital.
“My grandfather grew his own vegetables, caught his own fish and preserved extensively to get through the winter,” reminisces Nørregaard. “His way of living has deeply shaped the way I think about cooking. When you grow up on an island like Bornholm, you naturally develop a strong connection to the land and the sea around you.
“You learn not to rely too heavily on ingredients arriving from far away, but instead to make the most of what is close at hand – using plants throughout all stages of their life, discovering overlooked ingredients and being careful not to take more from nature than it can give back.
“Bornholm also has a remarkable community of craftspeople – ceramicists, glassblowers, painters and sculptors – people who preserve beauty through their hands and their work. My father trained as a ceramicist himself, so craftsmanship was always present in my upbringing.
“In many ways, Kadeau is simply my attempt to put Bornholm on a plate.”
It All Starts With the Earth
Our Inspectors could feel an in-built mindfulness when dining at both Kadeau restaurants, where the origin of ingredients and the deep connection between field and fork is imparted to guests by the well-versed teams. The foundation of many Kadeau dishes is not just in Bornholm, but in the team’s own garden, which was founded by Nørregaard’s father, Emil, in 2012 and provides herbs, vegetables, fruits, flowers, seeds and honey for both restaurants – whether used fresh or preserved for the winter months.
“The overall ambition of the garden is to regenerate and strengthen the soil while producing what we need for the restaurants,” Nørregaard explains. “We work with minimal soil disturbance, biodiversity and year-round living beds in order to create a healthier and more resilient growing system. We believe that if we take care of the soil, the soil will take care of the plants. There are no shortcuts to that – it’s patient work.”
This patient work pays off with produce that explodes with natural flavour, such as intensely flavoured Oxheart tomatoes. But, as Nørregaard points out, “collaboration has always been central to Kadeau” and several ingredients come from other like-minded producers. This includes grass-fed beef from retired dairy cows which is then butchered in-house, with all bones used for stocks and sauces, and trim used for staff food. Their pork comes from the organic Hindsholm pig farm and is turned into homemade charcuterie by the chefs.
Preservation is Everything
It’s difficult to overstate how crucial the preservation of ingredients is to Kadeau. While the Bornholm site is only open in the summer months – when fresh produce is abundant and the island is filled with holidaymakers – the Copenhagen restaurant functions all year round, moving from the ‘Growing Season’ into the ‘Preservation Season’, when the menu is based around over 50 different preservation techniques. “Seeds may become capers, herbs are dried for our tea programme, leaves infused into oils, or stems pickled once the flowers are gone,” Nørregaard says.
With both restaurants’ produce rooted in Bornholm’s unique microclimate – Danes call it ‘The Sunshine Island’ – it’s perhaps no surprise that Kadeau has become synonymous with preserving. “Summer arrives slightly later there, but once the island warms up, it retains its heat far into autumn,” explains Nørregaard. “This allows ingredients like figs, plums and mulberries to ripen far more fully than elsewhere in Denmark. At the same time, the growing season is relatively short, which historically forced people on the island to become highly skilled at preserving and storing the flavours of summer throughout the long, dark winter months.”
Nørregaard has now taken up this mantle and uses preservation not just to utilise as many of the summer’s ingredients as possible, but to create invigorating flavour profiles that have become synonymous with Kadeau Copenhagen in particular. “There is something almost magical about tasting flavours associated with summer – tomatoes, berries or herbs – in the middle of winter,” he says. “At the same time, we also celebrate the beauty of winter ingredients themselves. Shellfish and seafood are especially pristine during these months, and pairing delicate seafood with preserved summer flavours has become something many guests associate strongly with Kadeau.”
When we discuss Kadeau’s various initiatives and projects with Nørregaard, preservation comes up again and again. As a Bornholm native, it’s in his blood, and it’s helped him to craft a new kind of cuisine that’s rooted in respect for nature. “Our preserves are the true luxury ingredients of our kitchen,” he suggests. “They are rarer and more precious to us than caviar or lobster. At the heart of Kadeau is the idea of preserving not only ingredients, but also a sense of place, season and memory.”
Choose Your Adventure: Island or City?
Even if the same principles underpin both Kadeau Bornholm and Kadeau Copenhagen and, as Nørregaard says, “one could not really exist without the other”, there’s no denying that the two restaurants offer a different proposition. Bornholm’s island setting makes it perfect for summer getaways, while Copenhagen is ideal for the city-break set. While you can taste the unique flavours of Bornholm from the elegant surroundings in Copenhagen, you can only really feel the island by going there yourself.
“We try to maintain a similar rhythm and philosophy across both restaurants, partly because there is some crossover between the teams,” Nørregaard explains. “We encourage staff from Copenhagen to spend time on Bornholm, and everyone works in the garden for periods of time in order to better understand the rhythm of the land.
“There are, however, some natural differences between the two locations. On Bornholm, the day often begins with harvesting or foraging, and most of our preservation work takes place there during the summer months. Copenhagen functions more as our creative and administrative hub, with the test kitchen based there as well.
“During winter, Copenhagen works especially closely with the preservation kitchen, while Bornholm is much more connected to the immediacy of the growing season. The most delicate ingredients – freshly picked herbs or fragile wild berries, for example – are often experienced at their absolute peak on Bornholm. In Copenhagen, they may instead appear in preserved forms during winter.”
From Shoot to Root, Every Detail Matters
Anybody who has experienced the MICHELIN-Starred cuisine at either Kadeau restaurant will know how much craft and precision is poured into every dish. No stone is left unturned and no element is not considered in Nørregaard’s pursuit of pure, captivating flavour. And he extends this same devotion to the little things in how he handles his ingredients.“With plants especially, we try to maximise their potential rather than thinking in terms of single-use ingredients,” he says. “Where traditional cooking may focus only on the ripe fruit or vegetable, we work with the entire lifespan of the plant – shoots, leaves, flowers, pollen, fruits, branches, roots and seeds – all used at different moments and in different ways.”
Nørregaard’s comments are indicative of an approach to gastronomy that sees mindful, responsible cooking as an opportunity rather than a restraint. By looking at ingredients from a new angle, he can find new flavours and textures that other chefs have overlooked. “Rather than only reducing waste, we try to increase the overall yield and usefulness of each plant,” he expands.
“Even more traditional scraps, such as fruit peels, are often repurposed. One of our favourite examples is flavouring schnapps with them, together with our own honey, creating our own version of the traditional Bornholm drink Honningsyp.” As is usually the case with Kadeau, every story comes back to Bornholm.
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Hero Image: Chef Nicolai Nørregaard in the Bornholm garden that supplies Kadeau Copenhagen and Kadeau Bornholm. © Marie-Louise Munkegaard/Kadeau Bornholm
