Geranium Head Chef, Co-owner, Rasmus Kofoed. Photo Credit Claes Bech-Poulsen

Rasmus Kofoed, star chef of three Michelin-starred Geranium in Copenhagen, is influencing an entire generation of young chefs to feel confident in offering haute cuisine based on strictly vegetarian principles. During the pandemic, he temporarily opened Angelika, a restaurant within Geranium, with a wholly plant-based menu.

LUX: After bronze and silver, how important was it to you to finally win the Bocuse d’Or?
Rasmus Kofoed: I did it because I wanted to win; that was the first priority. Winning was great, but I enjoyed the process leading up to the competition very much. You develop, you create new ideas, you optimise what you do. It was everything around the competition that I enjoyed.

LUX: What did you change between winning the bronze in 2005 and the gold in 2011?
RK: I think I was more confident with what I loved to cook and eat myself. It was totally based on Nordic and Danish ingredients, like wild forest garlic, elderflowers and lump fish roe. We had just opened Geranium at the same time as I won the competition and a lot of the elements that I made at Geranium I used in the competition, just combining them in a new way.

desserts at Geranium including milk chocolate and rose hip petals, and chocolate egg and pine

LUX: Having won the gold, and with a three Michelin-star restaurant, do you have any unfulfilled ambitions left?
RK: Not really. Of course, I enjoy achieving those prizes, and the motivation is very good for the team as well, but I enjoy the training. I also enjoy the days which focus on the work leading up to creating a great experience for the guests. I don’t think about the awards when I’m here. I think more about how we can optimise everything and how we can work better with the team, and create a better work–life balance. That’s the priority. If you’re happy, it’s easier to make others happy.

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LUX: What does a better work–life balance for the team look like?
RK: We just focus on it a bit more. We did not let anyone go because we wanted to keep them; they are a part of the future and we believe in them. Another thing is to try to balance all the working hours, eat a lot of vegetables. They also have gym memberships and that’s very important. It’s not a secret – if you feel good, it’s easier to make others feel good.

The dining room at Geranium

LUX: Do you think that vegetarian restaurants like Angelika will be the way forward, given the climate crisis and the pressure to reduce meat?
RK: I think so, and that’s why I opened Angelika. It was a year ago and I could not just go back and open Geranium like we normally did. I felt that, after the first lockdown, we needed to do something different. I’d been on a plant-based diet for the last year and a half, so I was very much into that way of cooking, which is not easy, but when you can do it, it just feels good. I also wanted to pass on my love and care for the planet, and health, to other people. That’s why we opened Angelika: to inspire people to eat more vegetables.

LUX: How has your relationship with sustainability evolved over the years?
RK: I live in the countryside, so I am very close to the forest and to the sea, the ocean and nature, which I really enjoy. It’s very peaceful to go out there and I think it’s something we all need to do sometimes.

I focus a lot more on it at home, but it’s something we care a lot about at Geranium. You can always be better, but we use a lot of biodynamically farmed vegetables, and in that way of farming you give good energy and vitamins back to the soil, not just take them out, and that’s a good mentality, to treat Mother Earth with respect.

Crispy Jerusalem artichoke leaves and pickled walnut leaves

LUX: Where did your love of working with vegetables stem from?
RK: I was raised eating biodynamic vegetables because my mother was vegetarian and she wanted to give the best and healthiest food to her kids. It’s something I’ve been using for a long time, not because it’s trendy, or for PR. I do it because I care and think it’s important to look after the planet. At Angelika, the idea was very much ‘from kitchen to table’, not spending a lot of time plating. At first, it was difficult for the chefs, because they’re used to working with tweezers and taking their time, but you need to be faster, otherwise you lose the energy in the food.

Grilled lobster, elderflower and dried onion

LUX: How did the pandemic affect you professionally?
RK: If it wasn’t for the pandemic, we would have never opened Angelika. It was because of the lockdown that I was saying that we need to open a plant-based restaurant. Since I was on a plant-based diet myself, I wanted to show people that plant-based cooking can be delicious and healthy at the same time, and that you can actually have a great meal, and feel good in your body after. A lot of horrible things happened because of the lockdowns and the coronavirus, but Angelika was this green shoot growing out of the dark times.

Read more: Chef Clare Smyth: Core Célèbre

LUX: What legacy do you hope to leave on the culinary world?
RK: I do it because I love my craft. I love to be in the kitchen, with the energy, the flavours. I love creating new ideas, new ways to serving things. I enjoy cooking delicious food, but I also enjoy eating something which is good for my spirit, my body. As the ancient Greeks said: “Food should be your medicine, and let the medicine be your food.” I love to inspire with my love for the green kitchen.

Rasmus Kofoed is head chef and co-owner of Geranium in Copenhagen. Angelika is temporarily opening on special dates.

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This article appears in the Summer 2022 issue of LUX

The Great Migration, Tanzania & Kenya

Geoffrey Kent is the founder, chairman, and CEO of Abercrombie & Kent, one of the world’s most respected luxury travel companies. In his first column for LUX, Mr. Kent marvels at nature’s most extraordinary wonders.

From Africa at its rawest to Japan at its most genteel, experiencing these natural phenomena will remind even the most jaded traveller of what a privilege travel is and our place in the world. I have always believed that in nature we are completely unified with all of life…

Sakura, Japan

No season’s arrival is more celebrated than that of spring. People rejoice in shaking off winter’s grip and greeting the season of new life. In Japan, one million cherry trees blossom. Known as sakura, it starts in the south and moves northwards, following a wave of warm weather. Clouds of pink appear as daytime temperatures reach 17 degrees Celsius. As they have been doing for centuries, locals picnic under these trees – a custom known as hanami. In the modern capital Tokyo, people flock to Ueno Park. In the ancient Kyoto, the Philosopher’s Path is an inviting place to relax and reflect on the wonder of nature.

Sakura, Japan

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In my experience the most rewarding, but often over-looked way to experience Japan – from its timeless mountain villages to its delicate cuisine, distinctive architecture and graceful gardens – is to approach it from the sea. A small expedition yacht provides just the right balance between luxurious on-board amenities and access to remote villages, places that the big cruise ships simply can’t reach. This access illuminates Japan’s history and culture, arts and architecture, gardens and nature, as well as its culinary traditions, with experiences that reveal the country through a local lens.

Each day brings unexpected delights. During one visit to beautiful Kenroku-en Gardens, we were invited into a teahouse to savour delicious ‘fragrant peach’ ice cream.

The Great Migration, Tanzania & Kenya

Every year more than a 1.5 million wildebeest, 200,000 Burchell’s zebra and a smattering of trailing Thomson’s gazelle make a 1,900km odyssey between Tanzania’s Serengeti and the Masai Mara in Kenya. Instinct and the smell of rain spurs the herds forward with two things in mind: food and water. They are following the rains in search of fresh grass. Along the way, many migrating animals fall prey to waiting predators including lion, leopard, cheetah, crocodile and hyena.

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One year when I was on safari with Richard Burton, I was getting him a drink at the bar in the mess tent when I heard a roar and a lot of screaming and turned to see two lions bringing down a buffalo in our campfire. I quickly upended the table, sending the crystal and china flying, and gathered the guests behind it as a barricade. What an amazing spectacle it was to watch! The next day Richard Burton wanted to know if we could do it again. He thought I’d set the whole thing up – nature is full of surprises!

During the Migration, sightings of predators taking down prey are common. Visit Tanzania between January and early March to see thousands of wildebeest being born each day. Then from June through September, vast herds are on the move through Kenya.

The Monarch Butterfly Migration, Mexico

The migration of the Monarch butterflies is one of the most astonishing of all natural wonders. Every autumn, tens of millions of Monarchs travel from the eastern USA and Canada to Mexico’s Sierra Madre Oriental Mountains – their winter hibernation grounds. It’s an epic journey for these creatures in distance and – most intriguingly – they do it without ever having been there before. A butterfly that departs from Canada will never return. Nor will its progeny for the next two generations. It is the third generation that sets off once more from Canada for the same twelve mountains… 5,500 kilometres away. An amazing natural mystery.

The March of the Penguins, Antarctica

For those dreaming of genuine adventure, Antarctica is nature’s last frontier. This pristine landscape of mountains and glaciers remains largely untouched by civilization and wildlife abounds.

One of the most inspiring is the Emperor Penguin colony in Atka Bay along the Weddell Sea coast of Antarctica. The penguins breed on the sea-ice in bitterly cold conditions. Once an egg is laid, the female leaves the colony, giving the egg to her partner, who carefully puts it on top of his feet and covers it with a skin fold to keep the egg warm – even when the temperature drops below −35°C.

The mother will return in July when the chick is ready to hatch. They are very small, weighing only about 150–200g (adult penguins weigh 22-30kg at this time of year). They have a thin layer of down and are not yet able to regulate their own body temperature, so it is up to the parents to keep the chicks warm.

The March of the Penguins, Antarctica

By September, the chicks have grown a thick cover of down and are developing quite rapidly. Growing requires a lot of energy so they are always hungry. It now takes both parents to go out and gather food for the youngsters. At night, the little ones left in the colony form huddles to keep warm.

In December – when we visit the colony – the chicks are nearly as big as their parents. Small black patches appear on their flippers. They are beginning to grow real feathers and they start shedding their down.

Warmer temperatures cause the ice to break up, bringing open water closer to the nesting site. The chicks are now old enough to swim and fish, and we watch enthralled as they begin to take to the ocean themselves.