What's so great about restaurants in Copenhagen

There has been an incredible amount written in the past few years about the new Nordic cuisine, and the restaurant scene in Copenhagen - famously led by NOMA, voted the world's best restaurant for the past three years. We have not yet eaten at NOMA, but have now had a substantial number of outstanding dining experiences in Copenhagen, and I can tell there's more going on than just foraged food. Like the characteristically great Danish design in furniture, household objects and architecture, the greatness in the "new" food comes from a certain elegant minimalism, attention to detail and a respect for the importance of tradition.

A classic Georg Jensen silver water pitcher, for example, grows out of the basic function of the vehicle and  elegantly marries the swell of the water vessel and the angle of the spout with a comfortable handle for the pourer. There is no mistaking what this object is designed to do, but great attention is also paid to the small details. The handle is mahogany, so you are holding a warm organic material and not cold metal. If I had found a better photo of the pitcher, you'd see that the surface is softened by hand-hammering, so you know it is a handmade object. And the beauty of the object respects the fact that serving food and water is an important party of family, and thus community, life -- so it is always worth doing very well. ( Sorry if this analogy ran on a bit long. Hard to put away the art historian in me sometimes).

Danish silver pitcher designed by Johan Rohde for Georg Jensen, Ltd.

The great new restaurants in Copenhagen observe a certain elegant minimalism that is quintessentially Danish. A green salad, or a piece of fish, or a poached egg is prepared and presented in such a way as to bring out the essential flavor of lettuce, or fish or eggs. That isn't to say, that other interesting ingredients aren't a part of this "unveiling" of taste, but they help to pump the flavor and don't get in the way.

Just a few days ago, I told my sceptical daughter that mushrooms take on the flavor of whatever they are cooked in - butter, or wine, or herbs and cream - so she couldn't declare a dislike for them. But the mushroom soup at Geist, http://restaurantgeist.dk/, made me a liar. A clear consomme served in a black bowl without a spoon (" so you put your face right into the smell") was the absolute soul of mushroom flavor in liquid form - earthy and dark.

Also at Geist, we tasted the unusual dish of sauteed almonds with caviar- a stunning plate of pale ovals set off with a teaspoon of shiny black caviar. Each ingredient held its own simple taste and "mouth feel," but you noticed it more through the combination.

At the beautiful Orangeriet, http://www.restaurant-orangeriet.dk/, which is housed in an old greenhouse within the walls of Kongens Have, we ordered a cold tomato and crab soup as a first course. I was expecting something in the gazpacho line, but instead was presented with a  bowl containing three dollops of crabmeat garnished with slices of green tomatoes, elderberries and a few sprigs of herb alongside a small vial of clear golden liquid - the tomato broth. The broth was fresh and understated as ripe tomato flesh, without the oily heaviness of  a typically Italian red tomato sauce. The crab just tasted more of the sea-shore for the light tomato essence.

The devil is in the details. And it is not just the food which is remarkable in the interesting new restaurants here. At Relae,http://restaurant-relae.dk, the tables have a narrow drawer full of utensils and napkins so diners can shift their own cutlery. At Geist, you can choose to sit at a bar overlooking the finishing kitchen so your meal is handed to you almost directly off the stove. You can watch the rhythm of the prep cooks, identify which dish is yours, and it doesn;t need to walk through a set of doors and around tables in a restaurant before you get to eat it. Both shifts in service make sense from the management side, and lend to the informality of the experience.

Relae, and its sibling restaurant Manfreds & Vin, are both on Jaegersborggade, an artsy one-way street in Norrebro that leads right into the incredible Assistens Cemetery (a whole 'nother topic). And both restaurants feature translucent porcelain table votives ("thinware") by neighborhood ceramicist Inge Vincents ( http://vincents@dk). May seem like a small thing, but using locally sourced artwork on your table is right up there with locally sourced produce in my book. (Organic and local is a given in most of these restaurants, BTW, not even worth mentioning out loud) And Vincents' ceramics perfectly capture the character of the food - minimal, elegant, innovative and extremely honest.

As for tradition, many of the dishes that are being served in Copenhagen are interesting twists on centuries-old Scandinavian dishes. No French fillips, or startling Thai spices - but respect for the foods and the food combinations that have always been important in this corner of the world. At Orangeriet, we had bread-fried mackerel that was a perfect nod to the oldest and most basic fare imaginable in Nordic regions - mackerel on bread. Except that Orangeriet smeared the fresh mackerel with rye bread dough on one side and then pan-fried it - so the fish and the bread were cooked into each other.

At Kodbyens Fiskebar, http://fiskebaren.dk/, the most classic combo imaginable - fishroe, onion and potato - were given an amazingly delicious and almost painterly re-make with teeny tiny chopped red onion and chive, dollops of creme fraiche, a bouquet of mixed greens and shoots and a see-through thin oblong of crispy potato (an artisanal potato chip). Other dishes were similar remixes - gorgeous thin-sliced laks, sauteed scallops, cod - all the things you'd expect on a Scandinavian table, but creatively dressed and presented with beautiful sprigs of greenery that you might find in a Danish field, and that carry the same freshness.

For all the buzz in the States and elsewhere about the new Nordic cuisine, I think it is going to be hard for it to travel well as it is so engrained in the character, workmanship and traditions of Scandinavian culture. But should be fun to watch others try.