Try Danish cuisine for something fresh
Cookbook author brings love of Nordic cuisine to Houston
COPENHAGEN, Denmark — How hard can it be to make a sandwich? Harder than you’d think if you’re learning to assemble a classic Danish smørrebrød.
These open-faced concoctions (literally translated “butter on bread,” roughly pronounced smuhr-broht) look easy enough. Take a thin slice of rye bread, spread some butter and pile on egg, pork, tomato, mayonnaise, herbs and whatever else.
But wait … put down those frikadeller (meatballs in Danish). As chef Trine Hahnemann explains, many un-
written rules need to be followed to create an authentic version of the food that has been part of her country’s culture since the Middle Ages.
The butter must be salted. Each sandwich should have three of the five basic tastes — salty, sweet, sour, bitter and umami. Always include something soft and something crunchy. Never combine fish and meat.
Eight Houstonians standing around a tall table full of farmfresh heirloom tomatoes, eggs and herbs listen as Hahnemann explains a few of the rules — and when they can be broken. Then, under the celebrity chef ’s guidance, they start crafting their sandwiches — slicing eggs, snipping dill and slathering on tarragon mayonnaise, horseradish cream and other handmade condiments from their host’s kitchen.
Hahnemann’s enthusiasm for these aspiring smørrebrød masters is surprising since she’s already spent a 12-hour day at her job as an ambassador for modern Nordic food. Author of 16 cookbooks, including the best-selling “Scandinavian Baking,” she oversees a catering service that provides fresh, organic lunches for 3,000 employees at companies in Copenhagen. She travels as an advocate for sustainable practices, and she co-founded the Rye Bread Project in New York, which donates heritage rye seeds to U.S. agricultural interests to reintroduce the grain in this country.
This year she opened Hahnemanns Køkken, a bakery, coffee bar, food store and cooking school in north Copenhagen. In May, she published “Open Sandwiches” and this month released “Copenhagen Food.” Part cookbook, part city guide, part personal reminiscence, her latest effort, she says, is an attempt to capture what daily life is like in the city she’s called home for 50 years.
“It’s more than a memoir; it’s how I see the world through food,” says Hahnemann, who will appear Saturday at River Oaks Bookstore.
Rye bread and herring: Ten years ago, that’s what anyone not living in Scandinavia (along with many who were) would have imagined when they thought about Nordic cuisine — if they thought about it at all. But in 2010, the Copenhagen restaurant Noma was named the best in the world, and the city quickly evolved into a cosmopolitan food destination, much like Houston has in recent years.
A multistarred Michelin restaurant with sea-snail broth as a starter and plankton mousse cake as dessert isn’t for everyone’s taste, or budget. But Noma was a game changer as the city embraced “New Nordic” cuisine, with its emphasis on local sources, seasonal menus and the innovation of traditional dishes. As Noma chefs left the mother ship to open their own restaurants, Copenhagen residents learned to appreciate sustainable, farm-totable cuisine.