Kadeau Bornholm

Lunch at Kadeau, Bornholm I remember telling Nicolai Nørregaard years ago that a visit to Copenhagen without Kadeau simply did not count. For a long time, I felt they were serving three-star food in a two-star restaurant. When that third star arrived in 2026, I was very happy for him and the team. But the story began in Bornholm. Nicolai grew up in Svaneke, on this Danish island in the Baltic Sea. His grandfather grew vegetables, caught seafood, and preserved enough of the harvest to feed the family through winter. His uncle smoked fish traditionally. Long before Kadeau existed, Nicolai's family already built its cooking on those foundations. In 2007, he opened the original Kadeau with childhood friends Rasmus Kofoed and Magnus Klein Kofoed. The restaurant sits beside the beach at Øster Sømarken, on Bornholm’s southern coast, and earned its own Michelin star in 2016. The family connection continues in the kitchen garden, which Nicolai’s father, Flemming, started in 2012. Less than a kilometer from the restaurant, it supplies both Kadeau kitchens with herbs, vegetables and fruit. Some are served during the growing season; others are preserved for the months ahead. For Una Gran Fiesta II, the entire restaurant was ours for a long, off-menu lunch, prepared especially for us. Here is what we ate.

Photography Matthew Ng Sinan Hamamsarilar

Garden plate The lunch began with a selection from the garden, each small piece given its own place on the plate. Tomato slices, leaves and carefully cut vegetables introduced the growing side of Kadeau before the seafood arrived. A simple-looking opening to a kitchen whose work starts well before anything reaches the stove.

Scallop toast with mirabelle and ants Thin, overlapping slices of scallop cover a round piece of toast, accompanied by mirabelle and ants. Mirabelles are small plums, bringing fruit and acidity alongside the scallop’s sweetness. The ants contribute acidity too, a seasoning that Kadeau have long worked with. Seafood, fruit and foraging, brought together in one serving.

Shrimp, tomatoes and horseradish Peeled shrimp were laid across pieces of red and darker tomatoes, with a pale dressing around them. The combination brings together the shellfish’s sweetness, the tomatoes’ acidity and the sharp heat of horseradish. Tomatoes would return later in lunch, in a different dish alongside the turbot.

Oyster and potato salad Oyster and potato salad, topped with garden leaves and small flowers. Potatoes provide a mild, earthy partner to the oyster’s briny character. The leafy presentation keeps the garden involved as lunch moves through its seafood courses, bringing a familiar ingredient into a less familiar combination.

Mackerel pie with ramson flower butter An open mackerel pie, its surface covered with overlapping pieces of silver-skinned fish. The accompanying butter was flavoured with ramson flowers. Ramsons are wild garlic, giving this richer fish course a connection to the woodland growing season as well as to the sea.

Hot and cold smoked salmon with lavender The salmon was served beneath a translucent slice of onion, with small buds and flowers on top. Hot and cold smoking connect it to Bornholm’s smokehouses and Nicolai’s family history, while lavender adds a floral element. One of Kadeau’s signature dishes, rooted in an island tradition.

Smoked salmon, second serving Thin pieces of the salmon’s smoked outer layer were served separately. This second serving gives another part of the same fish its place at the table, alongside the softer flakes of the main dish. Kadeau’s salmon service often includes this separate serving of smoked crust and preserves.

From the preserving larder A small plate of preserved accompaniments, served in carefully cut portions. Preserving is part of the everyday work at Kadeau, allowing ingredients gathered during the growing season to remain useful long after harvest. Alongside the smoked fish, this plate brings that work out of the larder and onto the table.

Palthest with Havgus cheese and toasted seeds Palthest began as a Bornholm pancake made from leftover porridge. Here, the large golden round came covered with grated Havgus cheese, toasted seeds, herbs and colourful flower petals. A household way of using yesterday’s porridge has become one of Kadeau’s most recognisable dishes, still with that generous, comforting idea at its heart.

Beetroot and tomato salad Beetroot and tomatoes came together on a platter of deep reds, orange and purple, scattered with leaves and flower heads. The tomatoes’ acidity is a natural companion to beetroot’s earthy sweetness. Served alongside the turbot, this kept the vegetables firmly involved through the final savoury part of lunch.

Grilled turbot with garden herbs Grilled turbot arrived on a large platter beneath a generous covering of garden herbs, with a pale sauce around the fish. After the shellfish, mackerel pie and smoked salmon, this was the last savoury course. The garden, which had opened lunch, was still there at the finish.

Walnut ice cream Walnut ice cream beneath a generous layer of fine, pale shavings. The menu gave this dessert just two words, leaving the walnut as its focus. After the fish and garden herbs, lunch moved towards the richness of nuts, before returning to fruit for the final dish.

Plum tart A whole plum tart, with overlapping slices of fruit inside a golden, fluted pastry shell. After mirabelle with the scallop toast near the beginning, lunch returned to plums at the end. A familiar September dessert to close our long lunch on Bornholm.