Alchemist

Alchemist, Copenhagen — Ten Years of The Hungry Tourist This was the gala dinner for The Hungry Tourist’s tenth anniversary, and we could not have chosen a better place. Forty-five of us came together at Alchemist. Rasmus Munk, Lykke Metzger and their team had put so much thought into making the evening ours. Our guests’ faces appeared in one of the impressions. Photographs of me became a dessert. Even an ice cube carried The Hungry Tourist name. Rasmus bought a pizza oven especially for the evening so Giuseppe Oliva from Surt could come and make pizza for us. And after dessert, when you might reasonably have thought we were finished eating, Gasoline Grill burgers arrived. Through all of this, we were moving through Alchemist’s world: the lounge, the dome, the projections and the impressions. Some brought familiar pleasures; others asked us to look more closely at what we eat and where it comes from. At around one in the morning, we walked by torchlight to a boat. There was caviar, cream and chips waiting for us. Ten years of travelling to eat together, and here we were, still sharing another bite. Thank you, Rasmus, Lykke and the whole Alchemist team, for putting so much of yourselves into our celebration.

Photography Matthew Ng Omer Gelbard

Daisy A Pisco Sour in a single bite, held inside a delicate yellow sphere at the centre of a daisy-shaped spoon. Inspired by Rasmus’s travels in South America, this was our opening cocktail.

Smokey Ball A delicate, crisp sphere held langoustine tartare and aromatic smoke, with caviar and tiny flowers on top. Biting through the shell released the smoke, bringing its aroma into the same mouthful as the seafood.

Space Bread Aged soy sauce was aerated and freeze-dried into a delicate, crisp shell, topped with caviar. The porous black “bread” resembled moon rock, but dissolved quickly in the mouth beneath the roe.

Nordic Dosa India’s dosa became a small, crisp sandwich filled with Vesterhavsost, a Danish cheese, and ramson, or wild garlic. Thin golden discs enclosed the creamy filling, with tiny white flowers arranged around its edges.

Omelette Egg and Comté cheese were enclosed in a delicate membrane. Our omelette arrived as a smooth, pale oval, with a glossy surface and just a scattering of tiny dark flecks on top.

Sunburnt Bikini The Spanish bikini sandwich became a golden mochi bite filled with Gruyère and jamón Ibérico. Its crisp outer shell gave way to chewy rice dough, keeping the familiar ham-and-cheese combination inside.

Guava Tepache Guava, green tea and pineapple juice came together in Alchemist’s take on tepache, the fermented Mexican pineapple drink. Served in a wine glass, it brought fruit and acidity between the savoury lounge impressions.

Bouncy Rice Glutinous rice was repeatedly folded into a chewy, elastic wrapper for a spicy lobster filling. The glossy orange dumpling, sealed with a scalloped edge, was served alongside the fermented fruit drink, Guava Tepache.

1984 An eye stared back at us: smoked clams, caviar and trumpet-mushroom aguachile, with gel made from cod’s eyes. Named after George Orwell’s novel, the impression brought surveillance and privacy into the Dome.

Caviar Marble A thin disc made with caviar resembled polished stone, its surface dotted with pale circles. It accompanied more caviar, potato crisp, charred Jerusalem artichoke and crème fraîche, giving the roe two different forms.

Shrimp & Wasabi Raw Norwegian shrimp met wasabi oil, purple shiso and bronze fennel. The seafood sat beneath a tangle of dark leaves and bright petals, with the wasabi’s aromatic heat set against the shrimp’s sweetness.

Lobster Claw Poached lobster was dipped in vodka and enclosed in a crisp, airy coating shaped like a bright red claw. A dipping sauce came alongside: Alchemist’s version of a lobster roll, eaten by hand.

Plastic Fantastic Cod cheeks in collagen batter sat beneath edible “plastic” made from algae. The transparent, crumpled sheets mimicked packaging waste, turning a seafood dish into a reminder of the plastic accumulating in our oceans.

Decellularized Spinach — The Demonstration We were shown spinach leaves at different stages of decellularisation, illuminated from below. The process removes cellular material while preserving the leaf’s supporting scaffold, leaving its shape and fine network of veins intact.

Decellularized Spinach — The Serving After the light-box demonstration came the serving: almost transparent spinach leaves in a shallow glass dish, with a small green dot. Their outlines remained, even after their cellular material had been removed.

Tongue Kiss Strawberry nam jim, chilli, vegetables, tiny melons and gooseberries covered a lifelike silicone tongue. We ate directly from it, without cutlery—the serving vessel making the act of eating deliberately intimate.

Litophane Pablo-matic Each guest received an edible portrait of their own face for our anniversary dinner. This one is Matthew. Light shining through the sculpted surface revealed his image, bringing everyone at the table into the meal.

Food for Thought Inside a model human head sat lamb’s brain with pickled beetroot mousse and a crisp cherry cloud. The brain-shaped serving put the ingredient in plain sight, questioning why some foods feel more acceptable than others.

Pigeon in the Grave Pigeon aged in beeswax for fourteen days, then cooked gently and served with a foamy bone-broth sauce scented with preserved Australian truffle and beeswax. Its coffin-like vessel rested among flowers, making the grave imagery explicit.

Airy Bread An airy, yeast-based bread carried a creamy layer and folded slices of Joselito ham. The pale cylinder looked almost woven, with thin strands forming a base beneath the glossy, translucent folds of ham.

Wiped Out Insects and an edible wiper were served on a small windscreen, arranged to resemble the marks left after a drive. The impression asked us to consider insects as food rather than something to wipe away.

Burnout Chicken A crisp-coated chicken bite was served on a clawed leg, held by hand. The presentation linked the food to the animal it came from, alongside Alchemist’s message about the conditions on industrial poultry farms.

The Pizza Oven Rasmus bought a pizza oven so Giuseppe Oliva from Surt could cook for us. For our tenth-anniversary dinner, that meant pizza coming straight out of the oven in the middle of Alchemist’s menu.

Straight from the Oven A closer look at the pizza leaving the oven: melted cheese and sausage inside a puffed, blistered rim, still resting on the peel before being sliced.

Hindsholm Pizza A slice of Giuseppe’s Hindsholm pizza: sourdough, pork sausage, buffalo mozzarella and fermented chilli. Finely grated cheese covered the surface, with streaks of green oil running between the pieces of sausage.

Tomato and Garlic Pizza Tomato, thinly sliced garlic, dried herbs and oil covered the second pizza. The red topping ran almost to the raised rim, where the dough had puffed and picked up dark blisters in the oven.

Pizza Joy Pizza at Alchemist makes people joyful. Just look at us. 🙂

Woodruff Tonka-bean panna cotta and green-strawberry granita, with pine, woodruff and garden sorrel. The creamy and frozen elements brought contrasting textures, presented in a green, flower-like arrangement within a sculpted glass bowl.

A Wish for Peace A hand-folded, edible origami crane made from kudzu and umeshu gel, its surface covered in colourful images. Inspired by Sadako Sasaki and Japan’s paper-crane tradition, the dish carried a wish for peace.

In Place of The Scream Instead of The Scream, the team made edible photographs of me for our anniversary dinner. A picture that belonged in my photo collection had become something to eat at the table.

A Second Edible Memory Another photograph, another memory, this time with a platter of red prawns. The two images made this part of the menu personal: moments from my own life, served back to us.

Illusion A “chocolate” ice-cream sandwich made with NOTCH, a cocoa-free alternative from spent brewing grain. The patterned top played with our eyes; the ingredient choice raised questions about cocoa production and labour.

Another Surprise: Birthday Cake Then came another surprise: a huge birthday cake, candles lit and “Happy Birthday David” across the top. Ten years of The Hungry Tourist, and a birthday to celebrate as well.

Gasoline Grill Arrives A full Alchemist meal. Giuseppe’s pizzas. Desserts. A huge birthday cake. And then a tray of Gasoline Grill burgers arrived, still wrapped. Apparently, we weren’t quite finished eating.

Still Room And yes, we ate them. Somehow, there was still room. 🙂

One Final Surprise Around one in the morning, we left Alchemist and followed the torches to the boat. Even here, there was more to eat: caviar, cream and potato chips. One final surprise.

Caviar and Chips Royal Belgian Caviar on ice, a bowl of potato chips and a little cream. After everything we’d eaten, this was our final course, shared on the boat.

Krug 2013

A small sample. 🙂 Vintage Champagne from a cool year with an autumn harvest. Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Meunier came together in a wine aged for more than ten years in Krug’s cellars. The house’s name for this vintage: “Exalted Citrus.”

Egon Müller — Scharzhofberger Riesling

Riesling from the Scharzhofberg vineyard in Germany’s Saar valley, within the wider Mosel region. Egon Müller works exclusively with Riesling. Our bottle’s label records just 8.5% alcohol, alongside the familiar illustration of the Scharzhof estate.

Jean-Claude Ramonet — Meursault-Blagny Premier Cru

A Premier Cru Chardonnay from Meursault, in Burgundy’s Côte de Beaune. Blagny is the vineyard designation on this Jean-Claude Ramonet bottling, bringing white Burgundy into our small photographic record of the evening’s wines.

Hospices de Beaune — Corton Grand Cru, Cuvée Charlotte Dumay 2014

Corton Grand Cru Pinot Noir from the Hospices de Beaune, matured and bottled by G. Marey for Weinart. The cuvée remembers Charlotte Dumay, who donated vineyards and land to the Hospices in 1534.

Château Rocheyron 2015

A Saint-Émilion Grand Cru with a Danish connection. Peter Sisseck and Silvio Denz have shared stewardship of Rocheyron since 2010. Its limestone vineyards are planted with Merlot and Cabernet Franc: Bordeaux joining our anniversary dinner in Copenhagen.

Château d’Yquem 2008

The final bottle in this selection: Château d’Yquem 2008 from Sauternes. This sweet white Bordeaux depends on painstaking hand-selection of grapes affected by noble rot, which concentrates the fruit. Small yields, patient harvesting and a wine capable of ageing for decades.