Anita Klemensen

The Climb

Training at Søllerød Kro set the terms for the roles that followed. As head chef at 1.th in Copenhagen (2005–2010), Klemensen worked at the center of the city’s dining conversation, where pace, precision and kitchen leadership carried equal weight. She then moved into ownership, becoming co-owner at Den Røde Cottage in Klampenborg (2010–2017) and co-owner at Den Gule Cottage in Klampenborg (2010–2017). Taken together, those years show a chef working beyond the pass as well as at it, with responsibility for both the plate and the restaurant around it. Today, Anita is owner of Studenterkilden, continuing a career that has remained close to the practical demands of the kitchen.

Today

Studenterkilden in Dyrehaven now anchors Klemensen’s work in a setting shaped by calm and greenery, while her career path reflects measured changes rather than abrupt reinvention. Her departure from the Cottage business followed surgery on both thumbs, a reminder that long kitchen careers are lived through the body as much as through judgment and timing. As she put it, "I had osteoarthritis in both thumbs and had to have them operated on." The decision to sell was not framed as a necessity alone. Klemensen was direct about the business itself: "It was not really necessary to sell the business." That plainness matches the way she describes professional choices, without garnish. Her real line was drawn around the work itself. "The Cottages were doing really well. But I could not see myself taking on the host role and no longer being hands-on in the kitchen." For Klemensen, being in the kitchen was not one part of the job; it was the part that defined it. That same clarity closes the transition: "I decided that it was time to draw a line in the sand." It reads less like sentiment than a working principle: keep the terms of the craft clear, and move when those terms no longer fit.

In Their Words “The Cottages were doing really well. But I could not see myself taking on the host role and no longer being hands-on in the kitchen.” “I decided that it was time to draw a line in the sand.”

Recognition

Anita's honors include Michelin star.