Nicolai Nørregaard

The Path

Island cooking starts with limits: weather, coastline, fields, forests and the seasonal pressure of what Bornholm can give at a given moment. Early restaurant work placed Nicolai Nørregaard inside that material reality as a staff member at Svaneke Pakhus in Svaneke, Bornholm, Denmark. The useful fact is not romance of origin, but proximity: a working cook close to the larder that would later define the discipline. Place-led cooking becomes legible when it is carried through ownership, menu-making and daily execution. As co-founder, Head Chef and co-owner of Kadeau Bornholm (since 2007), Nicolai Nørregaard built the restaurant’s identity around Bornholm rather than treating the island as scenery. In 2011, the same line of work extended to the capital through Kadeau Copenhagen, where he became co-founder, Head Chef and co-owner (since 2011). Across both addresses, the craft holds to a single problem: how to make fresh season, preserved season and memory of place function on the plate without separating them.

The Work Today

Fermentation, smoking and preservation carry the kitchen’s grammar. In Nicolai Nørregaard’s work, those methods are not garnish or nostalgia; they are tools for keeping flavor available after the season has moved on. Acidity, smoke, salt and time give the food structure, allowing an ingredient to register both as immediate and as stored knowledge. The plate may read cleanly, but the method sits behind it: restraint in handling, depth built through time, and a direct relationship to landscape rather than a decorative reference to nature. Nicolai Nørregaard states the working premise plainly: "When I spend time in the nature, I feel free." In trade terms, the sentence points to attention as a condition of freedom: the cook is not adding complexity for its own sake, but returning to source material and letting technique hold it. At Kadeau Bornholm and Kadeau Copenhagen, the roles of co-founder, Head Chef and co-owner keep creative direction, service craft and stewardship in the same set of hands. The cuisine is rooted in place and shaped by technique; preservation does not replace freshness, it changes how freshness is read.

Career - Co-founder, Head Chef and co-owner, Kadeau Bornholm, Denmark (2007–present) - Co-founder, Head Chef and co-owner, Kadeau Copenhagen, Denmark (2011–present) - Staff member, Svaneke Pakhus, Svaneke, Bornholm, Denmark

Signature

The value of the dish is in its construction logic: vegetables set in layers, preservation functioning as structure, and flavor built by accumulation rather than force.

In Their Words “When I spend time in the nature, I feel free.”

Acclaim

Recognition for the work includes Two Michelin stars retained by Kadeau Copenhagen since 2018 (2018) and One Michelin star retained by Kadeau Bornholm (2016). For Nicolai Nørregaard, those awards sit beside the more durable craft fact: a body of cooking built from Bornholm’s landscape, preservation practice and the management of time as an ingredient.

FAQ What is Nicolai Nørregaard's current role? Nicolai Nørregaard is Head Chef and Co-owner. Where did Nicolai Nørregaard work before? Earlier in their career, Nicolai Nørregaard worked at Svaneke Pakhus. What recognition has Nicolai Nørregaard received? Two Michelin stars retained by Kadeau Copenhagen since 2018 (2018).