Moveable feast: Danish chef serves up gastronomic journey by bike

Straits Times

6 days ago

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Danish chef Morten Kryger Wulff cooks on his self-designed kitchen-bike during a stop of a gastronomical bike tour on July 2 in Copenhagen.
COPENHAGEN – Hopping off his custom-built bicycle-turned-portable kitchen, Danish chef Morten Kryger Wulff started whipping up a feast of tantalising dishes – served with a generous side of nature.
The 56-year-old veteran of prestigious kitchens across Europe got the idea more than two decades ago to take his cooking to the great outdoors, leading customers on a gastronomic bike ride through Copenhagen – with delectable food served at every stop.
On a sunny weekday in July, grilled seaweed, dill cream, bean fricassee, Nordic pizza and blackcurrant ice cream were on the menu for the ride from the Danish capital's harbour to Amager Nature Park.
'This is as close as I can come to nature, cooking-wise, in a chef way,' said Wulff.
The tour lasts about four hours in total, covering 3km to 5km.
It is broken into bike rides of about 15 minutes each, in between which the chef gets off his bike, unfolds his table and starts cooking.
'You take away the walls of a traditional restaurant and expose yourself to the city and to the elements you're in,' he said.
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In his cargo bike – a contraption he designed himself, measuring more than 2m long and weighing 130kg – he has everything he needs: a foldable work surface, a refrigerator, a gas burner and all the ingredients.
'It is impressive to watch him cook from that small kitchen, to see how compressed everything is,' said Copenhagen local Pernille Martensson, who joined the tour with her husband to celebrate his birthday.
The route is 'part of the menu', said Wulff. 'For example, the dish with fish or shellfish or seaweed is typically served by the channels.'
On the docks, he sautes shrimp before serving them in shells.
As Wulff and his group gradually move away from Copenhagen's city centre, the chef – who has worked at The Savoy hotel in London and Geneva's InterContinental – shares stories about the city and the project.
It all began in 2002, when he was kicked out of a municipal park for trying to have a barbecue with friends, and decided to start cooking outdoors legally.
He takes an ecologically gentle approach.
'The food we get for these tours is, of course, harvested and bought locally,' he said, adding that even the wines come from around Copenhagen.
'A bicycle is the most sensible vehicle, the smartest vehicle. It does not use any energy. You can have a battery, but it's pedal-powered,' he said.
The mobile approach to dining means he and his customers 'meet the city, we meet the locals', he added.
The self-proclaimed 'bicycle chef' said he is 'very passionate about cargo bikes and what they can do'.
He frequently participates in the Danish cargo bike championships, an unconventional competition held annually in Copenhagen.
In 2016, he was named courier of the year.
The award committee said he had 'demonstrated the many possibilities of the cargo bike with his mobile kitchen project'.
Bicycle-loving Copenhagen has more than 385km of bike lanes, the oldest dating back to 1892. AFP