Discover The Story Of New Nordic Cuisine At Norway's National Museum

Forbes

3 days ago

Local ingredients are at the forefront of New Nordic cuisine.
Two decades ago, a group of Scandinavian chefs met in Copenhagen and signed a manifesto that would quietly spark a global culinary revolution. Their mission was to redefine Nordic food culture by embracing seasonal, local ingredients and reviving traditional methods.
Today, New Nordic cuisine has become a major culinary movement and one of Scandinavia's most influential cultural exports. This summer, Oslo's National Museum is peeling back the layers of this phenomenon in a major new exhibition: New Nordic. Cuisine, Aesthetics and Place.
Running through September 14, the exhibition explores how the movement's philosophy of seasonality and sustainability has spread far beyond the kitchen, impacting the likes of design and architecture too.
Among the 500 words on display, visitors will find handmade ceramics used in Michelin-starred restaurants, landscape paintings, sculptural menus, and photographs that reflect on nature, place and identity.
When the manifesto was signed in 2004, it outlined ten principles, including purity, freshness, ethics and sustainability.
Rather than replicating French haute cuisine, chefs like Claus Meyer and René Redzepi (of Noma fame) called for a culinary identity rooted in Nordic soil, climate and heritage.
The movement redefined luxury in a Nordic context. Wild garlic or berries gathered from a nearby forest became just as prized as imported truffles. Pickling and fermentation, once survival techniques, were reimagined as high art.
An outdoor pavilion will host interactive opportunities for visitors to the New Nordic Cuisine exhibition at Oslo's National Museum.
Even the visual language shifted. Rustic wood, muted ceramics and dishes plated like miniature landscapes took center stage.
Norwegian restaurants quickly became part of this wave. Oslo's Maaemo earned three Michelin stars by showcasing hyper-local ingredients with philosophical flair.
Kontrast, RE-NAA, and Credo soon earned stars, each interpreting the New Nordic ethos in their own way with menus that change with the weather and interiors that echo the natural world.
The National Museum's exhibition captures this intersection of cuisine and creativity.
Alongside a langoustine press carved from wood and menus disguised as literary first editions, you'll find photographs, landscape paintings, and craft pieces that reflect the same aesthetic ideals: simplicity, nature, locality.
A highlight is a handcrafted menu from the now-closed Ylajali restaurant in Oslo, designed to mimic the first edition of Knut Hamsun's Hunger. Another is ceramicist Sissel Wathne's bone-glazed tableware, created for Credo using reindeer bones.
In true New Nordic style, the exhibition is not confined indoors. A specially designed outdoor pavilion on the museum's square will host foraging walks, open-fire cooking demos and fermentation workshops.
Constructed from Norwegian spruce with wild plants growing on the roof, the space reflects the movement's principles of sustainability and local rootedness.
The pavilion kitchen will host guest chefs and communal events through the summer. Visitors can participate by picking herbs from nearby forests and return to cook with them over a fire.
Today, New Nordic Cuisine is studied in culinary schools and emulated in restaurants from Tokyo to Toronto.
But its staying power comes not from trendiness, but from its grounding in a sense of place. Its call for seasonal, ethical and local eating resonates in a world packed with processed foods.
The exhibition runs until September 14 at the National Museum in Oslo. A version of the show will then travel to the National Nordic Museum in Seattle in late 2025.
Oslo is a fitting place for this exhibition given the Norwegian capital city hosts so many restaurants with Michelin stars earned for their innovative approaches.
Maaemo stands at the pinnacle with three Michelin stars. Led by Chef Esben Holmboe Bang, Maaemo offers a seasonal tasting menu that emphasizes organic, wild and biodynamic Norwegian produce. Tables must be booked months in advance.
Kontrast, holding two Michelin stars, is known for its commitment to sustainability and seasonality, while its name explains its concept of combining colors and tastes. Chef Mikael Svensson crafts dishes that highlight the purity of local ingredients, presented in a minimalist and modern setting.
Other Oslo highlights include refined dining in historic surroundings at Statholdergaarden, and the hyper-modern takes on New Nordic cuisine at Bar Amour and Savage.