KOKKERIET
Kronprinsessegade 64
1306 København
Denmark
Tel.: +45 33 15 27 77
Overall rating: 7.5-8/10
Date of visit: August 2010
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At the time of my visit to Kokkeriet it was the cheapest Michelin star restaurant in Copenhagen, which it is no more. Back then 3 courses were 500 kroner (€67), 5 courses 600 kroner (€80), and 7 courses 700 kroner (€93). We chose 7 courses. Now it’s four courses for 650 kroner (€87) or six courses for 800 kroner (€107).
Kokkeriet doesn’t seem that much different than most other Danish Michelin star restaurants: They make quite modern takes on traditional Danish food (as does Noma, Geranium, AOC, Herman, etc.). So, they might not be that original, but what they do, they do very well.
I don’t remember the bread they served, but they served two types of butter/spread, both of which were very nice, although we all preferred one of them, as this was really, really nice. I believe it was an emulsion of rape seed oil with cress. At for instance Herman, they only served one type of butter (just plain butter, although made at their own dairy).
First we had a few appetizers: Courgette (squash) flowers and courgettes with a cream were pleasant enough, but nothing special.
The next appetizer was a kind of pretzel with cep powder as well as a foie gras mousse. The mousse itself was pleasant, but the pretzel was very hard and the cep powder could hardly be detected.
The last appetizer was a lot better: Raw salmon (I can’t remember if it was smoked or not), a few fish eggs, a bit of fennel, a sprig of dill and smoked cream cheese (a Danish specialty). The texture of the salmon was simply perfect – one of the best raw salmons I’ve ever had! I had almost the same thing at Pierre Gagnaire‘s three-star restaurant in Paris, and the one at Kokkeriet was better (especially the cheese).
Then the proper meal came and the typical Danish food started to be deconstructed:
* “Strawberries with cream”: A beef tomato with strawberries, herring eggs, horseradish cream and watercress.
*”Potato sandwich”: Fingerling potatoes were cooked with rosemary (and had very nice flavour from it), and were served with radishes, very thin crispy slices of rye bread, lukewarm mayonnaise and a few herbs.
* “Plaice”: Place is often served with lemon, gherkins, parsley and beetroot. Here they served a few thin slices of plaice with jellies of the aforementioned things and put baksuld (dried and salted Torbay sole) on top.
* “Chicken”: I can’t remember if they said this was a take on “Saturday chicken” (a phenomenon in Denmark), which is usually not very nice. Here it was slowly cooked chicken and crisp chicken skin served with scallops and fennel + a sauce from dill.
* “Lamb” (not so typically Danish): Saddle of lamb and lamb sweetbreads were served with a braising sauce and onions in various textures: A fried onion ring, a grilled onion, and marinated red onions. I was very impressed by how much flavour something so simple as onions had in this dish. This was my favourite dish.
* “Koldskål” (literally “cold bowl”): Traditionally, koldskål is a cold dessert soup made from egg yolks, buttermilk, vanilla, sugar and lemon juice and served with small biscuits (called “kammerjunkere”). Here, they served a buttermilk sorbet with a bit of caramel, and a jelly of elderflower. Miniature biscuits were served on the side.
*”Raspberries and chocolate” (not so typically Danish either): Raspberry sorbet, a Swiss roll of chocolate and raspberries, raspberry meringue, thin chocolate “paper”, and fresh raspberries.
Overall, the cooking was very competent and well presented. Technically I couldn’t really fault them on anything. The only small points of criticism was a few combinations that didn’t work so well or a few ingredients that weren’t so flavourful:
The Beef tomato didn’t have much flavour.
The scallops were well-cooked, but were completely overpowered by the flavour from the chicken and also a bit by the sauce. We all agreed that this dish was nice, but the weakest of them all, mainly because it didn’t have so many different flavour elements.
The elderflower jelly was overpowered by the sorbet. I really like elderflower, but its flavour is very mild and delicate, so there are many things you simply shouldn’t combine it with.
There was nothing wrong with the raspberry dessert, but I simply didn’t find it that interesting – maybe because I’ve seen this combination so many times before. Along with the chicken dish, this was the weakest dish for me.
I’m not big on wine, but I asked for a glass of white wine, which was very nice indeed. One of my friends had three glasses of wine. I tried them all, and they were all really nice too (he agreed, and he’s big on wine) – especially the red wine: Wither Hills, pinot noir 2007 from New Zealand. At retail it was quite expensive (€34), but I nevertheless bought two bottles. He had three glasses of wine for 300 kroner (€40), if I’m not mistaken. To me, that seems very reasonable for wine of this quality, taking the Danish tax level into consideration.
All in all, great food, great service, great value. At the time, Kokkeriet was the cheapest Michelin star Restaruant, but Relæ has since taken that glory. I was at Relæ shortly after they opened, and to me the food there was more interesting than good, and there were several things that was either unbalanced or not cooked very well + I simply didn’t like the food that much.
My rating for Kokkeriet is the same as both Herman and Geranium, but Kokkeriet was one of the earliest top restaurants I went to. Therefore, my rating might have been different if I had had the same meal for the first time today. Nevertheless, I remember my meal at Kokkeriet with more fondness than the two aforementioned restaurants, and the service at Kokkeriet was also the best of the three. Even though Kokkeriet was less posh and extragavant than those two, I felt that Kokkeriet had more identity than both Geranium and especially Herman. I also liked the service and atmosphere most of these three places. One small detail I noticed was that when the food was served two people would come in (usually the chef and a waiter) with two plates each (we were four people), and then they put down a plate each exactly at the same time. This is something I’ve otherwise only seen in three star restaurants (and in some three star restaurants they don’t even bring the plates at the same time). This doesn’t make the food better, but it’s nice to see this attention to detail – doesn’t that also say something about how much attention they would pay to the details in the food?
Dansk anmeldelse
KOKKERIET
Kronprinsessegade 64
1306 København
Tel.: 33 15 27 77
Sammenlagt vurdering: 7.5-8/10
Besøgets dato: August 2010
Da jeg var på Kokkeriet, var det Københavns billigste Michelin-restaurant, hvilket det ikke er længere. Dengang kostede tre retter 500 kroner, 5 retter 600 kroner og syv retter 700 kroner. Vi valgte syv retter. Nu er det fire retter for 650 kroner eller seks retter for 800 kroner.
Kokkeriet er ikke så meget anderledes end de fleste andre danske restauranter med en Michelinstjerne: De laver moderne nyfortolkninger på traditionel dansk mad (og det samme gør Noma, Geranium, AOC, Herman osv.). Så de er måske ikke synderligt originale, men de er rigtig gode til det, de gør.
Jeg kan ikke huske det brød, vi fik, men vi fik to rigtige gode slags smør, hvor vi alle foretrak den ene, som var virkelig god. Jeg tror, at det var en emulsion af rapsolie med karse. På f.eks. Herman serverer de kun én slags smør (bare almindelig smør, som dog godt nok er lavet på deres eget mejeri).
Vi fik først et par små appetitvækkere: Squashblomster og squash med en creme smagte udmærket, men var intet videre.
Den næste appetitvækker var en kringle med karljohanstøv og en foie gras-mousse ved siden af. Moussen var ret velsmagende, men kringlen var hård, og støvet kunne næsten ikke smages.
Den sidste appetitvækker var væsentligt bedre: Rå laks (jeg kan ikke huske, om den var røget), lidt rogn, lidt fennikel, en kvist dild og rygeost. Konsistensen på laksen var helt perfekt – en af de bedste stykker rå laks, jeg nogensinde har fået. Jeg fik næsten det samme på Pierre Gagnaire‘s trestjernede restaurant i Paris, og den på Kokkeriet var bedre (især osten).
Så begyndte det egentlige måltid og nyfortolkningerne af den danske mad:
* “Jordbær med fløde”: En bøftomat med jordbær, silderogn, peberrodscreme og brøndkarse.
* “Kartoffelmad”: Aspargeskartofler tilberedt med rosmarin (og rigtig god smag af urten) blev serveret med radiser, meget tynde rugbrødsflager, lun mayonnaise og lidt krydderurter.
* “Rødspætte”: Rødspætte serveres ofte med citron, agurkesalat, persille og rødbeder. Her serverede de et par tynde stykker rødspætter med geleer af de føromtalte ingredienser, og så blev baksuld hældt over til sidst.
* “Kylling”: Jeg kan ikke huske, om de sagde, at det her var deres udgave af lørdagskylling. Her var det langtidstilberedt kylling og sprødt skind serveret med kammuslinger og en sauce på krondild.
* “Lam”: Noget mindre typisk dansk, men alligevel min favorit blandt retterne. Lammeryg og lammebrisler blev serveret med en braiseringssauce og forskellige slags løg: En friteret løgring, et grillet løg, og marinerede rødløg. Jeg var meget imponeret over, hvor meget smag de fik ud af noget så enkelt som løg.
* “Koldskål”: Her var det en kærnemælkssorbet med lidt karamel og en gele af hyldeblomst med minikammerjunkere ved siden af.
* “Hindbær og chokolade”: Det var heller ikke så typisk dansk. En hindbærsorbet, en roulade af hindbær og chokolade, hindbærmarengs, tyndt “chokoladepapir” og friske hindbær.
Alt i alt var alt særdeles vellavet og flot anrettet. På det tekniske plan kunne jeg faktisk ikke sætte fingeren på noget. Den eneste lille kritik er, at der var et par kombinationer, som ikke fungerede så godt sammen, og så var der et par ingredienser, som ikke var så smagsfulde:
Bøftomaten havde ikke særlig meget smag.
Kammuslingerne var veltilberedte (de bliver nemt tørre), men blev helt overdøvet af kyllingen og lidt af saucen. Vi var alle enige om, at det var en god ret, men at det var den svageste af dem, hovedsagligt fordi der ikke var så mange forskellige smage.
Hyldeblomstgeleen blev helt overdøvet af sorbeten. Jeg er rigtig glad for hyldeblomst, men smagen er meget mild og sart, så der er mange ting, man ikke bør sætte den sammen med.
Der var intet i vejen med hindbærdesserten, men jeg syntes ganske enkelt ikke, at den var så spændende – måske fordi jeg har set den kombination så ofte før. Sammen med kyllingen var det den svageste ret i min bog.
Jeg er ikke den store vindrikker, men jeg bad om et glas hvidvin, og det var en rigtig god vin. En af mine ledsagere fik en vinmenu på tre glas. Jeg prøvede dem alle, og de var også alle virkelig gode (det samme syntes han – og han går op i vin) – især rødvinen: Wither Hills, pinot noir 2007 fra New Zealand. Den var ret dyr i indkøb (250 kr), men jeg købte alligevel to flasker. Hvis jeg ikke tager fejl, fik han tre glas vin for 300 kr. For mig at se virker det helt rimeligt for den slags vin.
Alt i alt var det glimrende mad, glimrende betjening og glimrende valuta for pengene. Dengang var Kokkeriet den billigste Michelin-stjerne-restaurant, men den udmærkelse har Relæ siden overtaget. Jeg var på Relæ, kort efter de åbnede, og for mig at se var maden der mere interessant end god, og der var adskillige ting, der enten var ubalancerede eller mindre heldigt tilberedt + jeg var simpelthen ikke så vild med maden.
Jeg har givet Kokkeriet samme karakter som både Herman og Geranium, men Kokkeriet var en af de første fine restauranter, jeg var på. Derfor ville min karakter måske have været anderledes, hvis jeg havde fået det samme måltid for første gang i dag. Ikke desto mindre husker jeg tilbage på Kokkeriet med større glæde end de to andre restauranter, og betjeningen på Kokkeriet var også den bedste af de tre. Selvom Kokkeriet var mindre fint og ekstragavant end de to, havde Kokkeriet dog mere identitet end både Geranium og især Herman.
Betjeningen og stemningen i restauranten på Kokkeriet var også den bedste af de tre. Jeg bemærkede en lille detalje, nemlig at når maden blev serveret, kom der to mennesker ind (oftest chefkokken og en tjener) med to tallerkener hver (vi var fire mennesker), og så stillede de hver en tallerken på bordet på nøjagtig samme tidspunkt. Jeg har ellers kun set den slags på tre-stjernede restauranter (og på visse tre-stjernede restauranter kommer de ikke engang med tallerkenerne på samme tid). Det gør selvfølgelig ikke maden i sig selv bedre, men det er dejligt at se, at de er så opmærksomme på små detaljer – siger det ikke også noget om, hvor opmærksom de ville være på detaljer mht. maden?
