‘Ah don lan na di airport. Usay you dey?’ The sound of my Sierra Leonean parents’ mother tongue, Krio, was not on the bingo list of things I expected to hear in Copenhagen – a city with an estimated 3 percent African population – but there it was. It came from a perturbed middle-aged woman and translated to ‘I’m at the airport, where are you?’.
What felt like a quirky coincidence became a defining theme of my trip: pockets of diversity making their presence known in the most unapologetic and endearing way.
I’m in Denmark’s capital for one thing: to eat. Over the next few days, I’ll be retracing the steps of Carmy and Marcus in The Bear, the hit show about a scrappy group of chefs getting a Chicago restaurant off the ground, now back on Disney+ for its fourth season.
While the show is primarily set in the States, the Danish capital and its world-renowned fine dining culture are heavily influential in The Bear. Three-Michelin-star New Nordic restaurant Noma is where main character Carmy (played by Jeremy Allen White) cut his teeth in fine dining, and the city’s restaurants and kitchens make several appearances throughout the series.
Broens Street Food: A food market curated by fine-dining specialists
My first stop is Broens Street Food. Unlike your classic grab-and-go stalls, this food market is curated by Noma – and its selection is, as you’d expect, mouthwatering. There’s Crêpes à la Cart’s French pastries topped with fresh strawberries and milk chocolate; Fuego’s perfectly grilled pepito steak sandwiches; and Pasta La Pasta, specialising in… pasta.
After doing several exorcist head rotations, I land on Kejser Sausage, an authentic Danish sausage infused with wild garlic, served with a side of creamy potato salad.
It’s delicious, but I’m keen to discover what Copenhagen’s food scene has to offer beyond its fine-dining and local offerings. So I venture further afield to Nørrebro – aka the coolest neighbourhood in Copenhagen – known for its cultural diversity, vintage fashion scene and street performers.
Sasaa: Denmark’s first pan-African restaurant
The word ‘authentic’ is thrown around loosely, but Sasaa, Denmark’s first pan-African restaurant, is the real deal; from the beautiful shades of melanin captured in the paintings of Nigerian artist Gbonjubola Obatuyi to affable chef Amadou and the waiting staff bellowing out of the kitchen.
‘We’re the only pan-African restaurant in Copenhagen. Sasaa is more than a restaurant; it’s a cultural institution,’ says restaurant owner Mahmed Abdi. ‘We see ourselves as an introduction to Africa for those who have never had the joy of going there.’
On my Somali waiter’s recommendation, I try Bariis lyo Hilib, a savoury rice dish with tender lamb, zesty chilli, and a banana on the side (don’t knock it till you try it!).
Hart Bakery: Home of Copenhagen’s legendary pastries
Instead of putting the words ‘tasty Copenhagen’ into Google and hoping for the best, I’m excited to spend my second day in Copenhagen following in the footsteps of Marcus Brooks, The Bear’s ambitious young pastry chef.
In the show, Marcus is sent to Copenhagen to master three desserts, and stepping into Hart Bakery, it’s easy to see why this would be the perfect finishing school. The actor who plays Marcus, Lionel Boyce, spent two weeks at Hart in 2022, immersing himself in its doughy trenches.
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The same quiet intensity and obsession with the craft that we see in Marcus on-screen is palpable at Hart. From the focus of the bakers folding the croissant dough to the rhythm of the fresh loaves being taken out of the oven, the whole place runs on a quiet precision. I don’t get to try the ice cream that Marcus made on the episode, which is probably for the best as it’s 9am, but there’s no shortage of other Danish confectionery to sink my teeth into.
‘Strawberry tarts are like religion in Denmark,’ joked Talia Richard-Carvajal, creative director and baker of Hart Bakery during a pastry demo.
I have the chance to sample (and by sample, I mean stuff my face) classic Danish strawberry tarts with fresh whipped cream, flaky cardamom croissants and moreish black sesame cookies.
Noma Projects: Experimental concoctions from the laboratory of world-renowned Noma
Nothing could prepare my taste buds for Noma Projects. Forget starting with savoury and ending with sweet; I go from sweet to every flavour under the sun here.
Opened in 2022, this offshoot of Noma blends the experimentation of Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory with the conservationist values of a David Attenborough documentary. Everything is either foraged from surrounding gardens or fermented on site in their laboratories.
Amongst the wonderful concoctions I try are mushroom garum, corn yuzu hot sauce and elderflower paeso. They’re all so good that I leave with a bottle of each.
Noma may have been the pinnacle of fine dining, topping global rankings and defining an era of Nordic cuisine, but it was also known for the intense, often punishing kitchen culture that contributed to its closure. That pressure is mirrored in The Bear, where Carmy, a former Noma chef, brings the same perfectionism, burnout and emotional toll into his own chaotic Chicago kitchen.
But that culture has evolved for the better. In a bold move, Noma announced its transition into a full-time food innovation lab and test kitchen, a shift they call Noma 3.0. The restaurant, once synonymous with avant-garde tasting menus, is now focused on research and development.
‘The idea was to take Noma flavours and make them accessible for home kitchens,’ says Annika de las Heras, managing director. ‘We wanted to share experiences, not gatekeep.‘
As someone who couldn’t afford to eat at fine dining establishments growing up, this is music to my ears.
I get to step inside that very lab and make elderflower piso that can be used in sauces and dressings. We used split yellow peas instead of soy beans, since they are native to Scandinavia, and mix in elderflower oil to give it some floral notes. Sadly, I can’t take it home on the same day because it takes three months to ferment in a room kept at 29 degrees Celsius, but the good people at Noma promise to post it to me.
I am, however, given a thin sheet of SCOBY marinated in blueberry juice, washed down with kombucha made using honey from the onsite beehive.
After a long morning of warm pastries, the sharp, tangy hit of the ferment is like a jolt to the senses. I instantly feel more alert, like I’ve just splashed my face with cold water.
Poulette: A tiny takeaway with massive flavour
If you freeze up at too many options, Poulette is perfect for you. They serve only two items: a chicken sandwich and a mapo tofu sandwich. Founded in 2020 by chefs Martin Ho and Jesper Norrie, Poulette has become a Copenhagen hotspot, drawing hundreds of visitors daily, including international pop star Dua Lipa and – of course – a feature in The Bear.
Director Ramy Youssef, who helmed The Bear’s Copenhagen-set ‘Honeydew’ episode, reportedly discovered Poulette while filming in the city and loved it so much that he wrote it into the show. Marcus is seen devouring their signature chicken sandwich (and leaving no crumbs).
Their chicken sandwich is so good that the staff have gone to great lengths to keep the recipe a secret after diners tried to uncover it. True to their motto, ‘Spicy By Default,’ you will want a cold drink on hand.
But if you ask Martin, it isn’t even their best sandwich. Of Taiwanese descent, he grew up eating tofu and believes it is unfairly overlooked in the West. ‘The mapo tofu sandwich is where it’s at,’ he says proudly. ‘Tofu has a bland and boring stigma, but that’s just bad cooking.’
Sanchez: Contemporary Mexican flavours in the heart of Vesterbro
Mexican cuisine has never had to fight the label of being bland, and celebrity chef Rosio Sanchez, who makes a guest appearance in season three of The Bear, is largely responsible for bringing it to Denmark with her eponymous Sanchez restaurant in the colourful Vesterbro district.
One of my favourites on the menu is the spicy tuna tostada sprinkled with grasshoppers, a Mexican delicacy. It may sound like a Man vs Food trial to Westerners, but once you try it, you’ll get it. The crispness of the grasshoppers perfectly complements the soft tuna and crunch of the tortilla chip. The restaurant’s inspired menu also features habanero, avocado, and black beans.
It’s a must-try – but if you can’t get a table, there are smaller Hija De Sanchez stalls dotted around the city, offering quick Mexican bites like tacos and churros.
Rosio, who spent five years as a pastry chef at Noma, still embodies their school of thought. ‘I loved everything Noma stood for, preserving and continuing Danish cooking heritage and I wanted to do the same for Mexican food,’ she says. ‘There were people who doubted if Mexican food could be successful in this part of the world, but I was willing to fight for it.’
The pride and purpose of using food as a vehicle to preserve culture is why The Bear has such a strong cult following. It’s also what made my trip so special. From hearing my parents’ mother tongue in the airport to tasting dishes from all four corners of the world, the city’s diversity may not always be visible, but you can always taste it.
Whelan Barzey visited Copenhagen with Disney+.
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