After being named The World’s Best Restaurant in 2022, here’s how Geranium has stayed at the top of the league.
Rasmus Kofoed and Søren Ledet are in the middle of dinner service; they take the video call in a room filled with pristine Scandi, pre-summer light. Outside, the sky is a fragile shade of peach fuzz. Kofoed places his phone on a table, in front of a flower arrangement whose delicate greenery he tweaks just so, to include it in the video frame.
The gesture is pure Geranium, a restaurant defined by precision and attention to detail. It's a temple to technically driven cooking that yields visually spectacular dishes, paired with beauteous beverages, served flawlessly in that surreptitiously focused, un-fussy Nordic way.
Cofounders Kofoed and Ledet have been honing this perfection since 2007. They’re the Captain Kirk and Mr Spock of the culinary world: adventurously adept, analytical and empathetic. In 2010 they moved the restaurant to its current, slightly improbable location within the Danish national football arena. The luminous dining room faces a verdant park, while in the kitchen, there’s a nook where the staff can follow the games eight floors below.
Diners at Geranium look over a park, while there's a space in the kitchen to keep an eye on the football games
Bending it like Bocuse, Kofoed scored gold in Lyon’s 2011 ‘Culinary Olympics’, after which Geranium went on a winning streak, picking up major accolades including the Art of Hospitality Award in 2018 as part of The World’s 50 Best Restaurants, and, in 2022, the title of The World’s Best Restaurant, joining the Champions League, aka, the Best of the Best category.
So, what have they been dribbling with since?
Reaching the dizzy heights of The World’s Best Restaurant
“Standing on that podium in London, on the UK’s hottest day ever, seems so long ago. Outside, it was boiling. Inside, there was electricity and energy. It was emotional to come together with people from all over the world after our Covid isolation. I remember Søren and me dancing on a table as someone brought champagne with sparklers. The day after, I went for a run in the heat. It was all surreal,” laughs Kofoed.
They both express relief that the derby-like game of reaching No.1 ended. “Ask any Formula 1 driver, and they’ll tell you that being in the race is the most fun you can ever have, but it’s also hard. Without that stress, we can afford to be more creative,” says Ledet.
“So many times I sat at the awards, holding Søren’s sweaty hand during the countdown… I’m grateful for the Best of the Best group,” says Kofoed. “Before, restaurants would climb the list and then slide back down. It wasn’t because they got worse, they were probably getting better, but people shifted their attention to other places,” the duo agrees.
Chef Rasmus Kofoed says he is more creative since Geranium was named The World's Best Restaurant 2022
Just prior to reaching the pinnacle, Geranium cut all meat from the menu, filling the void with seafood. “Now, we put all our energy into creating a more impulsive menu, more inspired by the seasons, so that we can change things more often than we used to. We’re still evolving; many of our team members have been here for years, they have families and kids now.
Normally, in my business, you can’t combine those worlds, yet we do. The accolades and worldwide attention have enabled us to raise our prices – money we set aside for staff costs, so they only work three days a week,” says Kofoed.
And what are these gentlemen tackling next?
Geranium 15th anniversary celebrations
“The white asparagus dish I just tasted, with browned butter and seaweed powder,” deadpans Kofoed. “And our 15th anniversary [in the arena location] this autumn [two weeks, circa mid-September, dates still TBC] when we’ll serve a menu featuring new and old dishes, some we never wanted to touch again but that illustrate how we’ve developed,” he promises.
“No, we won’t alter them, I think they’re pretty good as they were. Sometimes, I miss them, like the edible razor clam shells stuffed with razor clam. It was so complicated to make even for just five guests, then I wanted to make it for the whole restaurant. It was a big step to put that on the menu, it emboldened us and paved the way for other dishes.”
All meat was removed from the Geranium menu in 2022, with a new focus on seafood
“We’re also broadening our non-alcoholic beverage programme,” says Ledet. “Many guests aren’t drinking wine or alcohol, so we’ve got five people working full time on developing our NA pairing with more vegetable, herb and spice-based drinks. On the wine side, I like that we’re pouring more and more wines from Greece, Slovenia and Turkey. Of our four pairings, Heart & Soil is the bestseller, with smaller, independent winemakers doing things in a more minimalistic fashion, using less sulfites, without necessarily producing natural wines.”
Plant-based kebabs and permanent pop-ups
“And we’ve concocted a really good, plant-based kebab,” interjects Kofoed. “My son, Karljohan, fell in love with kebabs, he was having them almost every day. But it’s not good to eat all those animals, so I invented this version. On 21 September, we’re organising a kebab event at our plant-based pop-up, Angelica, to introduce more people to the concept of plant-based cuisine and raise funds for our wild, Danish nature.”
What does this kebab entail? “It’s a flatbread with sesame seeds, toasted a la minute. Then it’s with soya-based yoghurt, a lot of garlic, parsley and cucumber to make it a little fresh, and a crunchy salad of red onions and cabbage. Plus the plant-based kebab, made from wheat starch, shaped into loaves that are poached and marinated overnight in an aromatic brine before they’re sliced thin, grilled, glazed and served with chilli and fresh coriander. It looks like kebab, it’s so smoky, tasty and juicy,” exclaims Kofoed before he runs out of frame, fetching a pan of faux-bab to show off.
The dishes at Geranium feature plenty of seasonal produce, with menus changing frequently
Will Angelica ever turn into a brick-and-mortar restaurant? “Yes, one day. Copenhagen needs a restaurant like that, but more restaurants equal more problems and challenges, so at the moment, we’re doing pop-ups. On 24 August, we’ll host a plant-based dinner at Kiselgaarden, a biodynamic farm.
We did it last year. It was really inspiring to cook with ingredients we just found there and you could really feel the terroir. We set up a beautiful dining area in a greenhouse. The atmosphere was amazing. We had an open fire out front, and we made a smoky potato-root vegetable soup starter served with champagne, then we toured the farm. It was good for the guests, but for us, it was amazing,” says Kofoed.
So, as the Best of the Best prepare to celebrate 15 years above an arena, will they take over the actual football field? “About 10 years ago, we asked if we could. At the time, the teams that played there were terrible, so we offered to take half the field and plant crops and have some goats. They didn’t like the idea though,” sighs Ledet. But a champion can dream…
Discover more about the incredible restaurants in the Best of the Best group. Each has topped the annual poll of The World’s 50 Best Restaurants over its history.
