The design forces behind Kadeau restaurant in Copenhagen

A Danish Dinner

One could easily walk past 10B Wildersgade in the old Copenhagen district of Christianshavn without realising what lies behind the beautiful blue wooden door, so discreet is the Michelin-starred Kadeau. Known only to insiders, there is no view of the interior from the street since it’s not a place where anyone just drops by without a reservation. To dine at Kadeau is to experience new things, even though its way of cooking is based on traditions that have survived through the ages. Here, they are served in a novel fashion with surprising flavours and textures, while paying tribute to head chef Nicolai Norregaard’s love for his native island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea and its incredible produce.

The moment you enter the 275-sqm restaurant, that element of surprise is evident. The elegant decor, cleverly concocted by Copenhagen-based design studio, OeO, features elements of Bornholm such as ceramic vases handcrafted on the Danish island and Monotypi copper artworks by Christian Lemmerz showing abstractions of nature from Bornholm. Dinesen , a 115-year-old Danish family business known for its trademark long and wide solid wood planks, supplied oak to OeO, which passed it on to a local carpenter to create a custom wall display of preserved fruits, herbs and flowers.

Birgitta Murga Thomsen, brand and marketing director of Dinesen, describes how Norregaard’s vision and the values of dining at Kadeau – immaculateness, sophistication, passion, attention to detail and a personal experience – are represented by the use of Dinesen products. “The wood brings a special warm feel to the restaurant and the way designer Thomas Lykke from OeO has used the wood in so many different ways, from the flooring and the kitchen to the room dividers and cabinets, becomes an embracing and cosy element throughout the restaurant. Wood is an important element in Danish homes and the use of wood at Kadeau goes hand in hand with Nicolai’s vision of creating a homey feeling in his restaurant."

Kadeau has indeed been designed as a home that feels like it’s been around for decades. Lykke, founder and creative director of OeO, elaborates, “What really makes a home is the mix of vintage, new and inherited objects. It’s that mix and diversity that has to be a little off to make it human, otherwise you feel like it’s a showroom. People should feel comfortable and embraced. The choice of furniture was carefully picked out to create an environment with the Kadeau DNA. How do we take the local ingredients and nature from Bornholm, and adapt that into an interior setting? These abstracts are interpreted into the interiors through the colours, the texture of the bricks on the floor, the warmth of the wood, the softness of the curve on the tables."

Thus, rather than one standard model, the dining room features a full range of seating: Theodor dining chairs designed by OeO exclusively for Kadeau and manufactured by long-time partner Brdr Kruger, Kvadratupholstered Holmquist Paradis sofas and Beetle stools from Gubi, black Thonet 209P chairs with anthracite leather seats, vintage CH24 Wishbone chairs in oak, and antique black Windsor chairs in black lacquered wood.

Norregaard explains why he chose OeO to design his restaurant. “There are clear bonds between modern Nordic cuisine and Japanese cuisine. It’s the same with OeO. They stand for Scandinavian tradition tied up with Japanese tradition. It just felt right, and the fact that they haven’t done a restaurant before was very important because I wanted something fresh. It was maybe taking a chance, but that’s how I like it. I like it edgy and I like to take chances." And it has certainly paid off at Kadeau. Everything has been painstakingly thought through so that the perfectly choreographed dining experience flows smoothly like a ballet during the 20 courses that each of the chefs come out to serve.

All eight tables look out onto either the private courtyard through panoramic windows or an open-plan kitchen where the magic occurs. The kitchen rightly takes pride of place, inviting and accessible, like in many homes. It features bespoke islands and units in Dinesen HeartOak built by cabinetmaker Garde Hvalsoe – known for its bespoke handcrafted kitchens – with a top in granite from Bornholm and a wood-fired oven in D29 bricks from Petersen Tegl. It’s also a showcase for appliances such as a blast chiller, combination oven, induction zone, sear hob and stand mixer by Electrolux Grand Cuisine, which brings professional cooking systems to the home for domestic chefs who wish to recreate restaurant-quality meals.

Soren Lundh Aagaard, coowner of Garde Hvalsoe, remarks, “The great thing about chefs who cook at the level that Nicolai does is that they are basically highly skilled craftsmen, just like us. This means great attention to the raw material, simplicity, detail, aesthetics and execution. We build on a Danish furniture-making tradition that honours a strong bond between functionality and beauty and, being from a region of the world where the weather drives a lot of attention to the decor inside people’s homes, we easily connected to Thomas and Nicolai’s ideas of the cosy/private experience that we should pass on to the guests."

www.oeo.dk | www.kadeau.dk