Fra det gamle danske landkøkken til det nye nordiske: - Bagrund, forskelle og ligheder

Resumé

Det nye nordiske køkken er i dag et højtprofileret begreb i den gastronomiske verden, og der er udsendt et manifest med de bagvedliggende ideer. Begrebet forbindes blandt andet med restauranten Noma, der er kåret til verdens bedste spisested. I artiklen beskrives retningens ideer, og det analyseres, hvor tæt disse ideer ligger på det historiske danske landkøkken, og hvorfor dette køkken i 1960’erne blev forladt, blandt andet da kvinderne kom ud på arbejdsmarkedet. Det diskuteres, i hvilken grad disse ideer kan danne basis for en hverdagskost, der kan være med til at forbedre danskernes sundhedstilstand og mindske fødevareproduktionens skadelige virkning på miljø og klima.

Summary

A new Nordic concept in gastronomy throughout Scandinavia is one of the new century’s most successful trends. The flagship of these developments, the Noma restaurant in Copenhagen, has been voted as the world’s best eatingplace for the last three years. The principles of this new trend were formulated in a manifesto signed in 2004 by many of the most prominent kitchen chefs in Scandinavia. Local commodities, fresh raw materials, depending on the season, and a close relation to nature are the main elements in this concept. The concept originated in the most experimental and exclusive part of the food sector, but the main question for society is whether some of these ideas can be integrated into normal peoples’ everyday diet. If so, this could be a powerful element in Danish health policy and in a society where  besity and an unhealthy lifestyle are fast growing problems. A major Danish research project, OPUS, financed by The Nordea Foundation, has investigated the effects of the new Nordic diet on health, physical and intellectual capability, environment and economics. In this article, we compare the new Nordic diet with the traditional diet of rural areas  before industrialisation, i.e. before the Second World War. Many similarities are observed: the close relation to the local area, the high degree of seasonality and the close proximity to nature. The traditional diet was abandoned because it was too labour intensive. This was because the female labour market participation rate grew in the 1970s, and paid domestic help for families declined in the middle of the twentieth century. The problem is whether the higher per capita income and the lower number of working hours provided room for a better quality of food and for a higher degree of interest in the preparation of food. Large investments in new kitchens in the first decade of this century can perhaps be a positive indication of a growing interest in food preparation. If so, this is very positive for people’s health, for the environment, for the public budget and for the climate. In all of these areas, diet is a highly important factor.