Relae Restaurant Copenhagen

Jonathan Tam

When Christian F. Puglisi first opened Relae in 2012 (one Michelin star) he said in his book that he didn’t want the experience for the guests to be stuffy, instead he wanted to focus only on gastronomy. They describe their philosophy as “cut to the bone”.

Many of the current chefs working at Relae have spent some time at Noma, one of the top restaurants in the world for a number of years. The current head chef is Jonathan Tam from Edmonton Alberta. The restaurant itself is very different from most restaurants in that as soon as you walk in the door, the chefs in the kitchen is the first thing you see. Most of us are geared to the kitchen being way in the back of the restaurant and rarely seeing the chef. At Relae the chefs greet the guests, seat them, serve them and eventually bring them the bill while the waitstaff attend to your needs at the table. Because the restaurant is fairly small and can serve only 40 guests at each sitting, the furniture had to become multipurposed. The table has a drawer that when opened reveals the menu, your napkin and 5 sets of cutlery. This allows the guest to pull out whatever cutlery they require for each dish. Guests are encouraged to pour their own water and wine. The other unique attribute Relae has is that they focus on all-natural wines.

Our evening at Relae was relaxed right from the start when we were greeted by Chef Tam and had a conversation about his journey from Edmonton to Relae as he seated us. He revealed that he had been in Denmark for the past 12 years. We also talked about the Chaine des Rotisseurs, my passion.

As the dished started to arrive, we had the opportunity to interact with all the chefs which made the evening intimate.

The meal was very veg forward which was refreshing. My favourite dish of the evening was just before dessert, a beautiful bowl of clotted milk, similar to a panna cotta, covered with three different diced tomatoes with tomato juice. The milk was silky and the the tomatoes had three different degrees of tomato. It was also perfectly seasoned. I could have had a whole meal of this dish.

Below are the pictures of the meal along with the menu. A fantastic way to start off our adventure in Denmark.

Tomato and shiso

Copenhagen’s culinary scene has been on the international “Foodie’s” radar for many years. Plan to book well in advance if you are interested in taking in some of the best restaurants in the world.

Tak!