Frederik Bille Brahe

Chapter 1: New York City

It’s all three together. It’s very clear to me: It was in my father’s garden, eating fennel. I remember the taste because he said it was a liquorice. He always tried to trick us kids into eating vegetables by saying it was candy.

It’s a bit difficult to talk about here because it’s very personal.

But it’s something that happens in the moment, you know? Every time I cook with sage, it reminds me of my father and my grandfather because we had a sage bush at home, something that my grandfather brought from Italy.

Olive oil is also sort of religious in a way. It has a meaning in history, like in Egypt where they would shower in olive oil, treat their skin with it. I imagine these values introduced into the olive oil as this soul. And then when you cook a dish, if you add olive oil, you put soul into the dish.

I want to borrow the book and look through it … Um. Porridge. Hilarious.

I had the chance to open Atelier September, which was in a brocante shop, in a space that was not made for cooking. There was no kitchen, there was no exhaust, there was no licence for alcohol, and there was no allowance to stay open in the evening.

Yes, but I was so eager to say something with cooking that I never saw the limitations. I sort of bent towards them. If I had found another place where I could do dinner, I would have done all the typical things that a chef would like to do. However, it was impossible. So, where normally you would serve wine, I would serve coffee, juices, and green tea that I love. It made me import my tea directly from Japan because otherwise I couldn’t afford to serve it. It made me cook in a different way. And there were no restaurants like that in Copenhagen. It pushed me into a scene where I did something that was out of the norm. So I think all these limitations actually created the thing, the magic.

I think there’s something about generosity and trust that is very important for me. In my cooking and in my family life, there is a balance between trying to organise and then also allowing things to happen as they do. In the moment, you might be like, ‘Oh, this is not as it should be’. But when you look back, there is always some sort of wisdom to how things play out. Therefore, when you actually try to do your best and you also treat people with respect, it comes out really good. And it’s the same thing with cooking. If you choose beautiful products, and you cook simply with them, it also comes out nice.