AS THE pioneer of ‘New Nordic Cuisine’, Copenhagen has quickly become one of the food capitals of the world. Yet despite emphasis being placed on seasonal produce, regenerative farming and foraging, Copenhagen – in comparison to other major European capitals – is limited in terms of vegan dining.
Trying to carve out a new plant-based trend in Copenhagen is the team behind The Ark Collection. Headed by founder and forager, Jason Renwick, The Ark Collection consists of a fine dining restaurant, neighbourhood bistro, and a seasonal street food vendor. The philosophy that drives The Ark Collection is a commitment to sustainability, foraging, and zero-waste, and you see this in every dish. Although it is their flagship restaurant, Ark, which has consolidated Jason’s team as leading the way in vegan cuisine, we visited their more modest Bistro Lupa.
Bistro Lupa – Jason Renwick
Bistro Lupa is nestled on the corner of a peaceful square in Copenhagen’s more upscale neighbourhood of Østerbro. As the name states, Bistro Lupa really is a quintessential bistro: it is charming, unassuming, and unpretentious. More than this, they offer a tasting menu which is modest in price and manages to situate Bistro Lupa as a more affordable fine dining option than many of Copenhagen’s alternatives.
Strangely enough for a plant-based menu, our dinner started at the sea. Having opted for the wine pairing, we began with a cava from a vineyard on the Catalonian coast. This geographical detail turned out to be important for our first dish, as the wine had an amazingly crisp, almost salty minerality to it.
Accompanying the wine, we were served a bowl delicately filled with two types of Danish asparagus (delivered by bicycle from a hydroponic farm) which laid atop a bed of seaweed crumble and a velvety hollandaise that smacked of lemon. Who said you need egg yolks for a perfect hollandaise? Lastly, the asparagus and seaweed were garnished with beach mustard that was foraged at the beach that very morning by Jason. The hallmark of a high-quality seafood restaurant is how fresh the produce is. The same, it turns out, can be said about a vegan dish dedicated to the sea.
The Ark Collection – Bistro Lupa
It wasn’t only the first dish which told a story of commitment to sustainability, of championing local produce, and of thinking outside the box. This was a narrative which weaved through every course and demonstrated that what the team behind Bistro Lupa were doing was something to get excited about.
The following course showcased that Bistro Lupa, in understanding itself as a bistro, need not follow the etiquette of fine dining. We were served a charred flatbread, topped with chives and a watercress which was again foraged from near the beach. This was to be torn up with our fingers, shared, and smeared by an indulgent sunflower seed butter and jalapeño oil.
Accompanying this was an astoundingly light and refreshing dish of shaved cauliflower, wild garlic, and hazelnut. All of this decorated with a beautifully pink wild pea flower. This was then served with a gorgeous natural white wine which tasted so intensely of hazelnut the pairing felt almost too good to be true.
The Ark Collection – Bistro Lupa
Since I started following a predominantly plant-based diet a few years ago, one of the main indulgences I always craved and missed has been fried chicken. This craving was finally satisfied when we were served some breaded blue oyster mushrooms which, I’m convinced, would be adored by even the most militant of meat eaters. These were arranged next to a homemade BBQ sauce of tomato and tamarind that we liberally dunked the perfectly crisp pieces of funghi into.
Given that we were dining in the midst of summer, it would be amiss for a menu of such breadth to not take advantage of tomato season. The final savoury course was a tomato risotto with in-house semi-dried tomatoes and homemade almond cream cheese. It was a celebration of Danish tomatoes that sung of summer and left us wondering whether we could possibly have space for dessert.
The Ark Collection – Bistro Lupa
The final course was a panna cotta infused with lemon thyme, star anise, and black pepper, alongside rhubarb prepared four ways. It was stunning. The profile of flavours was nuanced and delicate – each individual contribution coming to the fore. Vegan panna cotta can go so wrong so easily, but by this point of the meal I guess I shouldn’t have expected anything less.
From the same-day foraging to their close collaboration with the organic and local Funga Farm, each dish at Bistro Lupa was expressive of an exciting and considered approach to the way we eat. After such an experience, it’s hard not to expect The Ark Collection to soon be going toe-to-toe with some of the more established names in Nordic fine dining.
A must-visit if you find yourself in Copenhagen.
by Tristan Hedges