Nicolai Nørregaard

He was born and raised on the island of Bornholm, a small Danish Island in the Baltic Sea. As a child he was highly influenced by his grandfather’s cooking, who cultivated and grew his own vegetables, caught much of his own seafood, and preserved ingredients so that he could remain self-sufficient during the winter months.

A key aspect of Bornholm's cuisine that has become a cornerstone of the Kadeau kitchen are the smokehouses on the island – particularly Nicolai’s uncle’s smokehouse on the West coast of the island. The smokehouses mark the island’s landscape with their large and beautiful chimneys, however only ten of them still remain as working smokehouses nowadays. Nicolai’s uncle was one of the last remaining fish smokers who would use the traditional method of cold and hot smoking fish in an open chimney, a lengthy process that means that one must stay by the fire all day long, to ensure no flames erupt from the embers.

As one of the fore-runners in the Nordic food movement, these ways of cooking – very traditional in Bornholm – are what inspired Kadeau and are the foundation of Nicolai’s cooking. 

Kadeau is a restaurant that follows the seasons. In the summer, the team picks from the restaurant’s garden, and forages in the forests and on the beaches of Bornholm — the fresh produce is used in both restaurants in the summertime. The menu is constantly evolving through the growing season to ensure it truly reflects the produce growing on the island, from the wild and the garden. A large part of the summer is also spent preserving the abundance of the summer’s growth – this way when winter sets in, the restaurant’s larder is well stocked, and the menus can continue to celebrate Bornholm’s finest ingredients.