Seeds Of Change

First, chef Rasmus Kofoed ditched the meat at Geranium. Then the Copenhagen culinary destination was named World’s Best Restaurant. Coincidence?

- Vivian Song

IN JULY, AS host Stanley Tucci announced the winners of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants during a gala event in London, chef Rasmus Kofoed’s team sat in the audience holding hands – and their breaths.

Kofoed’s Copenhagen restaurant, Geranium, made its debut on the World’s Best list in 2009, just two years after opening. Since that auspicious beginning, he has earned the restaurant three Michelin stars, been named Denmark’s chef of the year and won the Bocuse d’Or, the esteemed international culinary competition held each year in Lyon, France. (He’s also won both the bronze and silver Bocuse, the only chef to do so in the event’s history.) It’s an impressive list of accomplishments and accolades, but when Tucci announced Geranium as the World’s Best Restaurant for 2022, it validated a seismic change at the establishment: Kofoed’s recent decision to take meat off the menu.