The art of the meal

Twenty years on from the launch of the New Nordic manifesto, Norway's National museum assesses the movement's impact on dining and culture

- Dan Hancox

When is gastronomy about more than just recipes? When it is New Nordic cuisine: to its advocates, the most influential culinary movement of the 21st century; to its detractors, a school of foodie puritans who have spent the past two decades sucking the joy out of dining.

If a decade of breathy Netflix food programming is to be believed, you could delicately tweezer some edible petals and micro-herbs on to locally foraged mushrooms and a bed of ancient grains, serve it with a naturally fermented lemonade, and you've got yourself a cracking (if not hugely substantive) New Nordic meal.

In fact, what the movement tried to bring to the table was more than that: a wider philosophy that linked your lunch with the natural world, local culture and tradition, while being evangelical about improving your relationship with all three. As Martin Braathen, the curator of a major new exhibition marking New Nordic's 20th anniversary pronounces ominously: "A carrot is not only a carrot."

New Nordic professed a strong interest in food education, public health and nutrition, it carefully tracked ingredients from farm, fjord or forest to table, and had a substantial environmental component. It was aspirationally low waste, low impact and low intervention. At its ambitious best, its chefs took on the challenge of replacing non-native imports such as citrus fruits, by asking questions such as: can we create a vinegar that can imitate lemon juice? Failing that, could we just use ants? (Ants have a lemon-like flavour.)