Green, rolling hills shaped by the Ice Age; sandy beaches washed in art-inspiring light; and fertile farmland feeding Michelin-starred chefs and pioneering winemakers—this isn’t Tuscany, but Denmark’s Odsherred region, just an hour’s drive northwest of Copenhagen.
“When I first came here in 2009, there were no proper restaurants, and the region didn’t have any sense of pride in their offerings,” says Claus Henriksen, a Michelin-starred chef who left world-renowned Noma for life—and work—in Odsherred.
For centuries, Odsherred was known as Copenhagen’s pantry, supplying ingredients that landed on the city’s tables. Chefs still revel in the exceptional ingredients found here, but now, the region is more than just a purveyor. Increasingly it has become a culinary destination in its own right, thanks to a string of exceptional new restaurants that are rooted not just in Odsherred’s terroir, but its community and identity as well.
For Henriksen, Odesherred has provided an unlikely setting for his own restaurants. Turning down a majestic avenue of century-old poplars, I arrive at Anneberg Kulturpark, where the red-brick buildings with crawling vines once housed a mental asylum with 1,000 patients and an equal number of staff. A few years ago, a private investor decided to give the complex a new lease of life and turn it into a hub for food, art, and culinary entrepreneurs. Henriksen, and his restaurant, Mota, was among the first to move in.
“Seeing the scale and the potential of this place, I couldn’t resist,” says Henriksen. At Mota, which earned a Michelin star within 8 months of opening in 2022, the menu is a showcase of hyperlocal products. There are dishes like hake baked in sugar kelp from seaweed pioneers Dansk Tang (Noma’s seaweed supplier), seaweed beer from Deeper Roots, brewed in the asylum’s old fire station, and sauces made with Nordic tempeh from Contempehrary.
All of these entrepreneurs have joined Henriksen in the complex, operating in buildings just across from the restaurant. Henriksen, meanwhile, has also added two more ventures of his own into the former aslyum: Fru Klausen, serving smørrebrød, and Erba, a pasta restaurant running on local grains.
“Why import when I have everything here?” he says, motioning toward his neighbors. Henriksen also insists on making his own dishware, while the floors, the intricately ornamented ceilings, and the furniture are all crafted in Anneberg’s carpentry workshop. After dinner, guests can stay onsite in Gæstehuset, where the wardens’ former rooms have since been converted into a guesthouse.
Though Anneberg has all the trappings of a great weekend getaway, it’s just one anchor in Odsherred’s blossoming scene. Half an hour’s drive away through rolling hills, a cobblestone path leads to Dragsholm Castle, a 800-year-old fortress turned Relais & Châteaux-member hotel with an encircling moat and views of the Sejerø Bay. The castle sits on the Lammefjord, a polder drained by the castle baron in the 1800s, a move that turned the seabed into some of Denmark’s most prized farmland, famous for carrots, potatoes (some of the culled specimens are reborn as premium vodka at the nearby Nordic Soil distillery), and farmer Søren Wiuff’s sought-after asparagus.
