Rasmus Kofoed's Geranium Goes Meat-Free

Leading Copenhagen chef Rasmus Kofoed has that confirmed he will be removing meat from the menu at his Geranium restaurant, which currently occupies second place on The World's 50 Best Restaurants list, as of January 2022.

In a total shake-up of the menu, meat will no longer feature in any of Kofoed's newly-devised dishes, but fish and seafood will remain. While the announcement signals yet more change in the world of fine dining, both the chef and the three-Michelin-star restaurant were already very vegetable-centric.

“I feel it’s time for a change at Geranium and I’m working on that as we speak. Not that we will cancel all the signature dishes, but we won’t serve them anymore. That’s how I like things, I like a challenge in my life. My next challenge is to create amazing new dishes for the menu," said Kofoed. 

“Just to say goodbye to dishes like the marbled fish and the razor clam, a lot of these dishes that we’ve been perfecting for years. Also, dishes that people ask for when they come here, so I felt I could take them away. But now I think it’s time for a change, also for the people who work here, we need to be constantly evolving."

The chef - who promotes a healthy lifestyle, and fuelled his team with beetroot juice during this year's Bocuse d'Or final - opened the temporary restaurant Angelika during lockdown, which offered a completely plant-based tasting menu.

“When you go to all these great restaurants, even Geranium, even if the focus has always been to create a nice balance in the meal, sometimes it’s just too much. Too much protein, too much fat, too many vices for your body and you just don’t feel on top when you leave or the morning after," he said.

The news breaks in the same week that US culinary giant Daniel Humm of Eleven Madison Park, announced his departure from Claridge's in London, after the hotel rejected his vision of a 100 percent plant-based menu. 

Read Fine Dining Lovers' exclusive interview with Rasmus Kofoed about going meat-free, his plans for Geranium and what he thinks about purely plant-based menus in fine dining.