From gravy to sourdough: Here’s the recipe for Claus Meyer’s transformation of Danish food culture

‍ ‍“Within every person lies a sense of beauty that must be awakened slowly and gently. One must kiss this sense of beauty awake. This is a possibility open to everyone, whether you are a poet, a painter, a musician—or a chef.”

That’s what star entrepreneur Claus Meyer tells INVI Director Sigge Winther in the KOMPAS podcast. Claus Meyer has pioneered a new direction for Nordic cuisine and sparked a fundamental shift in the eating habits of the average Dane by articulating a clear mission rooted in the awakening of his taste buds that he experienced as a young man in Gascony, France. Since then, he has insisted that the experience of good taste and beauty can easily be cultivated on Danish soil. Over the past 30 years, he has brought together a diverse group of stakeholders around this mission—and along the way, scaled the project so that this culinary excellence reaches all the way to ordinary dinner tables.

At INVI, we take a mission-driven approach to tackling today’s wicked . The change agent formulates an ambitious and tangible mission that can bring together partners across sectors. Through a series of “pilot actions” that continuously inform the mission, the change-maker aims to achieve the overarching mission through separate, small-scale actions. We have compiled an introduction to the mission tool on the Mission-Driven Change page.

The story of Meyer’s food empire is not just a story about sourdough, apple cider vinegar, and the world’s best restaurant on Holmen—it is also a prime example of how to successfully bring about fundamental social change through mission-driven work.

Claus Meyer shared the full recipe for the food mission with Sigge Winther and Silas Moody during his appearance on INVI’s podcast KOMPAS. In this article, we distill the conversation down to its three key insights.

A Call from the French Golden Age

One of the key ingredients behind Meyer’s success is a clearly defined mission. Meyer describes the vision of making Danish food culture locally rooted, heartfelt, and healthy as a “calling.”

It certainly wasn’t on the cards that Claus Meyer would become a key figure in modern Danish gastronomy. On the contrary, Meyer says that the food culture on the island of Lolland in the 1980s was “as if we were on the brink of the grave.” Raised on a cheap, time-efficient, and “cultureless” diet, processed foods, canned goods, and powdered desserts are the flavors of Meyer’s childhood.

"My encounter with the food and people of Gascony gave me a mission, a life’s work: to ensure that parents in Denmark put just as much effort into food as I had seen people do in France."

As a young man, Claus Meyer experienced a radical change when he ended up in Gascony, France, almost by chance: “After 19 years of processed foods and imitation foods, I found myself in gastronomic Nirvana in the midst of the golden age of French gastronomy.” And that became the springboard for formulating a mission to ensure that the children—and adults—of the future have healthy and wholesome taste experiences: “My encounter with the food and people of Gascony gave me a mission, a life’s work: to ensure that parents in Denmark put just as much effort into food as I had seen people do in France.”

Many small streams make a big river

The second key ingredient in Meyer’s success comes into play when he realizes that no one can change the world alone. Or, as Meyer puts it: “All my life, I’ve been running around like a manic, lone cowboy trying to solve all the problems.” If Meyer is to transform Danish food culture, he needs to bring others on board for the mission.  

When he set out this culinary mission as a manifesto for New Nordic cuisine in 2004, it was therefore an open invitation to all relevant parties—from niche artisan food producers, large industrial companies, and agricultural stakeholders to politicians across the political spectrum. The manifesto thus became a professional—and strategic—tool for uniting many stakeholders around a tectonic shift in Danes’ relationship with food.

"All my life, I've been running around like a manic, lone cowboy trying to solve every problem"

“It’s both seductive and purely rational,” says Meyer about inviting partners into the mission room. He elaborates: “If you frame the change as something that doesn’t further polarize society, then you can engage the most resource-rich actors”—and in Meyer’s view, it is precisely this broad collaboration between grassroots groups, organizations, and political actors that most effectively drives large-scale change.  

Changes in Fine Dining – and the Next Generation of Danish Potatoes

Sigge believes that the manifesto for New Nordic Cuisine is a bit lofty and that Noma is an “elite project.” Claus Meyer has gained national fame and recognition. But has his mission to change the eating habits of ordinary Danish families been successful?

That question leads to the final ingredient in the recipe for Meyer’s transformation of Danish food culture. For the mission to succeed, Meyer emphasizes, it must be deliberately targeted at the segment of the population that doesn’t dine at Michelin-starred restaurants or shop at Alma Madmarked. The change must trickle down from the top restaurants into everyday cooking—and that has required adapting the mission. Meyer sums up the difference: “Everyday food is perhaps less about a monument and more about peer learning, where people inspire one another right where they live.”

Meyer has experienced this before: methods have evolved along the way to fulfill the mission. He began his culinary mission by riding around on his bike and serving delicious food to his friends, acquaintances, and tennis partners: “My approach was slow and difficult to scale: ‘Taste my chocolate, try my cheese!’”

That is why Meyer has had to employ various tools along the way, invite different partners, and adapt his mission to the prevailing contexts. And to truly reach Danish households, the mission must be adapted once again. University courses, a Ministry of Meals, a campaign on the budget bill, and, not least, a mass mobilization of educational initiatives—the ideas and projects are many.

The mission, on the other hand, is exactly the same as it has been since the revival in Gascony.

Listen to Silas Moody’s conversation with Claus Meyer and Sigge Winther on KOMPAS at Spotify and Apple. You can listen to all episodes of KOMPAS here.

If you’d like to learn more about mission-based work, visit INVI’s page on mission-driven change, where we share insights on using missions as a tool to tackle today’s wicked . If you, your organization, or your company want to learn how to create change in practice using missions as a tool, INVI offers masterclasses for tomorrow’s problem-solvers.

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