Claus Meyer is the author of over a dozen Danish cookbooks, a long-time TV chef on DR1 and on the PBS series New Nordic Cooking, and the co-founder of Noma.  Those who associate him closely with Danish cuisine might be surprised to hear his recent description of the food of his homeland. “I am from a part of the world where esthetic doctors and Puritan priests have led an anti-hedonistic 300 year crusade against the pleasure-giving qualities of food,” he said in last month’s TEDxCopenhagen talk. “For centuries….the philosophy so successfully communicated by these fine people was that if you want to live a long and healthy life on earth, and wind up not going to hell in the end, the only thing you had to do was to eat something of inferior taste and get it over with in a hurry.”

“It was in this period that I was brought up in a middle class family in the 60s, the darkest age in Danish food history,” he continued.  “My mother represented the first generation of Danish women to work outside the home.  It was an era of canned meatballs, potato powder, sauce coloring and the stock cube.  My parents raised me on a diet composed of chopped, fatty meat of the cheapest quality and frozen vegetables pre-boiled years before in Kazakhstan. Both ingredients were stocked in huge chest freezers in our basement. Most of the meat was dipped 3 or 4 times in dried breadcrumbs and then deep-fried in margarine packed with transfatty acids. And the excess margarine was used for dipping. No wonder that at age 15 I weighed 94 kilos (over 200 lb.) and was one of the three fattest kids in Southern Denmark.”

He went on to say “Eating in my childhood was never a matter of reaching out for the beauty of life – it was a matter of efficiency. Food should be cheap, and it should be prepared and eaten in less than 30 minutes.”

The chance to leave Denmark for France as an au pair in the home of a baker opened Meyer’s eyes to a new way of cooking and eating — and doing business. He returned to Denmark inspired to challenge the culinary traditions of his home country, as well as its views of agriculture and food production.  He became the driving force behind the New Nordic Food Manifesto, expounding the pursuit of purity, simplicity and freshness based on seasonal foods that make the most of the local region’s climate, water and soil movement. He also became an energetic entrepreneur, founding a wide range of food businesses.

Claus Meyer shared his story on September 18, 2012 in a multi-media presentation at TEDxCPH, the Danish version of the American TED talks program.  These now-global annual conferences originated in 1984 as a one-time event called TED: Technology, Entertainment and Design.  Presenters from a wide variety of backgrounds are asked to give a short talk (all available online) on one idea they consider worth spreading.

The topic that Claus Meyer chose was “Unfolding the potential of indigenous food cultures.” He discussed the founding of Noma, stating “We wanted to redefine luxury, we wanted to emphasize seasonality, we wanted to reinstall the missing link between cooking and nature. We wanted wonderful food to be compatible with healthiness…We were on a suicide mission. [But] it seems to be working out OK.”

The main focus of his talk was that food matters beyond pleasure.  We need to worry about the environmental condition of the world, he stated, and gave as an example the price being paid nutritionally and environmentally for our consumption of refined white flour. In order to encourage audience members to bake their own bread, he placed a sourdough starter under each chair – and even baked bread onstage during his talk.

It’s clear that teaching the fundamentals of baking, and the value of great bread, are missions dear to Claus Meyer.  He wants to fight against big food corporations, and most importantly he wants to help bring the ideas of the New Nordic Food Manifesto to the rest of the world. His work in Bolivia, the poorest country in South America, is his second passion. Meyer’s company established the Melting Pot foundation, which is working to establish a cooking school for poor children in La Paz, a restaurant and bistro, and a re-socialization project for former inmates.

In his TED Talk Claus Meyer reveals how he actively searches for territories and challenges where there is a basis for creating a movement.  It is important that we all try to make a difference in the world, he concluded, saying to the audience: “Take your time, and bake some bread. You are the movement.”

Go forth and bake!

Carol