International Talent Driving Denmark’s Culinary Innovation

Meet Davide Grossi, the International Talent Behind Bjørn & Delfino

Danes spend 47 minutes a day cooking and washing dishes, on average, based on a report published in December 2022 by Københavns Universitet – University of Copenhagen (KU).

“The greater our economic prosperity, the less food we make ourselves. We buy more meals that just need to be reheated and order more take-out. It’s a global trend. One that Denmark is lockstep with,” says Senior Advisor Henning Otte Hansen from KU’s Department of Food And Resource Economics

The hospitality industry in Denmark is one of the few industries which can be termed truly international. There is an overwhelming presence of people from international backgrounds working in kitchens all across the country.

Lars Bjerregaard writes in the June 2021 edition of Bord (the Substack he founded) “The new Nordic cuisine on which this city’s (Copenhagen) modern restaurant scene is founded is not only heavily reliant on but also in many respects run by a large, super-talented foreign workforce. It’s the secret we (Danes) haven’t wanted to recognise.”

In this edition of the RentCulture newsletter, we hear from one such super-talented international worker. This is the story of 29-year-old Davide Grossi, the head chef of Bjørn & Delfino, who arrived in Copenhagen from Tuscany, Italy, in December 2019. I was introduced to Davide by Jakob Mikkel Hansen earlier this year.

Head chef of Bjørn & Delfino – Davide Grossi | Credits: Davide Grossi

On a sunny Copenhagen morning in March, I met Davide at Bjørn & Delfino, near the Enghave Brygge ferry terminal. We chose to meet before opening to ensure his full attention. As expected, Davide was already busy preparing for the day when I arrived. Everything is organised and labelled in boxes.

“I think I still have a picture from when I was a kid and I started cooking for the first time. I must have been 3 or 4 years old.”

Watching his grandmother make pasta and pizza is where it all begins for preschooler Davide. At fourteen, he is off to chef school for five years. The dream was to earn the big bucks and open numerous restaurants. Davide admits his goals have changed since moving to Copenhagen, but not by much.

“As a dining destination, there is no Copenhagen without foreign workers,”

says Kristian Nørgaard, head political advisor for the hospitality organisation, HORESTA. Lars Bjerregaard stresses in his piece that the shortage of workers during the COVID-19 pandemic made clear the dominant role that foreigners play in the city’s restaurant culture.

I was curious to ask Davide if he felt like a dominant contributor when he was in the kitchens of Michelin-star restaurants like Noma and Restaurant 108 (now closed permanently). Noma, despite being a world-renowned restaurant, was also once popular for not paying their interns.

“It was not the workload for me that was challenging when I was at these world-class restaurants. If you are passionate about your job, you would want to be at the highest level.”

Both Kristian and Lars are spot-on in their assessment. Lars has spent 15 years in and around Copenhagen’s top kitchens. That’s 10,000 hours, right?

So, why quit working? Before I could ask Davide,

An unannounced visit from the hygiene inspector breaks our conversation. The inspector checks off their list on their clipboard and Davide returns to the table. He takes a moment and continues where we left off.

“95% of the people who come to eat in fine dining don’t understand the work that goes behind it. I always wanted to do something that people can understand.

You know, still difficult things to make. But it is approachable for people to understand and appreciate.”

Credit: Pinterest | Show: New Girl

Reviving a bankrupt business

The COVID-19 pandemic disintegrated the restaurant businesses in Copenhagen. Davide confesses that he is grateful that he was taken care of in Denmark. His friends back in Italy were not so lucky.

When new owners of Bjørn & Delfino looked to hire a head chef to bring a bankrupt business back to life, Davide jumped at the opportunity. After being at the helm for a year, Davide and his team have turned things around.

“It is all about the team. We come from different countries. It took us all time to understand and tune to the same working rhythm. We had a good year and I have learned a lot. Both about our customers and the team behind the food.”

For Spring 2024, Davide and the team at Bjørn & Delfino have introduced Neighbour Night and the Seafood Festival to move from what they call the cosy “season of the bear” towards the “Dolphin summer season”.

Davide with some of the dishes from the Spring Menu 2024 | Credit: Davide Grossi

Challenges faced in this industry

One of the many challenges that Davide has had to come to terms with since joining as head chef a little over a year ago is being the go-to person for all his staff. He was not ready for the challenges his non-EU staff faced when it came to immigration.

In an article written by Imogen West-Knights for the Financial Times in June 2022, she mentions meeting a kitchen worker from a high-end Copenhagen restaurant at a cafe. “This person was so afraid of losing their job by speaking to me that they not only asked to be anonymous but for their nationality and gender to be obscured as well.

Borrowing Lars Bjerregaard‘s words, “Internationals are the critical link, often filling the lowest-paid and most physically demanding jobs.”

Non-EU workers face the same pressures of immigration and social alienation. One is often met with fear and anxiety and finds it difficult to establish trust with the locals in Denmark.

How to get to Bjørn & Delfino

I cycled to the restaurant but one can also take the yellow harbour bus to the ferry terminal at Enghave Brygge and see Copenhagen from the water on the way.

According to VisitCopenhagen, the green journey would cost the same as the normal, plus the harbour buses are both NOx- and particle-neutral.