How Did I Get Here?

Claus Meyer

Culinary entrepreneur
from
  • Education
  • Nykobing Falster Katedralskole, Nykobing, Denmark, class of 1984
  • Copenhagen Business School, class of 1991
  • Work Experience
  • 1983–85
    Apprentice chef, Au Petit Marquis, Agen, France
  • 1986–87
    Head chef, Pascal, Copenhagen
  • 1988–2003
    Founder and co-owner, Brasserie Truffee
  • 1991–99
    Host of Meyer’s Kitchen on Danish National Television
  • 1999–Present
    Founder, Meyers Madhus
  • 2003–Present
    Founder and co-owner, Noma
  • 2010–Present
    Founder, Melting Pot Foundation
  • 2016–Present
    Founder and co-owner, Agern, Great Northern Food Hall, Meyers Bageri, Norman, New York
  • Life Lessons
  • “I do business like a jazz musician: I play a tone and then see what comes back.”
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  • “You can start companies without money by using other people’s production facilities in collaboration. You bring the energy and innovation.”
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  • “You don’t need a long-term plan. Whenever you see something fantastic, attack that problem with some tool in your toolbox.”
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  • 1977
    “My parents had divorced, and my grandmother, who meant everything to me, had died. I wanted to get schoolwork behind me, so I tried to do as little as possible.”
  • “One night, I got a call that our fantastic cook from Burgundy was passed out drunk. I found a restaurant full of impatient people. I explained the situation, begged for 20 minutes to get things right, and a couple of the guests came into the kitchen and helped me out.”
  • “Nordic food didn’t exist, so we invented a new flavor profile. We had the top 10 chefs of Scandinavia sign a manifesto and present it in front of journalists, and from there it spread like a virus.”
  • Noma’s steamed wild oyster with crunchy broccoli stem
  • At a Melting Pot event in La Paz, 2014
    “We started a food school in a state prison in Denmark and a cooking school and fine-dining restaurant, Gustu, in La Paz, Bolivia. We’re now starting the Brownsville Community Culinary Center in Brooklyn, a food school and eatery for locals.”
  • Other investments include: Aska restaurant in Brooklyn; Hotel Saxkjobing in Sakskobing; chocolate importer Chokolade Compagniet in Rodovre; Nykobing Football Club in Falster; Lilleo Co-op Fruit Orchard in Lilleo; and, in Copenhagen, Estate Coffee/Copenhagen Roasters, Nordhavn Vinegar Brewery, the Standard Jazz Club, and restaurants Almanak, Verandah, Radio, and Studio
  • 1983
     
  • “I met a pastry chef, Guy Sverzut, who gave my life direction. He was a defender of slowness—he fought for food’s craft. I went home with the idea that my role in life would be to change Danish food culture.”
  • Cooking on a TV show in Jamtland, Sweden, 2011
  • “I started a food school. We’ve taught over 20,000 people to bake in the last five years.”
  • On a biodynamic farm in Dronningmolle, 2015
  • “I didn’t want to be a chef running away one week after his opening, so I committed to my restaurants in Grand Central Station: The Food Hall gets 4,000 customers a day, and Agern averages 175. Norman opens this month in Brooklyn.”
  • Nordic-style flatbreads at Meyers Bageri