Rasmus Munk (Alchemist **, Copenhagen) defines himself as a holistic chef, and from this perspective he conducted an analysis of how he and all his colleagues are in a privileged position to try and change the world. Munk has always wanted to create ethical consciences and moods in diners. ‘Feeding the future’ was the title of his talk.

Munk wished to focus on the "ambition lying beneath Alchemist” since he opened up three years ago, which is nothing other than "holistic cookery, a vision of how we can change the world through our restaurant". Art, science, society and gastronomy are interconnected universes in Munk's restaurant, a spectacular space with an enormous dome for the projection of images. “It's another way of using creativity, like cooking, but without restricting ourselves to temperatures, textures or flavours", he added. “Food is important, as important as a roomful of artistic installations, which changes every year", he said.

Munk's concept of freedom is "not thinking about the next recipe or criticism by a journalist". When was the last time he felt free? About 25 years ago, when he was seven, in the children’s ball pool at a McDonald’s, a space that has now been recreated in that room, where diners come in, dive in, and feel free. His 108-strong crew is essential to undertake these extraordinary ideas: “We can feed 50 diners, but we also have artists, scientists, dancers ... it's an extremely diverse team composed of experts in their different fields".

Hunger, mould and butterflies

The first recipe he presented was accompanied by an impressive photo of undernourished children. “Every night over 800 million people go to bed hungry, and we want to change that. So I wanted to recreate the image of a child starving to death. We created a design and printed it in 3D (it is like a silver rib cage), and put sustainable rabbit meat on it with some herbs and Martini in the rabbit's ear, with some rather interesting aromas and flavours", he explained. This dish is “disturbing, and even annoys diners. You pay a lot at Alchemist, and it's not too much to ask diners to make a donation when they get back home". The dish is called ‘Hunger’.

The second recipe he touched on emerged from research. In Indonesia they commonly use mushroom and mould, and they inoculate it: “We noticed that this process released sugars and amino acids, and concentrated the product's protein. We felt it was quite interesting to work with this mushroom, and the result was rice custard with the inoculated fungus. Spores appear on the fourth day, and then we add some syrup made from products left over from other recipes".

The recipe offered to congress-goers was a butterfly. “This is the result of five years of research into butterflies as ingredients because we're looking for other sources of protein for the future. They've been cultivated, and aren't wild butterflies, and they feed on nettles because they live on them, and we give them water and honey. They have five times more proteins than beef, but the taste is similar to hazelnut", he explained. This is a crunchy butterfly served on a leaf, which has many nutrients, and it was the source of much doubt in the Auditorium before the first taste.

Munk committed

Munk also voiced his concerns with hospital food. They made and served food at hospitals, made surveys, decided that the chefs should not dress like the doctors, and recommended better communication and technology, allowed children in hospital to have ice cream, albeit with protein, every Friday ... Munk's crew wants to design "the best hospital", and they are getting there. “Maybe we can change the world that way", he enthused.

The Dane has another project called junk food which began during the pandemic, when they decided to make food for homeless people. They have now served more than half a million meals to people living on the streets of Copenhagen. “It is important to make society aware of the existence of these people in a city with high living standards", he reflected. Munk wants to extend the project to Sweden and Norway.

Before finishing up, he told the congress that "these three years of Alchemist have been very intense. We have half a million diners on the waiting list, which is absolutely crazy, and I think that's because we've succeeded in combining all the artistic fields as if this were an opera". But Munk is not stopping, and has announced his new project, Spora, which will be a large-scale Alchemist, "a research and innovation centre to change the world through gastronomy".