KOKS is headed to Greenland after earning acclaim and fame at it’s location on the Faroe Islands.
The wind was howling and therefore the heavy gray clouds looked low enough to grab once I received the lot where I’d been instructed to satisfy the team from KOKS. it had been completely empty, aside from my fun-sized rental car and a pair of shaggy black sheep who were inching their way toward the whitecapped waters of Leynavatn. I stared through the windshield, realizing that it doesn’t take long to urge almost desensitized to how beautiful the Faroe Islands are, even when the weather is at its moodiest. Especially then.
You definitely run out of synonyms for “green,” do you have to got to describe the vibrantly rugged scenery that surrounds you as you drive from island to island. The word “verdant” was lighting up the left brain of my brain when a Land Rover materialized on the dirt path that traced its way round the fringe of the lake. When the driving force opened the door, I climbed in and buckled up before we bounced from rut to rut on the way back to the restaurant. Yes, the restaurant — and therefore the scuffed plastic Michelin Man sitting on the SUV’s center console is not just for show.
KOKS is that the first Michelin-starred restaurant within the Faroe Islands, an 18-island archipelago that sits within the North Atlantic between Iceland and Scotland. it had been awarded its first star in 2017, and added a second star two years later. it’s been called the world’s most remote Michelin star dining experience — and, yes, that tracks — but it’s close to move about 1,300 miles further afield.
Earlier this month, KOKS announced that it might be relocating to the West Coast of Greenland for the summer seasons of 2022 and 2023, where head chef Poul Andrias Ziska will take over the restaurant at Ilimanaq occupy the 53-person village of Ilimanaq. Overnight guests at the lodge will have the choice of experiencing the 17- to 20-course KOKS tasting menu during their stay; other visitors can attempt to score one among the remaining reservations for the restaurant, which can seat only 30 people each night.
“Is it a crazy move? i do not think it is a crazy move!” owner Johannes Jensen told Euronews. “We are moving the terroir from the Faroe Islands to Greenland. We are still within the Nordics, we are still within the Arctic, and there are fantastic possibilities in what’s available in Greenland.”
Ziska told Bloomberg that his approach won’t change, albeit the scenery out the windows will. He’ll still forage for wild berries, flowers, and herbs, and therefore the menu will still largely specialise in “the clean, pure flavors of the ocean.” the most important difference are going to be the addition of untamed game, including seal.
Of the 17 courses that I experienced, the sole two that weren’t pulled from the ocean were the Faroese goose tartare and therefore the fermented lamb. The others ranged from a savory disc of deep sea crab topped with caramelized onion foam and pickled elderberries, to a century-old Mahogany clam served with kombucha, elderberry flowers, and fermented gooseberry seeds, and a fermented ocean perch, grated over potato puree and fermented lamb tallow. (Fermentation is a crucial — and, at times, essential — a part of traditional Faroese cuisine).
One of the desserts was made up of limpets, which Ziska was excited about serving. “We’ve had it before, but not within the same way,” he told me last summer. “Limpets are often chewy and hard to eat, so we made a stock out of it that we reduced down with caramelized carrots and caramelized seaweed. We made it into a cream that we replace into the limpets’ shells, and therefore the guests need to lick it out of the shell. Eating it’s a really fun experience.”
KOKS at the Ilimanaq Lodge are going to be open from Sunday, June 12 through Thursday, September 8. The Tasting menu starts at 2100 DKK ($309). A wine pairing is out there for a further 1600 DKK ($235) and a juice pairing is 800 DKK ($117).
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