Restaurant moment

There is not much revolutionary spirit or fanfare about Restaurant Moment. It is the feeling of absolute calm that first hits you when you enter. It is early afternoon on a Saturday and preparation for dinner is already well underway. But it is in a very different kind of atmosphere than that of most restaurants this time of day. There is no loud electronic or heavy metal music playing. No banging of pots and pans. No raised voices or fast paced shuffling of feet. It is simply quiet. Absolute quiet. And peaceful.

In the kitchen, Eigil, the soft-spoken gentle giant of a head chef, is pouring carefully over his newest creations. On the floor, restaurant manager Carina is setting up silverware and glasses for tonight’s service. The owners, Rikke and Morten are there, too, tending to various tasks with the small, dedicated team on hand - all of them moving calmly, taking care of their tasks at hand while smiling, talking softly and cracking jokes.

It is an unusually quiet atmosphere compared to the rest of the business. But then again, Restaurant Moment, is unlike most - if not all - restaurants in the world. It is a restaurant imagined by a young, ideological couple with no prior industry experience. And one that completely shatters and redefines the terms sustainable and vegetarian cuisine it is often classified within. It is the quiet restaurant revolution you may have yet to hear of, and it was built from the ground up in record time.

A biodiverse desert comes alive

“Five years ago,” Rikke and Morten explain, pointing through the large windows to the sprawling garden and giant greenhouse outside the restaurant, ”All of this was nothing but a parking lot. And before that, it was a conventional corn field. A complete biodiverse desert.”

It is a statement that absolutely boggles the mind, as you sit there looking at the plant and vegetable garden that makes up the base of the dishes of Restaurant Moment. But this once biodiverse desert became the perfect ideological playground for the young couple who had originally come from Copenhagen to rural Jutland to explore more wholesome ways of growing their own food. And in doing so ended up creating what has been labeled a positive impact, plant-based, gourmet dining experience.

On this barren piece of land, the couple started farming. And they started building. Growing wiser as they went along. All in an effort to create their own, unique and largely self-sufficient restaurant experience. Plants were planted, somewhat unsuccessfully at first, as they battled exhausted soil and a myriad of pests. As the years progressed, however, the efforts started to pay off. The soil became fertile once again and the diversity of crops grown started attracting insects and frogs which helped battle snails and other pests. Today, the once barren wasteland seems absolutely unrecognizable as a diversity of plants, herbs and bushes intertwine to create a year-round supply of food for the restaurant dream.

While the seeds for their Garden of Eden were sown, the couple took to building the restaurant in which the fruits of their labor were to be served. It too happened with the deepest respect for the environment and an effort to put absolutely no negative impact on Mother Earth. And more than that. As the project took shape, it evolved into a conscious effort of leaving a positive impact rather than to leave no impact at all.

Solar panels provide much of the electricity for the restaurant. Heating is provided entirely by clever management of excess heat and exhaust from the kitchen, heat-retaining materials, insulation and two pane windows which provide a natural circulation of outside air heated by the sun and circulated throughout the restaurant. Even rainwater is collected from the roof and channeled under the greenhouse outside to provide all the irrigation needed for the garden to thrive.

The entire project has taken shape of a constantly evolving study and a unique learn-as-you-go approach to something that is more than just sustainability and self-reliance. It has created in Restaurant Moment a perfect organism that has over the years attracted some of the best young talents, and created for them a perfect fit.

Eigil, the head chef, for example, showed up unannounced at the back door a couple of years ago. He had eaten at Moment and fell so instantly in love with the place and the experience that he knew this was the place to build his future. Much the same can be said for restaurant manager Carina, who actually fell for the thoughts and philosophy that shaped the restaurant and submitted her application before even eating there the first time. Both have become integral parts of the experience in record time.

To Eigil, his part and his joy of involvement is in coming up with beautiful new creations under the challenges that the obvious pledge to locality and seasonality provide. “I enjoy being allowed to focus 100% on creating the best meal from the best ingredients our local pantry can provide, and at the same time trying to narrow down the perimeter from which our ingredients come,” he says, “To me, food is about enhancing, not manipulating and to find new ways of working with ingredients. Our shared goal is to deliver comfort on a plate, seasoned with an element of surprise. It’s a constant process on behalf of the entire team, from the kitchen over management and to the floor. We work together seamlessly in creating new and better ideas.”

To his hands and eyes on the floor, Carina, her mission in life is about much more than delivering perfect service. To her, the greatest joy of working at Restaurant Moment is in creating the perfect experience for guests. This experience, in her mind, is created through a conscious and never-ending effort to convey and explain the deep thoughts behind everything from choice of ingredients and composition of dishes to sustainable furnishing. “Sometimes I’ll find myself just looking over the dining room,” she beams, “and when I see anybody pausing over something, I’ll run right over and jump into an extended explanation. That’s how much I love the spirit and ideology behind this place.”

She, too, points out the profound lack of hierarchy in the organization and the unusually strong sense of camaraderie between the kitchen, the floor and the owners as one of the best aspects of working at the organism that Restaurant Moment. An organism that seems as holistic and wholesome as the blossoming environment and philosophy they have created around them.

A philosophy of not only being as self-reliant as possible, growing their own food to the extent they can and sourcing the majority of other ingredients from conscious local producers within a 15-kilometer radius. But much more than that. At Moment, revolution comes in the way they think positive environmental impact into every moral fiber of what they do - and the way they communicate their ideology with diners in an effort to create a better world one small step at a time.

At Moment, sustainability is not a superficial, one-sided term or buzzword, and certainly not simply a synonym for locality. It is a word they are actively trying to change the shallow definition of. At Moment, every choice is a conscious decision to do better for the world as a whole. And these choices are hardly ever the simplest or most obvious ones. “There is nothing wrong with using lemons from Europe when they are in season,” says co-owner Rikke, “the problem arises when we get used to seeing lemons from around the world in supermarkets every day of the year.” - “Part of the challenge in what we do,” interjects her husband, Morten, “is to communicate that produce grown with respect and care in other parts of the world can have a better positive impact on the environment than conventional local produce. For our wines, for example, we find it better to support conscious and biodiverse European producers rather than local wines filled with pesticides and sulphur. Locality is but one parameter in the grand scheme of things.”

In this way, the Restaurant Moment team takes on the role of informants as well. “Take the controversial palm oil as an example,” he exemplifies, a product used as lamp fuel in the restaurant. The decision may seem controversial, but in this case, the palm oil is sustainably sourced from an area where palms have been planted momentarily as a means of reforestation of barren land. That way, the use of palm oil over alternatives suddenly leaves a more positive impact on the world by supporting reforestation of the rainforest. And sends a very important message: Products shrouded in public controversy should not always be avoided at all costs. “It is important for us to showcase that the world is rarely black and white. It is rarely ever the product that is the issue,” says Morten, “it is the producer. And that, to us, is a key point to make as far as sustainability is concerned.”

Eating at Restaurant Moment is a learning experience for the diner, as attention is given to explain not only what is on the plate but also why it is on the plate. Not to preach but in a conscious effort to entertain and to educate. “Dining with us is quite a lengthy experience as we take the time to explain what we do and why we do it,” says Rikke, “It is something we have taught our guests to appreciate and something we are very proud of. I can’t imagine other restaurants not spending a lot of time thinking about everything that goes into a meal, so it seems strange to me that so little time is usually spent conveying it to the diner.” - “We don’t want our food to be magical or distancing,” elaborates Morten, “we want it to be natural and inspiring. As Eigil says, we want to enhance, not manipulate.”

“I think it’s very important to stress that we want to innovate but at the same time educate - in everything we do,” he finishes thoughtfully. “People eating here should not feel distanced from the food and our ideology, but inspired to go home and make a change themselves, rather than falling back into old habits.”

Restaurant Moment offers a holistic sense of calm

If it is a sense of calm that first hits you when you enter Restaurant Moment, it is the even larger sense of holistic calm and understanding, it leaves you with that sticks. The team seem so genuinely happy in the daily journey they are on to create a better world through thoughtful gastronomy. And walking around the garden and the restaurant, hearing their stories, it is clear to see that they have succeeded so far; personally and ideologically. They have created something the world of Danish gastronomy has not seen before: A tremendously biodiverse garden, a positive-imprint restaurant and what seems the perfect working environment for everybody involved. Moreover, they have created a wholesome, inspiring and eye-opening dining experience which helps their unique spin on sustainability reach a larger audience.

And in doing all of this, they have supported and nourished not only the land on which they have built, but also the small producers in their vicinity and, on a global scale, even the conscious farmers who help rebuild the lungs of our planet.

Restaurant Moment is the one, small local step that quickly gained momentum and is now starting to gather international attention. And it is the sort of momentum that hopefully never stops. It is not easy to change the world, but the first step is to try. If the actions of a dedicated team working on the very fringes of Denmark’s second biggest city can create change as far away as the forests of Asia or South America, imagine what could happen if like Rikke, Morten, Eigil and Carina and the rest of the team, we could all be the constant change we wanted to see in the world.