From Noma to Geranium: The Staff Canteen European Chefs Tour in Copenhagen

Seven up-and-coming UK chefs, tour leader Ashley Palmer-Watts and four supplier partners spent three days in Copenhagen, experiencing food from organic hot dogs and smørrebrød to a visit behind the scenes at Noma and a closing lunch at three-Michelin-star Geranium.

The Staff Canteen European Chefs Tour returned this week, taking a group of UK chefs to the Danish capital from Tuesday, October 20 to Thursday, October 22, 2026.

Following the inaugural trip to San Sebastián in March, it was again built around an educational programme, with each day shaped around a business theme. Ashley Palmer-Watts, co-founder of The Devonshire Soho, led the tour alongside Mark Morris, founder of The Staff Canteen.

A younger group of chefs

This time, Ashley felt the trip would be more beneficial to a younger group. The seven chefs travelling alongside him were:

Charlotte Benbow, chef de partie, The Fat Duck Group
Zoe Nairn, chef de partie, Fallow
Alfie Crouch, head chef, Silverhand Estate
Tom Walshe, head chef, The Sardine Factory
Henry Porter, sous chef, The Sea, The Sea
George Ormond, head chef, The Barbary
Thea Randle, junior sous chef, Searcys

"Everyone's at a different stage of their journey, and it's been really nice to see them be really open and discussing what they do, what the challenges are, how they go about overcoming potential challenges," said Ashley.

Hot dogs, pastries and smørrebrød

The trip started at street level, with lunch at DØP (Den Økologiske Pølsemand), the organic hot dog stand near Rundetårn, before dinner at Restaurant Anton near Nyhavn, a restaurant since 1915 serving modern Danish cooking.

Wednesday began with breakfast at Rug Bakery before lunch at Schønnemann, open since 1877, for a lesson in smørrebrød.

 

 

 

 

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Behind the scenes at Noma

The moment everyone kept coming back to was a visit to Noma on Wednesday, where the group was taken behind the scenes, including the restaurant's ingredients lab.

For Ashley, whose time at The Fat Duck and Dinner by Heston Blumenthal coincided with the height of the New Nordic movement, it was a first visit.

"I actually never went to Noma. I wanted to stay almost without that influence, because it was so powerful," he said.

"It's so impressive and way more than I thought it would be. It's certainly an environment that looks fantastic to work in. They've got a real ethos there that is, I think, very special."

Zachary Bland, business development manager at Winterhalter UK, said: "How much goes behind it into a dish, the equipment they've got, the facilities, it was just unfathomable. It's nothing like I've ever seen personally."

Fiskebar and Geranium

That evening the group ate at Kødbyens Fiskebar, a seafood restaurant in a former butcher's shop in the Meatpacking District, run by Truro-born head chef Jamie Lee.

"Superb meal there," said Geoff Snellgrove, managing director of Control Induction. "Really good selection, really interesting, really well presented, great staff, everything was great."

The tour closed on Thursday with lunch at Geranium, the three-Michelin-star restaurant from Rasmus Kofoed and Søren Ledet, named number one in The World's 50 Best Restaurants in 2022.

"It's very difficult to say there's one standout, because we have done so much in such a short space of time," said Mark Lombard, managing director of Lockhart Catering Equipment and Continental Chef Supplies. "Ending at Geranium, I mean, what a restaurant. The food was unbelievable."

getting chefs around a table together

For Ashley, the conversations between meals matter as much as the meals themselves.

"It's not about Instagram and Facebook and TikTok and this kind of stuff, it's real things, tangible things. It's about how you make people feel," he said.

"I think it's going to bring a different view sometimes on what is the goal of a young chef, how are they going to navigate their career, where are they going to go, how can we make contacts that help them into their next position."

He added: "I think they're really switched on, actually, and I just think it's given them a thing about quality, accessibility and simplicity, and creating that feeling around the table, and those magical things that restaurants stand for."

From our partners

The Copenhagen tour was supported by TRUEfoods, Control Induction, Winterhalter UK and Lockhart Catering Equipment/Continental Chef Supplies, whose representatives spent all three days alongside the chefs.

Thomas Pickard, head of speciality at TRUEfoods, said: "You get to see what it's like for the guys that are actually in there. You don't get that experience on a day-to-day basis within the factory.

"To actually be able to keep connected with them, to do something like this, is really, really important, because it just means that we can keep that kind of partnership, that kind of connection with them."

For Mark Lombard, it came down to relationships.

"Personally, I am an advocate of people buying from people in this industry, and you can't necessarily sell everything off a page," he said.

"It's a really small industry. Chefs move around where there's greater opportunities, and therefore we stay in close contact, and that will just build relationships."

Zachary, who joined Winterhalter UK this year, said: "For me, it's been an absolutely unbelievable trip. It's something that I would love to come on in the future."

Geoff, who joined the tour to connect with chefs and find out "what's happening in the market, new trends", left with a new lead in Jamie, and said the trip had delivered "what I envisaged, what I expected, and a little bit more, as usual".

The Staff Canteen educational chef trips are set to continue into 2027, with more information to come soon.