New Nordic Cuisine: Is there another back to the future? – An informed viewpoint on NNC value drivers and market scenarios

Abstract

A few years after the turn of the millennium innovative restaurants in Copenhagen started to offer menus prepared entirely from ingredients of Nordic origin. Some of the dishes were a remix of traditional Nordic staples, while others contained items which had not previously – or at least not since the previous fin de mille – been used for human consumption. When these initiatives in 2005 were principled in a manifesto for the ‘New Nordic Cuisine’ (NNC) a culinary trend was born; and soon chefs and gourmets from the whole world would look to Denmark for the most inspiring gastronomic experiences.Unlike contemporary culinary trends in other European regions, e.g., the Mediterranean, is the value proposition of the NNC not primarily driven by a wish to revive local traditions. Rather the NNC is a futuristic quest; motivated by beliefs that the Nordic diet is lacking the sophistication and cultural identification of its southern European counterparts, but also that the Nordic food processing industry has gone too far in trading off traditional quality and sustainability for efficiency and volume.As more than a decade has passed since the NNC emerged, it is time to get a better understanding of it's drivers as well as of it's possible implications for broader sections of the food industrial complex. Based on a literature review and interviews with 31 food industry stakeholders, this viewpoint paper explores the principles, competencies and value propositions behind the NNC, outlines five possible scenarios (Fade, Niche, Export, Mainstream and Assimilation) for its future development; and concludes that, although the NNC very well may disappear as a label, it is likely that many of its principles will be assimilated into the production and marketing of everyday food products.