Chef Kamilla Seidler Co-Presents Danish Picnic Pop-Up in NYC

On Friday, September 15 at North Brooklyn Farms on the Williamsburg waterfront, Munchies Denmark brought Michelin-starred chefs to create an eight-course Danish Picnic lunch. Among the top chefs were Chef Gunnar Gislason, Chef Kamilla Seidler, Chef Claus Meyer and Chef Ronny Emborg.

The event was held outdoors, in the shadow of the Williamsburg bridge, where the beautiful North Brooklyn garden produces food and flowers for local eateries.

Local cooks gathered ingredients like kale and green zebra tomatoes from the gardens at North Brooklyn farms to use in the many courses.

Chef Ronny Emborg of Atera and Chef Gunnar Gislason of Agern prepared the fire for the delicately grilled guinea hen entree.

Meanwhile, wait staff set the table, and the camera crew from Vice's Munchies channel checked their equipment and the light, to tape the event for television.

At the impromptu bar, bartenders created a light cocktail with alcohol-free gin (think juniper-flavored elixer) with a scoop of lime sorbet, served in a mason jar with a jaunty paper straw.

Chef Claus Meyer, who ignited the New Nordic Cuisine movement, spoke about his Brownsville training location of The Melting Pot Foundation, where neighborhood locals took a 40-week cooking program as part of an 'anti-gentrification restaurant.'

The eight-course feast kicked off with Chef Gislason's crispy pork skin with seaweed, skyr, and horseradish. It was topped with blossoms from the North Brooklyn garden. Servers also brought out tiny round loaves of Oland bread and cultured butter, by Meyers Bageri bread. Agern's house butter was soft, smoothy, and impossibly creamy, with just the right amount of salt.

It was soon followed by Chef Seidler's cured duck with pickled potatoes and calendula. The tiny fingerling potatoes were surrounded by lean strips of cured duck, on a bed of blood-red beet reduction, and a scattering of bright orange calendula petals.

Next out was a serving board of fresh Japanese cucumber topped with cashew cream, burnt shallot, and 'crispy things,' by Emma Jane Gonzalez and Kenneth Monroe of North Brooklyn Farms.

Chef Seidler circulated among the guests to make sure everything was to their liking.

Nobody seemed to have any issues with her tiny fried patacones with fresh squid and green peas!

Gonzalez and Monroe put the North Brooklyn garden produce to good use in their salad course of charred okra and shishito peppers with a sweet tomato vinaigrette, topped with scattered pickled peanuts and marigolds. The combination of sweet and hot was intoxicating!

The main entree arrived with a flair: Chef Gislason's guinea hen with king trumpet mushrooms, atop of a thick mushroom paste, with bitter greens and a shaving of Danish havgus cheese. Every bite was heaven!

The meal ended with apple wine and a traditional Danish sweet, Fl�deboller. It was like a Mallowmar on steroids, a chocolate-coated marshmallow delight.