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EPIC ADVENTURE ON THE

GREAT BARRIER REEFON HOLIDAY WITH

ROSE BYRNE

SALMA HAYEK

JESS GLYNNE

Everybody l� es � e sunshine

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06-16Cover.indd 1 20/04/16 10:00

First they came to Denmark for the best restaurant in the

world. Then they found an extraordinary island Eden.

This is Bornholm, where everything blossoms and blooms

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BY Gemma Zoe price. Photographs by Line Klein

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Clockwise from top left: a boutique on Bornholm; a smokehouse; Lov i Listed shop; Svaneke; a vintage shop in Gudhjem; lettuce from Kadeau’s garden; a trawler; herring; Melsted Badehotel. Opposite, rye bread at the hotel. Previous pages from left: a dish of sorrel and potato at Kadeau; breakfast at Melsted Badehotel


jaunty 1959 song by Ib Mossin toots the delights of this summer getaway: ‘The Sunshine Island in the Baltic Sea! My Bornholm! Your girls are so pretty! From Sandvig to Nexø to Rønne!’ And if you take the ferry from Ystad, the port closest to Copenhagen, you’ll have the pleasure of hearing it multiple times during the 80-minute crossing. More recently, the beachy Danish territory, midway between Sweden and Poland and long lauded by artists and poets for its landscapes and pure light, is attracting a different kind of traveller. Within Denmark Bornholm has always been famous for smoked fish; every village and town has its own smokehouses and every other low-slung, half-timbered fishing cottage is topped with a smokestack chimney. But it wasn’t until years after René Redzepi and Claus Meyer opened Noma and their New Nordic manifesto had rocketed to the fore internationally that people really starting paying attention to this bountiful spot. The foodies that flocked to Copenhagen in the mid-2000s are now booking their summer holidays here.

My boyfriend’s mother Marianne Andersen and her husband Steen have lived on the island for ages. In fact, Steen was born here, but they weren’t the only ones championing the place. Every time I visited Denmark over the years I’d heard about Bornholm, from chefs and fashion designers to people I’d chatted to while throwing dice in a bodega along a Christianshavn canal. It had taken on a mythical shape in my mind’s eye. Compared to other Baltic Sea islands, Bornholm has a long, warm growing season with lots of daylight, sheltered valleys and extremely fertile soil, which makes it a farmer’s paradise. Kadeau, older sister to the Michelin-starred restaurant in Copenhagen of the same name, was set up in a former beachfront café to showcase the island’s natural produce. As head chef and co-owner Nicolai Nørregaard and I walk through the restaurant’s main garden – a project he tends with his father – he points out bushes heavy with ripening boysenberries and redcurrants, rows of sprouting leeks and onions, and edible roses he describes as the ‘taste of Bornholm’. Anything they don’t have space to grow, such as pumpkins, they forage or source from local farmers and gardens; the annotated map on Kadeau’s menu lists more than 40 suppliers, including separate fishermen for herring and turbot and what Nørregaard declares to be the best strawberries in the world (nobody knows the variety, and original producer Hans Age isn’t telling). ‘Everything flourishes here,’ says Nørregaard, who knows the seasons like the back of his hand. ‘In summer we harvest figs and mulberries, which you can’t do anywhere else in the north. Last year we pickled 300kg of marrow, which is a lot, but we used it all up – it was gone by January.’

Cocooned by fragrant herb gardens and warmed by woollen blankets and the restaurant’s open fire, I work my way through 14 extraordinary courses while watching the waves break on the

beach below: whole crispy shrimp with asparagus and spirulina dipped in fermented corn; crunchy stemmed kale, picked by the kitchen staff that morning, with mussels and gooseberries; pork from heritage-breed, forest-reared pigs with black-garlic gel, beets and blackcurrant; rhubarb with blue cheese and fermented honey from Kadeau’s hives. It’s easy to understand why so many people make the journey to Bornholm for this experience. The night before, Nørregaard says, four groups of guests had travelled from the mainland especially for supper. And in February, this Kadeau received a Michelin star of its own.

The Kadeau team launched Sommer Pony, a more relaxed outpost, last summer. It’s set in boutique hotel Nordlandet on the island’s northern tip and tables are already the hottest in town. Like the hotel, the monochrome restaurant and open kitchen have sea views and the minimalist, clean lines of Danish modern design, plus a straightforward menu and laid-back vibe. The Pony Kick set lunch, chosen by the chef each day, is a great way to get stuck in; there are also small plates such as cured brill with smoked egg, gherkins and spelt crackers or more substantial main courses, including ribeye with bone-marrow sauce. And if you just want a newspaper-wrapped pie to eat on a bench as the sun dips below the horizon, Skipperkroen, a fisherman’s retreat 10 minutes’ drive down the road, does great no-frills fast food – sausages, meatballs and cold-cut platters – and live music. You’ll find harbour workers in here most evenings, playing games of pool.

It’s almost impossible to eat badly on Bornholm. In the heart of the island, right in among the forest and painted a beaming P

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The restaurant

had only been

open nine hours

but news travels

fast here.

Seventy people

showed up for

drinks and

another 100 came

for dinner



Clockwise from top left: dream cake; a café in Gudhjem; granola and a bedroom at Melsted Badehotel; Kadeau; Sebastian Frost jewellery shop; a dish of beetroot and sorrel, the terrace and a model boat at Melsted Badehotel. Previous pages from left: deck chairs beside the hotel; sun-dried herring by chef Carsten Kyster


yellow so you can’t possibly miss it, the Christianshøjkroen inn is perfect for post-hike lunches. The name translates as ‘chicken mother’ but don’t expect baskets of fried drumsticks; it serves pretty plates of beef tartare and pickled herring with scoops, foams, crumbs and foraged herbs. It also runs an initiative for people with learning difficulties who are employed as kitchen assistants or to give guided walks in the woods. At the other end of the scale, French restaurant Le Port, in the village of Vang, is so discreetly high-end it’s not even signposted from the street. This is one of the island’s more romantic dinner spots; tables are surrounded by racks of Bordeaux and Burgundies and dishes include lamb culottes with mushrooms and just-shelled peas, and halibut with scallops, fennel and parsley.

Last May, the Gaarden opened in the town of Gudhjem. It’s a sort of farmers’ market where foodies can try all sorts of traditional flavours and, in the open kitchen, learn how to make rye bread and salads with ingredients just plucked from the soil. The annual cooking contest, Sol over Gudhjem, held in June, gets bigger every year, attracting top names from across Denmark.

Chefs and restaurateurs who grew up on the island and left for the bright lights – and heftier wages – of Copenhagen are now

The island is incredibly pretty and laced with lovely roads and 150 miles of cycling routes. The 30-minute drive from the main port city of Rønne on the west coast to Nexø on the east takes you through a patchwork of green pastures dotted with grazing Jersey cows and horses. Rows of towering corn stalks flank red-walled, thatched farmhouses and white wooden barns spill feathery yellow plumes of straw from their haylofts. Rather than sell produce in a shop, locals set up honesty boxes which you pass on almost every street: big trays of eggs and bags of potatoes for £2 apiece, timber, berries – even home-knitted blankets and crocheted cardigans.

And the architecture is a beguiling mix of old and new. World War II bunkers and communication towers testify to Bornholm’s maritime history and strategic importance; you can still climb the spiral steps at Hammeren lighthouse for views that go on for miles. The 13th-century fortress ruins at Hammershus are just as famous for the conflicts fought here as for the clog-wearing troll Krølle Bølle, who – anyone will tell you – lives in the caves nearby. The round white churches are emblematic of the island: the oldest, Osterlars, dates from 1160 and at some point was fortified with a top-floor shooting

returning for longer and longer stints. Michael Rønnebaek-Rørth champions Bornholm produce year-round at his successful Copenhagen restaurant Koefoed, but devotes his summers to running pop-ups here. At his Hummerhytten (lobster hut), within the gardens of a whitewashed fisherman’s cottage in Svaneke, a pair of cooks work elbow-to-elbow on a two-ring hob. Wooden tables are scattered about, the most coveted set directly inside the open-front smokestack and lit by a chandelier suspended in the chimney. The dishes, such as cold boiled shrimp with lemon mayo and lobster tail with pea puree on fresh peas, are just as unpretentious as the location. When I swing by, the restaurant has only been open for nine hours, but news on Bornholm travels fast. ‘We held a reception for local residents last night and thought only 20 would show up. We ended up serving drinks and food to 70 people and another 100 came for dinner,’ Rønnebaek-Rørth says as he pours me a glass of Sauvignon Blanc and then flies back into the kitchen.

gallery. In contrast, the 1950s pyramid-shaped Svaneke Water Tower by Jørn Utzon, the Danish architect responsible for the Sydney Opera House, and the new Green Solution House – the world’s first ‘cradle-to-cradle’ hotel, which emphasises reusable materials and renewable energy – are great examples of the island’s progressive mentality and proclivity for modern design.

For contemporary Danish fashion and homewares, the town of Svaneke is a great place to shop. Pernille Bülow was one of the first artisans to establish a studio here (she can often be seen working glowing, red-hot bulbs of molten glass at the furnaces within her cavernous workshop). Today the lanes are filled with independent clothing, ceramics and glass stores. But in a place where every decision seems to be driven by people’s appetites it’s hardly surprising that the local food – including the liquorice at Pernille’s son Johan’s store, where confectioners can be seen working the black, tar-like mounds – is still by far the biggest, juiciest, stickiest draw.

Nordlandet, Allinge After renovations last year this hotel now has an ultra- restrained Nordic style with filament light bulbs, charcoal-painted walls and tongue-and-groove cladding in the east-facing bedrooms, from which there are spectacular views of sunrise over the water. There’s no reception desk: ring the hall bell and someone will appear, but other than that you have the

run of the place, plus direct access to the Sommer Pony pop-up on the terrace. +45 56 480 344; nordlandet.dk. Doubles from about £125

Melsted Badehotel, Gudhjem Overlooking a sandy beach that interrupts the north-west coast’s rocky shoreline, the 18 bright rooms here channel a

New England vibe, with faded florals and nautical stripes, and alongside the croquet lawn and putting green is a row of Adirondack chairs looking out to sea. The restaurant though, run by chef Frederik Bille Brahe, is all Danish, with black kale, foraged chanterelles and locally reared pork on the menu.

+45 56 485 100; melsted-badehotel.dk. Doubles from about £145

Stammershalle Badehotel, Gudhjem The pristine white Lassens restaurant in this imposing seaside retreat, run by award-winning chef Daniel Kruse, is well known for its French-inspired food. You can also pop into the hotel

for afternoon tea: tuck into drømmekage – a Danish co�ee ‘dream cake’ made with vanilla caramelised coconut – and sticky pastries. Afterwards, collapse in one of the 16 pared-back bedrooms with views of the steely

Baltic and towards the island of Christiansø. +45 56 484 210; stammers halle-badehotel.dk. Doubles from about £95

Green Solution House, Rønne Part-hotel, part-convention hub, this is an exercise in sustainable building, earnestly constructed from biodegradable

materials wherever possible, from eco-label wall paint to vintage-wool- upholstered furniture. The roof is planted with a heathery mix of plants,

and bathwater is repurposed to irrigate the vegetable patch. +45 56 95 19 13; greensolutionhouse.dk. Doubles from about £110

Where to drop anchor on Bornholm

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On every street honesty boxes have trays of eggs

and Bags of potatoes, timber, berries, even

home-knitted blankets and crocheted cardigans

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