The geographical footprint of the Faroe Islands may comprise 99% water and 1% land, and its population may not even have reached 50,000, but the place still boasts a 2-star Michelin restaurant, one set so far away from the main road that you need an off-road vehicle to deliver you there.
Restaurant KOKS is an extraordinary place, located on a hillside beside a fjord miles away from civilization. In fact, a quick Google search will tell you that it is the most remote Michelin-starred restaurant in the world. Apparently it is reasonably priced, despite being tiny and possessing of a roof that is covered in grass. The food that is served there is about as organic as it gets, in that the sheep (hardy, and with a dark red meat) are not farmed, simply living on the island. And the fish and myriad variations of seafood are served straight from sea.
The restaurant’s head chef Poul Andrias is young and engaging, humble and a little introverted, yet unbelievably talented, as evidenced by close examination of his modus operandi and the dishes which are presented as tableaux throughout the film. The ‘three servings of cod’ plate is breathtaking, at least when presented on screen, as is the breast of fulmar, a gannet-type bird that is caught by scooping it straight off the surface of the sea in a large net.
Poul forages for seaweed and local herbs, and climbs ladders to collect gulls’ eggs from nests built on high cliffs.
And, yes, he helps catch whale, and serves up its meat in the restaurant. “We serve animals that have had a long, good, healthy life, and are treated with respect both during and after the killing, regardless of whether it’s a chicken or a sheep, a langoustine or a whale,” he explains in the film.
In his notes, director Dinesen offers further explanation: “They only hunt them if the possibility is there to catch one. They don’t sell it commercially… It’s given out to people in the towns and they give it to relatives and friends. It’s not a hardcore thing. When I saw whole families with their kids, all jumping around and having a good time while they fileted the whales, it made sense to me. Even though I would never think about being a part of that, it’s not a delicacy for me, but I understand why they do it.”
Michelin Stars II: Nordic by Nature, world-premiering September 22 in San Sebastian, is the second in a series of films that Dinesen is making on Michelin-starred restaurants, and follows on from Michelin Stars: Tales From the Kitchen, which premiered at San Sebastian in 2017.
The Faroe Islands are not so far from the director’s home country of Denmark, and when he heard about the 2-star restaurant he was determined to investigate further. “The place was amazing, very artistic and true, but at the same time very normal,” he says of the calm that exudes throughout the dining room and kitchen, as well as the islands themselves. Also, he was impressed by the bespectacled curly haired genius who ran the place, “this John Lennon guy who was very humble.”
The one thing during production that neither the restaurant nor the director and crew ever reckoned on was lockdown, which of course affected the business badly (although the place managed to open again to trade before the horrendous Atlantic storms of October and November 2020).
One of the kitchen staff had contracted the virus, forcing everybody to go into isolation. As Poul’s girlfriend is a nurse (they have two kids with another on the way) he chose not to isolate in a hotel, rather in the restaurant itself, where he cleaned incessantly and walked miles every day, foraging as he went.
When asked what hurdles he had to overcome during the production, Dinessen is clear and unambiguous. Having to reduce 150 hours of dreamy island and restaurant footage into a 62-minute film was very difficult. Darling after darling had to be killed in the making of this film, he agrees. “The obstacles were not in the restaurant. They were not on the island. They were all in the editing room,” he confesses.
Dinesen himself is a passionate gourmand who confesses to loving all food stuffs, “as long as they are delicious.” He was also very much taken by life on the island and its people, a feeling which he was determined to get across in his film. And of course, central to proceedings is chef Poul.
“When you meet him you find out that he’s a proud Faroese guy, and they [the islanders] are humble, that’s a characteristic of Faroese people,” the filmmaker underlines in his notes. “He’s very skillful, he’s very professional, but he doesn’t have to yell about it, and that I like. They can get three Michelin stars at some point but they don’t talk about it. He’s just very passionate about his job, that’s a cool thing.”
