Congratulations. Eighty nine days is not a long time to be open...
I don’t think anyone could have expected it in such a short space of time. We got the invite [to the Michelin awards] a couple of weeks ago and were thinking ‘why have they invited us?’. We were pretty sure the inspectors had been in but you never know 100%. It’s just a dream come true. Achieving a star in just 89 days is absolutely crazy.
How did you celebrate?
We were out until midnight at the awards ceremony. My wife is incredible, she works with me in the restaurant and makes the wheels go round - without her nothing happens - so to share that moment with her is something I’ll never forget.
You were born in Staffordshire. How have you come to work in Denmark?
I started working in restaurants aged 12 in a greasy spoon, and then trained at the Birmingham College of Food and got a degree in culinary arts management. As part of that I went to work at a Michelin-starred restaurant in France and when I finished I came back to England and worked at Purnell’s in Birmingham before I got my first head chef role at Swinfen Hall in Lichfield. Everything was going great but it was driving me into the ground. My wife is Danish and we decided to go to Denmark on holiday and thought I could see myself living out there. One of my chefs told me to go and see [British chef] Paul Cunningham at his restaurant Henne Kirkeby Kro. So I went to see him, he showed me round and we had a chat and something about it was magical. He asked me when I was looking to move and I said six months to a year and he said his sous chef had just given in his notice and that needed a new chef very soon. I told him I’d take it but he wouldn’t give me an answer because he knew I had to move my whole family over, so I called him every day at 4pm when I was on my break for two months and eventually he gave me the job. I moved in 2015 and in 2016 the restaurant got its first star and in 2017 it won a second. I was head chef there for nine years and I feel like my feet haven’t touched the ground.
How did Pearl by Paul Proffitt come about?
I had been looking for a new challenge and in January last year a regular guest at the restaurant contacted me and said they had just bought a property on the Flesborg Fjord about 10 minutes from the German border and I would I be interested in having a look. At this point I had been looking at some restaurants and nothing had come off, so I went and just fell in love with it. The building was built in 1900 as a summer house for a merchant from Hamburg. I set everything in motion in the middle part of last year, handed my notice in at Henne in September and got the keys on 2 January. We opened to paying guests on 20 March after an extensive renovation but there are still parts of the building that need doing. We are still putting the finishing touches to it behind the scenes.
Where does the name come from?
It’s called Pearl because my nan taught me how to cook as a young kid and she used to wear this pearl necklace. My love of food came from her.
How would you describe your cooking?
It’s hard to describe. Growing up in Staffordshire there’s a lot of international and Indian and Asian influences that I’ve taken and my cooking is also very nostalgic. I’m classically trained so there is a technical foundation from the French kitchen, but I’m not afraid to push the boundaries.
Do Danish customers get your British nostalgia?
The restaurant is my story through the food and the guests have really taken to it but I don’t know if they get it. One dish is a milk loaf with beef dripping and they eat it and think it’s lovely, but they don’t know that in my house growing up when we made the Sunday roast we would always keep the dripping in a little pot and have it on toast the next day. It’s super nostalgic for me (other dishes on the restaurant’s menu include fish and chips and warm tartare sauce, and a snack called ‘real men eat quiche’).
Do Danish kitchens differ from British ones?
The only two kitchens I’ve been in are Henna and my own. Henna was a very calm kitchen and I run mine in the same way. Having worked in France and other places where you perhaps haven’t been treated in the best way I think you take a lot out of that. I didn’t enjoy the way I was treated so why would I then go on to treat someone else in this way? Everyone talks about the sustainability of the restaurant industry looking at the food and waste, but few people talk about the personal aspect of it. Particularity when people are crying out for chefs, working 80-90 hours a week and being treated like crap is not sustainable. The team here works 48 hours a week over four days, they get an hour’s break every day as well as breakfast and dinner. You’re never going to get the best out of someone if they feel they are being downtrodden.
How’s the restaurant climate in Denmark?
We’re definitely feeling the pinch but not as much as compared to what’s happening in the UK. You can get VAT back on most food products in Denmark, which is obviously a big thing. But rents, rates and utilities have increased and high-end restaurants are the first place where people try and cut back when their disposable income is cut, and that has been noticeable. Looking in from the outside at some of the places that have closed in England such as Le Gavroche and Purnell’s, it’s been very surprising.
How is the country’s fine-dining scene?
It’s vibrant and diverse. We had the New Nordic explosion with Noma, which attracted a lot of chefs to Denmark but they have since opened places with their own take on various cuisines from around the world. It’s not all New Nordic and it’s ever expanding, The Michelin awards really highlight the strength and depth of cuisine in the Nordic countries and Denmark in particular.