“New Nordic: Food, Aesthetics and Place” is a new exhibition at the National Museum in Oslo, on display through September 14.
A specially commissioned pavilion will be constructed for the exhibition on the square outside the museum. There will be an extensive program of events throughout the exhibition period, including design workshops, foraging trips, and meals prepared by celebrated chefs.
The Manifesto for a New Nordic Cuisine (2004) was a rebellion against the global food industry, massive imports of food ingredients, and food culture that neglected local values. The manifesto encouraged people to use local seasonal produce, develop food traditions, emphasize welfare, and strive for aesthetic simplicity.
The movement was inspired by nouvelle cuisine and New Baque Cuisine. Nouvelle cuisine emerged in the 1960s in France as a response to the traditional, rigid cuisine of French restaurants. The ideals included improvisation and interpretations based on the finest produce of local food markets. The New Basque Cuisine emphasized that chefs had to learn regional culinary traditions, including the use of wild plants, seaweed, and sea urchins. In Norway, Arne Brimi was a pioneer. In the 1980s, he developed “nature’s cuisine” based on gathering, hunting, fishing, local agriculture, and cultural history.
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Related: Nordic Cooking – Tradition, Simplicity and Nature on a Plate
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Claus Meyer and Jan Krag Jacobsen wrote the first draft of the Manifesto, which was signed by twelve male chefs from the Nordic countries. Over the years, it has generated heated debate, not just on account of the gender imbalance, but also because many people have considered it elitist, protectionist, and homogeneous. Nevertheless, the manifesto was highly influential and served as an inspiration for many regional cuisines worldwide.
In the exhibition New Nordic. Cuisine, Aesthetics and Place, the National Museum shows how this food movement merged with other contemporary cultural trends. Through architecture, modern art, design, and crafts from the museum’s collection, as well as objects loaned from various restaurants, the exhibition examines the “new Nordic” concept as a broad aesthetic development defined by the interaction between materials, people, and landscape.
A version of the exhibition will be on display at the National Nordic Museum in Seattle, USA, from 7 November 2025.
New Nordic: Food, Aesthetics and Place, all texts and images © the National Museum.
Illustration (top) © 2025, Oscar Grønner / BONO