The Pagoda

The Pagoda is an unusual opportunity to survey the work of 25 important chefs from around the world. Each chef is represented by the menu created for a stint at Copenhagen's Tivoli Gardens’ Japanese-style Pagoda, photographs of selected dishes, and a recipe that offers a practical taste of the chef’s approach.

The roster ranges across an the geographical and culinary spectrum. Among the chefs featured are Poul Andrias Ziska of KOKS in the Faroe Islands and ROKS in Greenland, Ana Roš of Hiša Franko in Slovenia, Gunnar Gíslason of Dill in Iceland, Antonio Romero of Suculent in Barcelona, Rui Silvestre of Vistas in Portugal, Fredrik Berselius of Aska in New York, and Julien Royer of Odette in Singapore. 

The Pagoda is a Japanese-replica building in an amusement park better known for rides, gardens, lights, and spectacle than for international haute cuisine. After Tivoli emerged from the Covid-era lockdowns, the Pagoda was turned into a pop-up for local chefs. The scope grew to include restaurants from elsewhere in Denmark and then an increasingly international group. A very unusual range.

The book does devote considerable attention to the creation of the project itself, including the Tivoli executives who conceived the idea and the corporate sponsors who helped make it possible. That gives The Pagoda something of a celebratory, institutional tone. 

Still, as a record of an unusual Copenhagen experiment and, above all, as a way to encounter the work of 25 accomplished chefs in one volume, The Pagoda offers something that few individual chef books can.

Hardcover. Color photographs throughout.