Under: Norway's most special restaurant
To begin with, it’s fair to admit that Under is Europe’s first underwater restaurant. Opened in the end of March of 2019, it’s located in Lindesnes, and as a concept it embodies both Fine Dining restaurant and also a research center of marine life. Furthermore, as a location Lindesnes is a unique place of Norway as here loads of sea species flourish in their biodiversity. It all leads to the fact that the cuisine in Under is mostly sea-product based, local, seasonal and also - highly sustainable.
Speaking about the cuisine in a more detailed way, one should consider the fact that chef - Nicolai Ellitsgaard tries not only to work with local produce but his aim is also to bring attention to underappreciated seafood, using ingredients that are rarely served elsewhere, such as stone crab and rugose squat lobster. He adds: “Our aim is to display the diversity that can be found in the South of Norway, where we do not have much of one thing, but we have a little bit of everything”.
Fairly enough, Under plays a lot with the imagination of the client as one does not expect such a huge variety of their degustation menu, full of unpredictable ingredients and surprising combinations. Eating here is the equivalent to discovering the bio landscape of Lindesnes in a plate.
Cuisine in Under is also sustainable, as it was mentioned before, but here sustainability reached another, a superior level. We do not even mention that every ingredient is harvested with careful consideration of the balance of nearby flora and fauna, or in order to manage and reduce bycatch – species unintentionally netted while catching target species – chef integrates even these ingredients into the menu, reducing what would otherwise go to waste.
However, the most surprising fact about Under is another one: it is the fact that the whole project of the restaurant’s building is designed to be, with the time, integrated into marine life.
How?
The structure of the restaurant is designed so as the roughness of the concrete shell will function as an artificial reef, welcoming limpets and kelp to inhabit it. Lying against the shoreline, the structure’s half-meter-thick concrete walls are built to withstand pressure and shock from the rugged sea conditions. Like this, in some time, this restaurant will be even more auto-supplied and will add even more sense of ecological balance and politeness to its sustainable model of the restaurant with responsabile consumption idea.
Together with these innovative thoughts and acts, Marine Research Center inside Under is also doing significant work for science and society.
As a center, it mostly studies marine biology and fish behavior. The researchers will also help create optimal conditions on the seabed so that fish and shellfish can thrive in proximity to the restaurant. Another aim of the Center is to document the population, behavior and diversity of species, collect data, create new opportunities and to improve official marine resource management.
All in all, Under becomes something much more than just a Fine Dining restaurant.
“As a new landmark for Southern Norway, Under proposes unexpected combinations of pronouns and prepositions, challenging what determines a person’s physical placement in their environment,” - admits the chef, but here is something to add.
Under takes an important and notable socially-scientific role, uniting sustainable, no-waste, ecologically balanced ideas with Fine Dining cuisine, where the plates are the symbols of responsible consumption and long-term projects called to save the planet’s marine life and educate people to eat well, healthy and meaningfully.
The author Aline Borghese is an international journalist and critic of haute cuisine.
She graduated from the culinary schools of the Ritz Escoffier, Ecole de cuisine Alain Ducasse, La Cucina Italiana. Champagne and wine sommelier, cocktail enthusiast, gastronomic consultant and simply Bohémienne Affamée.
