You opened your restaurant Donda in 2019 after working as a head chef and developing menus and concepts for other restaurants. What is your favourite part of being a co-owner of a restaurant and being a head chef?

My favourite part is meeting new people. It’s a stressful industry, but it’s super fun to have your own place, make your own decisions and create your own menus – basically not having some other owners that are telling you what to do as a chef.

What’s the story behind your menu at Donda?

The idea is to draw on Danish products, so to use only what we can find in Denmark – and then serve the dishes as if we were in Mexico and Peru.

Where do you get your ideas for new recipes from?

I eat out a lot, of course. Another factor is reading books and delving into old cultural dishes. I take some parts of them and create the dish in a new way. It’s really hard to cook Mexican food in Copenhagen because we don’t have the same products. This means I need to find an ingredient that’s similar and to replace it with a Danish product. We don’t grow tomatillos in Denmark, for instance, so we substitute them with Danish gooseberries or unripe blackberries, as these products – if prepared properly – yield some of the same flavours as a tomatillo does. I think that is what has made Donda so popular.

Copenhagen is known for its amazing food scene. What do you do to make your restaurant stand out?

We only have eight dishes, which is perhaps a bit strange for a restaurant. If you go to a Michelin restaurant, it might only have 14 dishes, and you choose what is on offer. Our idea is just to scale this Michelin star restaurant down to a smaller eatery, but basically keep the mindset of “We know what we’re doing. This is what you can eat. And if you book a table, you’re going to have a unique experience.”

Besides good food, what makes a visit at your restaurant so special?

I think it’s the whole experience. Everyone working at Donda knows exactly what they’re talking about. We seek to provide a high standard service but without making it fancy. The whole idea is you’re not supposed to feel like you’re sitting in Copenhagen. You’re supposed to feel like you’re eating Mexican-Peruvian food. It’s cooked with Danish ingredients, but when you look around the restaurant or outside the window, you feel like you’re in another place.

Art decorates the walls of your restaurant, and it comes with a special interior design. Is it important for you to eat in a stylish environment?

I decorated the whole place with a friend and we took a lot of decisions ourselves. We didn’t want white cloths and the tables set up with a lot of wine glasses and stuff. For daily visits to a restaurant, I’d rather go to a place where it’s a bit more chilled – so we made Donda a place like this.

What role does the topic of reduction play in your kitchen in times of sustainability?

Since we started, we always get our ingredients delivered from day to day every day. We only order for those people who have booked a table. We don’t think about how we can maybe get 20 more people in. We don’t have the food for it, which is maybe not the best way of running a business, but then again, if you just buy food, you’re also throwing a lot away, and that’s also bad for business. There’s always going to be a bit of food waste, but we try to keep it as low as possible – it’s a balancing act.

What does a meal need to taste special?

If you’re making a dish, you need to think about all the flavours you can taste and percentage-wise give them just a little bit of everything, so the food is not lacking anything. Of course, every meal needs a bit of sugar, salt and spice, but I think what’s more important is the way you blend the different spices and herbs together. For instance, using dried spices in salsas and marinades, but then combining them with fresh herbs to enhance the flavour or using dried coriander seeds, but adding fresh cilantro can make all the difference.

Which foodie spots in Copenhagen are underrated?

I’m a really huge fan of Chinese food and Thai food, and my go-to places are these two small restaurants owned by small families. After the pandemic a lot of people forgot those small family-owned local restaurants that are cosy and have a private atmosphere. For people who are not used to going to Copenhagen, it’s more interesting to visit smaller places where you get a better feel for Copenhagen. My recommendations are Baan Thai Isarn, Fu Hao, Baka d’busk, Falang, Bottega Estadio, Hotel Kanalhuset – and our Donda deli.

What do you most look forward to when you come back to Copenhagen after travelling? Do you think Copenhagen has something to offer that other cities do not have?

Even though it’s a big city, it’s still very small. It doesn’t seem to take long to go from one end to another and you do not need to spend hours travelling to experience nature. You just walk for 15 minutes and stumble across a nice park or canal along the way. Peace and quiet are easy to come by. That’s where Copenhagen is different to a lot of other cities, where it’s hectic and harder to get out of the city centre.

Do you collect anything?

For my restaurants, we did a lot of the interior design with sustainable materials we collected – instead of buying new items, I’m always looking for what’s unique and vintage. Mostly I buy vintage online or at flea markets. We have a huge collection of recycled glasses from Italy and a lot of really old plates from the 60s or 70s. From watches to clothing to furniture to men’s style even: for me the 70s have always been the most stylish. The cars and motorcycles from that era as well, they simply have what it takes. My motorcycle is from 1975 – the feeling and smell of that bike is something else.