Danish smørrebrød gained international recognition in the early 1900s and again in the 1950s, but the present fame is unsurpassed, and enthusiasts all over the world have adopted the Danish speciality
In Danish newspapers from the early 1900s, it is routinely mentioned that the Danish smørrebrød has become world-famous, and by the 1930s, Copenhagen restaurant Oskar Davidsen had established export by air transport. Smørrebrød became popular with several airlines, and the earlier procedure of packing the smørrebrød with ice for long-distance flights was replaced by local production at airport hubs around the world.
Also in the 1950s, Ida Davidsen was hired to introduce smørrebrød at the highly popular restaurant Scandia in Los Angeles owned by Dane Kenneth Hansen. For a period of around 10 years, smørrebrød enjoyed fame at this restaurant as well as in the city of Solvang, also in California. But apart from the odd Danish-themed restaurant here and there in the world, smørrebrød did not catch on as a trend like the New Nordic Cuisine did in the 2010s. It was probably due to the enormous interest in the New Nordic Cuisine that smørrebrød managed to piggyback on, but it looks like smørrebrød has now made a real international breakthrough.
Danish smørrebrød star Adam Aamann tried his luck with a smørrebrød restaurant in New York in 2012, but it did not catch on and existed there for only a few years. In 2016, Noma co-founder Claus Meyer introduced smørrebrød at his new food market, Great Northern Food Hall in New York. Here, it was a bigger success than the Aamann project, and it was operating successfully for several years. However Claus Meyer left the company in 2020, and as these words are written, due to the corona crisis, the Great Northern Food Hall is closed.
The most successful purveyor of smørrebrød outside of Denmark is Danish bakery chain Ole & Steen, Lagkagehuset. To date, the chain has sold more than 250,000 pieces of smørrebrød in its London and New York outlets.
Also in New York, the two Danish entrepreneurs Sebastian Perez and Sebastian Bangsgaard have been successful with smørrebrød at their Café Smör which opened in 2019. Both previously worked for the now defunct Aamanns-Copenhagen restaurant.
These pictures are some of the signs, that smørrebrød is increasingly being made outside of Denmark. They show smørrebrød made in Korea, Japan, Spain, Russia, Turkey, Switzerland, USA and Brazil. They were downloaded from Instagram, where at time of press, the hashtag smørrebrød is attached to almost 100.000 pictures, and the #smorrebrod has reached close to 30.000.
On the opposite coast, in San Francisco, smørrebrød is available at Kantine, owned by chef Nichole Accettola. She is American, but lived for ten years in Copenhagen, where she learned the craft of making smørrebrød.
In the UK, smørrebrød has become popular lately in London. The city has several recently opened smørrebrød outlets, namely ScandiKitchen, Ekte Nordic Kitchen, The Bread Station, Nordic Bakery, bakery chain Ole & Steen, Lagkagehuset and Aquavit.
The German city of Hanover has also been blessed with a smørrebrød outlet after a Dane named Rasmus Christoffersen left the furniture business and started making ‘smörrebröd für alle!’ in Markthalle Hanover at Aelling.
In the French city of Strasbourg, authentic smørrebrød can be found at the café Nørrebro, which was founded by Danes, just as there are Danes involved in the aforementioned London places.
But in Switzerland, two Swiss citizens have made smørrebrød their main focus. They are chefs Quentin Lachat and John Revilla. They adopted the concept of smørrebrød as their speciality after visiting Denmark in 2018. They fell in love with the idea of smørrebrød and have since interpreted it with local Swiss produce. Every day, they cruise the Bern area with their food truck, supplying smørrebrød to office workers, just as they cater for various events. A clear sign that the smørrebrød love is spreading around the world is the Instagram hashtag #smørrebrød, which at the time of publication is close to 100,000 pictures, while #smorrebrod is close to 30,000.
While a few posts show a misunderstanding of the concept, the majority are true to the soul of Danish smørrebrød. Sometimes it is clear that the pieces have been altered to fit a local culture or taste, which is interesting and inspiring to see.
Looking through those 130,000 pictures makes you realise that travel guide Lonely Planet was not mistaken when they, in 2018, named smørrebrød the no. 6 in their ranking of the world’s top 500 food experiences. Smørrebrød in Copenhagen was listed in front of, among others, pizza in Napoli, and this ranking may well be the largest praise smørrebrød has ever garnered.
