Alchemist

Why it is renowned

Alchemist holds two Michelin stars, awarded seven months after it reopened on Refshaleøen in 2019.¹ On The World's 50 Best Restaurants it rose from No. 58 in 2021 to No. 5 in 2023, was No. 8 in 2024 and No. 5 again in 2025.¹² Opinionated About Dining named it the best restaurant in Europe for the fifth year running in 2025, and The Best Chef Awards named Rasmus Munk the best chef in the world in 2024.¹

It is known for a meal that mixes cooking with theatre, art and science: the dishes arrive as "impressions", many of them about food waste, animal welfare or health.¹³ Tickets are released about every three months and sell out within minutes.²⁴

The story

Rasmus Munk opened the first Alchemist in 2015 on a bank loan: fifteen seats in a former bistro in Copenhagen and a menu of 45 courses. It closed in 2017.¹ The businessman Lars Seier Christensen, an early guest, joined Munk to build a larger version, which opened in 2019 in the former scenery workshop of the Royal Danish Theatre on Refshaleøen, a 2,200-square-metre space behind two-tonne bronze doors.¹²

The main dining room is a planetarium dome, drawn from Munk's childhood visits to the Copenhagen Planetarium; dinner moves through five spaces, including a lounge and two art rooms, over four to six hours.¹⁵ Munk calls the approach Holistic Cuisine, drawing on gastronomy, theatre, art, science and design.³ Munk also founded the meal charity JunkFood in 2020 and the food innovation centre Spora in 2023.¹⁴

What to know it by

• Planetarium dome2019Rasmus MunkThe main dining room, with projections that change during dinner
• Food for ThoughtLamb's brain served from a silicone human head
• 1984Cod eye gel, lobster and caviar in a replica of Munk's eye
• LifelineBlood-drop ice cream made with pig's blood, linked to blood donation
• Space BreadCanapé topped with caviar