JESPER KOCH AND THE TRADITIONAL CUISINE OF SOUTHERN JUTLAND

Born in Aabenraa, a small Danish village in Southern Jutland, on the strait between the peninsula and the island of Funen, Chef Jesper Koch, looking back at his past, does not remember a single moment when he wasn’t passionate about and fascinated by food. His daily life has always been infused with this fundamental element. It was in the welcoming kitchen of his grandmother, also a sensational cook, that his zest for the world of gastronomy commenced. Together they prepared fish they caught themselves in the nearby bay at Genner, a village with 748 inhabitants not far from the fjord of the same name.

Unfailingly, each year, when summer’s first fresh vegetables were available, young Jesper and his grandmother would prepare Snysk, a special stew that is a traditional delicacy of Southern Jutland, served with breaded pork, smoked ham, marinated herring, or fried eel.

In 2019, Chef Koch opened his first restaurant: Syttende, seventeen dishes served on the seventeenth floor of the Steingenberger Alsik Hotel & Spa in Sønderborg. Syttende represents the chef’s vision and dream to give something precious back to the land that has shaped his cuisine over the years. Emphasis is placed on the excellence of the ingredients, which are specially selected with a genuine and multicultural approach to curate the dishes on offer. The restaurant only has seven tables, but for the chef and his staff, cooking is not a question of quantity but quality. Syttende received its first Michelin star in 2021.

The television programme Koch’en på toppen tells the story of the opening of the hotel and restaurant. In this intriguing, exciting series about daily life and extraordinary events in the innovative, luxurious Steingenberger Alsik Hotel & Spa, the uncompromising Chef Koch takes us into his kitchen, among his stoves, revealing a constant commitment to making the hotel’s restaurant one of the best in the country, through playful flourishes, hard work, and friendly laughter. It is an authentic voyage into the art of the details, a dive into the chef’s frenetic rhythm in this unceasingly buzzing hotel.

A distinctive element in Jesper Koch’s cuisine is the smoky flavour, like that found in the chef’s favourite dish, Skrædderduels, or ‘the tailor’s duel’, made of smoked pork immersed in sauce and served with boiled potatoes.

The use of meat as the main ingredient in Jutland’s culinary tradition dates back to 1864.  Following World War II, in Schleswig and its related territorial subdivisions, German butchers arrived in this region, bringing with them their tradition of producing smoked meats and influencing the local cuisine. This period is also associated with the beginnings of the art of patisserie in this region, where walnuts, berries, and garden fruits were transformed into delicious cakes, desserts, and small pastries. Embracing these arrivals, in Southern Jutland there is no recipe that is considered either right or wrong. The most authentic are those that, over the years, have been handed down from generation to generation.

It is precisely this connection with the culture of tradition that led to the chef receiving an honorary diploma from the Danish Gastronomical Academy in 2004. Ten years later, in 2014, the chef then went on to begin his adventure as one of the judges in MasterChef Denmark, which was an important opportunity to shape a new generation of chefs and impart his own particular creative contribution.

At Syttende, at the end of the meal, you can savour the filter-brewed Calima 1895 single-origin coffee by Lavazza Coffee Designers, which has a cup profile distinguished by a sweet aroma with notes of fig and papaya. There is also the Siete Crateres 1895 by Lavazza Coffee Designers, a rare 100% arabica single-origin coffee from Panama that offers a sweet, fruity experience in the cup, with honey and milk chocolate aromas accompanied by notes of plum and fig.