Pioneered by the celebrated Danish restaurant Noma, the New Nordic cuisine has been developing in Scandinavia since the 2000s. Receiving considerable attention within the food aficionado and blogging communities, this cuisine promotes underused local ingredients – such as seaweed, foraged berries and wild plants – to prepare traditional foods in new ways.
In Germany, rising consumer awareness about the New Nordic movement continues to influence both foodservice and consumer packaged goods, driving demand for Nordic-inspired products and ingredients. This has helped bring ingredients such as seaweed into the spotlight, fuelling creative uses of seaweed in food and drink applications.
Spotlight on seaweed
In Germany, sauces and seasoning is one of the latest categories to tap into the emerging seaweed trend. So far, mostly small startups (such as Maris Algen and Undines Gold) are making the most of the versatility of edible algae, integrating this ingredient into everyday food staples.
Maris Algen Honey Mustard Sauce with Algae (Germany)
Maris Algen, for example, specialises in products made from Nordic algae and offers an ample range of algae-based table sauces, mustards, savoury spreads, seasonings as well as pasta and meat substitutes. The company has the vision ‘to bring the long-forgotten seaweeds from the sea back to the western civilization’.
Nordisk Tang Kelp Pesto (Germany)
This handmade algae pesto is made with bladderwrack and sugar kelp that are grown in waters of the Danish coast of Denmark and are said to be full of minerals and vitamins.
At a time when growing ranks of health-conscious consumers are looking for better-for-you alternatives in food and drink, products that tap into the health-halo of the New Nordic cuisine are likely to benefit from attractive nutritional profiles and unusual flavour profiles.
