, the passionate, high-stress pursuit of opening and working in restaurants is easy fodder for dramatic tension. But in, the latest film from director Christoffer Boe, the restaurant merely serves as a setting for a crumbling marriage.’ Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Carsten, a perfection-obsessed chef at the helm of Malus, a top-tier Copenhagen restaurant in hot pursuit of its first Michelin star. Carsten lives next door to Malus, which he runs with his wife Maggie .
When I was there, the restaurant was serving lunch, and he asked if I wanted to go into the kitchen. I laughed and said “Great idea, what could possibly go wrong there? But okay.” He put me in charge of cutting out these little tiny flowers that were decoration, but it was pretty cool because I got to hang out with all these other chefs and just talk to them. He definitely made sure that I couldn’t destroy anything. Copenhagen is just very lucky.
Is there something specific that makes the physical act of cooking work differently on screen than, say, sword-fighting when you’re playing Jaime Lannister? NCW: He does have a temper, because there’s a lot of pressure involved in these things. This couple has put their whole life savings into this restaurant to fulfill this dream. That’s stressful. It was interesting because all the extras that you see in the movie are people who work in the restaurant business, people who had spent a lot of time in kitchens, and they could tell me if what I was doing felt natural.
CB: Restaurants themselves are just very filmic, inherently. You can see that by opening Netflix and seeing how many food shows are out there. It’s very aesthetically pleasing, and these places are very reflective of the humans and cultures and ideas that are put into them. The industry is full of people who are cut-throat and ambitious, who want to have these Michelin stars.
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