Mads Refslund is a Danish chef and one of the co-founders of Noma, the Copenhagen restaurant that helped redefine modern gastronomy. A pioneer of New Nordic cuisine and an early champion of foraging and zero-waste cooking, he has since built a distinctive career in the United States, where his restaurants explore fire, ice, root cellars and the creative use of ingredients others throw away.
Refslund’s cooking is elemental and inventive – rooted in Nordic ideas of nature, seasonality and thrift, but expressed with a restless, experimental spirit.
TL;DR
- Danish chef and a co-founder of Noma, alongside Rene Redzepi and Claus Meyer
- Trained in Copenhagen’s Michelin-starred kitchens
- Won a Michelin star at his own MR Restaurant in Copenhagen
- Helped popularise zero-waste cooking in New York, at Acme and later Ilis
- Author of Scraps, Wilts, and Weeds, on cooking with food waste
Mads Refslund key facts
| Nationality | Danish |
| Known for | Co-founding Noma; zero-waste cooking |
| Restaurants | MR (Copenhagen); Acme, Ilis (New York) |
| Book | Scraps, Wilts, and Weeds |
| Style | Elemental New Nordic; low-waste |
A co-founder of Noma
Refslund trained as a cook at the Gentofte Hotel outside Copenhagen and, on his first day at hotel and restaurant school, met a fellow young chef named Rene Redzepi. He earned his reputation in Copenhagen’s Michelin-starred kitchens – Formel B, Restaurationen, The Paul and Kokkeriet – before joining Redzepi and Claus Meyer to co-found Noma. The restaurant went on to be ranked the best in the world multiple times and to define the New Nordic movement, with Refslund among its founding creative forces.
MR and a move to New York
Refslund later opened his own restaurant, MR, in Copenhagen, which earned a Michelin star within its first year. He then moved to the United States, where at the NoHo restaurant Acme he helped ignite a zero-waste trend in fine dining between 2012 and 2016. He has continued to build restaurants in New York that push his ideas further, most recently Ilis in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, built around a root cellar and a rethinking of how a kitchen and dining room work.
Cooking with what others waste
A defining theme of Refslund’s work is his commitment to using every part of an ingredient. His book Scraps, Wilts, and Weeds turns food waste into recipes – from cabbage-core risotto to fennel-stalk pesto – and his restaurants have treated off-cuts, roots, ferments and foraged ingredients as the starting point for creativity rather than an afterthought.
Signature style
Refslund’s cooking is instinctive and nature-driven, playing with contrasts such as fire and ice and drawing on Nordic traditions of foraging, preserving and thrift. It is less about polish than about ideas and connection to the landscape – an approach that traces directly back to the founding spirit of Noma.
Mads Refslund in context
Refslund is one of the founders of New Nordic cuisine, alongside his Noma co-founders Rene Redzepi and Claus Meyer.
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Mads Refslund FAQ
Who is Mads Refslund?
A Danish chef and a co-founder of Noma, now known for zero-waste cooking and restaurants in New York.
Did he really co-found Noma?
Yes – together with Rene Redzepi and Claus Meyer.
What restaurants has he run?
MR in Copenhagen and Acme and Ilis in New York, among others.
What is his book about?
Scraps, Wilts, and Weeds is about turning food waste into delicious dishes.
What is he known for?
Pioneering New Nordic and zero-waste cooking.
