Claus Meyer

For more than 30 years, Claus Meyer (60) has been a gastronomic entrepreneur. Besides his countless companies employing more than 800 staff, Meyer is an affiliated professor and distinguished alum at Copenhagen Business School, affiliated professor at Technical University of Denmark, and Social Impact Fellow at University of California, Berkeley Haas School of Business.

Meyer is a Knight of the Order of the Dannebrog under the Royal Danish House and a receiver of the French Order, Merit Agricole. Meyer has been named on EAT Foundation and the Culinary Institute of America’s the Plant-Forward Global 50, he is member of the Advisory Board for the Stone Barns Center, USA and a member of the Danish Gastronomic Academy.

Through countless initiatives within the food and restaurant industries Meyer has inspired generations to expect the next meal to be delicious and healthy – and to consider eating an agricultural act. Inspired by his learnings from building noma (***) with Rene Redzepi and from initiating the Nordic Cuisine Movement, Meyer went on to pursue his dream to help unfold culinary potentials outside of Scandinavia.

In 2010 he established the Melting Pot Foundation with the aim to “use deliciousness as an instrument to improve the quality of life and provide new opportunities to vulnerable and underprivileged individuals and communities.“ Through the Melting Pot Foundation Meyer founded food schools in Danish state prisons, in Bolivia and Colombia; in Brownsville, Brooklyn, New York City; and most recently in Marrakech, Morocco. Also, under the realm of the Melting Pot Foundation, resides the social restaurant GUSTU in La Paz, Bolivia – listed number 23 in the most recent Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants (2023).

In August 2015, Meyer moved to New York City with his family to steer the 2016 opening of fine dining, Michelin-restaurant Agern and Great Northern Food Hall in the city’s iconic Grand Central Terminal, Manhattan. Agern won a Michelin Star after just six months of operation, and the Food Hall was called out in New York Times as “Nirvana, Nordic Style”. While the Manhattan endeavors were brought down by the COVID19/Corona-pandemic, a Brooklyn collaboration, restaurant ASKA (**), where Meyer has backed Swedish chef Fredrik Berselius, still stands.

Meyer and the family returned to their home in Frederiksberg, Denmark in the summer of 2018. Today Meyer spends 1/3 of his professional time in MEYERS as a “player-coach”. In late 2022 MEYERS (now a high-end hospitality provider operating contract catering; lunch and event catering; restaurants and bakeries; and retail products) was acquired by UK-based Westbury Street Holding.

The rest of his time Meyer spend on Melting Pot Foundation related affairs, start-ups he has decided to invest in through his holding company, his 200-year old Hotel Saxkjøbing; his farm and orchard in southern Denmark, as well as various advisory and consulting assignments. Meyer has joined IKEA Foods Advisory Group with the aim to help propel a new, sustainable, and more delicious food offering in its €2.2 billion Euro global food and beverage business. Additionally, Meyer and his team has been engaged by IKEA’s sister-organization INGKA Centres to bring a novel food hall concept, SALUHALL, to the Northern American territory. The inaugural location in San Francisco is due opening Q2 2024.

Finally, Meyer is a cofounder and a board member of Madens Folkemøde (the Peoples Public Food Assembly), an annual summit in Denmark which convenes key stakeholders in our food system for two days of talks, discussions, tastings, and workshops.

In October 2023 Meyer published his memoir, DRØMMER (in Danish only). This book adds to more than 25 publications, including two cookbooks in English, The Nordic Kitchen – One Year of Family Cooking (2016) and Meyer’s Bakery – Bread and baking in the Nordic Kitchen (2017) available on request.

Claus Meyer, Roskilde Festival 2010 Bread Making Pep Talk

Claus Meyer, TEDxCopenhagen 2012 Unfolding Indigenous Food Cultures

A Taste of Sky– teaser on documentary on restaurant GUSTU and the Bolivian cuisine movement (password: gustu)