On a steep, multi-edged mountain face nearly 2,000 feet high, the wind whipped the head of one hiker into a wobble. Rain pelted the group as they sought shelter under a rocky overhang, trading the promised views of lakes and towns for dry fish bites and chocolate-covered wafers known as Kvikk Lunsj. This ascent over rock foundations that predate the Jurassic period is part of what draws close to a million visitors each year to the Lofoten Islands, an archipelago 68 degrees north of the Arctic Circle. In summer, adventurers arrive to camp and climb, but the author arrived in late September to experience a different side of the environment: one found on its plates.
Holmen Lofoten: A Culinary Retreat in Sørvågen
In the village of Sørvågen, a cluster of mustard-colored cabins on stilts juts out into the sea. Once home to a cod factory, these buildings have been transformed into Holmen Lofoten, a culinary destination that has welcomed food lovers since 2007. The traditional fishing cabins, known as rorbuer, feature corrugated roofs and walkways connecting to wooden decks facing the sea. Inside, large picture windows frame the shoreline. Holmen hosts Kitchen on the Edge of the World, a culinary event launched in 2018 that brings acclaimed chefs to the region four times a year. The 30th edition was helmed by Matt Orlando, a California-born chef with experience at The Fat Duck and Per Se.
Ingunn Rasmussen, the matriarch behind the event and the sister of hiking guide Audun Rasmussen, took over the property in 2001. She wanted a space that felt like home where people could reconnect with their natural roots. A fisherman’s daughter, she grew up around the site and returned determined to breathe life back into the corner of Lofoten.
She focused on preserving original structures and historical details before adding new buildings in the same vernacular. The first night of the event gathered guests in the living room above the kitchen, defined by rustic interiors and foraged flora. Trays circulated with shrimp croustades and cocktails that told a local story: vermouth infused with blackcurrant leaves and Campari steeped with dried berries and yarrow flowers.
Mia Hjorth Hansen, co-owner of Gedulgt in Denmark, serves as the resident mixologist. Her workstation holds glass jars filled with foraged ingredients like cornflower, dandelion, and fireweed. While visiting chefs rarely return, Hansen is an exception, having attended twelve editions. The commitment to land stewardship remains a through-line among the chefs, from Ana Roš to Simon Rogan.
Ingunn takes time picking ingredients so she can choose chefs who will be considerate about the people and wildlife that make the home. Guests included a geologist from Brunei, an adventurer from Dubai, and a Melbourne retiree who travels for intimate food events. They gathered outside for dessert, where they savored ice cream made with black currant leaves and lovage, topped with mascarpone and a meringue charred over binchotan.
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Matt Orlando’s Sustainable Menu for Holmen
The next morning, Orlando and his sous chef Tom Siebeler prepared for their first dinner. Orlando worked with reindeer ribs from a sustainable farm run by Sámi herders just north of Lofoten. The chef had arrived with building blocks like barley and miso but was excited to work with what he could find in the immediate surroundings. He invited the author to forage for the menu, returning with chickweed, corn shoots, and sheep sorrel. Orlando, a visionary behind the circular restaurant Amass in Copenhagen and the Michelin-starred Esse, applies that philosophy of environmental responsibility to Holmen.
That evening, guests gathered around communal tables with wildflowers and candlelight. The potato bread arrived with allium butter, followed by the fishbone noodles. Orlando pressure-cooked fish bones and puréed them until smooth to create the collagen-rich mixture. He complements it with smoked chili, sunflower-seed miso, and fermented chili cream. The main course, the reindeer, was served family-style with utensils set aside so guests could savor it with their hands. For the pescatarian author, the hedgehog mushrooms grilled with chili-strawberry barbecue sauce and served with Lofoten chimichurri provided a satisfying alternative.
The weather changes quickly in the North, quiet and calm one minute, then wild the next. This confluence of climatic conditions makes Lofoten productive: the interaction between the warmer Gulf Stream and cold Arctic waters supports marine life, and the long hours of sunlight send plants into hyperdrive. Ingunn leads guests on foraging walks, returning with fireweed flowers for tea, cloudberries for jam, or lovage for butter.
To understand the environment is to understand its enduring connection to one particular food source: skrei, or Arctic cod. Tepee-style wooden drying racks known as hjeller dot the terrain for more than a thousand years. They will stack with skrei caught at the end of their annual migration from the Barents Sea in January, transformed into tørrfisk (wind-dried stockfish). This seasonal bounty has sustained the local economy for centuries, though ecosystem pressures like shifting migration patterns have affected the region.
The Women-Led Team Harvesting Lofoten’s Seaweed
One rainy afternoon, the author drove an hour north to the fishing village of Napp to visit Lofoten Seaweed Company. Co-founded by Angelita Eriksen and Tamara Singer, this entirely women-led team hand-harvests seven types of local seaweed from the strong tidal currents. They transform them into seasonings and toiletries that supply Holmen’s kitchens. Singer showed the author around the processing facility inside a traditional rorbu where Eriksen once cut out cod tongues.
Across the islands, artisanal cheesemakers and farmers growing root vegetables are cultivating the region’s rich ecosystem. Bjørg-Elin Kärn, who specializes in food systems at Love Food, connects small-scale producers with local restaurants. She notes that conservation only works when people can make a good living, and when a restaurant chooses local products, it helps keep the whole system alive.
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Holmen’s mountaineering guide Audun prefers not to share the names or locations of ascents anymore. He fears that overexposure on social media will draw the wrong kind of attention, not least from underprepared climbers. A few years ago, Lofoten banned wild camping to protect the land. In 2025, inbound visitor growth in Northern Norway outpaced the rest of the country, bringing a familiar tension: how to welcome visitors while protecting what makes a place worth visiting. Ingunn hopes people come for the right reasons. Food offers a way to bridge that gap, inviting visitors in while helping them understand the place they’ve come to experience. Here, visitors cannot separate food production and environment.
One morning when the weather cleared, the group piled into inflatable boats for a ride to an uninhabited island. Once a thriving fishing village, it was abandoned when motorboats became commonplace in the mid-20th century. Nature has reclaimed the idyllic spot, where waterfalls and carpets of reindeer moss cover the ground. The author sat by the jetty as mountains disappeared into the sea and white-tailed eagles circled overhead.
There is a psychological framework that helps anchor a person in the present moment, and it might explain the stillness felt despite the fog of jet lag. The hotel crew built a campfire where they ate fish soup and made pinnebrød by winding dough around birch sticks and cooking it over the flames.
The Philosophy of Holmen’s ‘Open’ Kitchen
At Holmen, encounters with nature became part of the daily rhythm. The group foraged not just for food but for art, gathering moss and branches to create wild tablescapes with a botanical artist. They spent hours with a woodcarver fashioning spoons out of local birch. The kitchen became the heart of the house where the author watched chefs slice chanterelles and hedgehog mushrooms. Orlando was always within reach, sharing recipes and starting conversations about food systems.
Unlike other modern culinary festivals, there was no peeking behind the curtain because there is no curtain. On the final night, Orlando savored grilled pollock with chard shishito butter and sipped a remarkable oat milk drink flavored with green cardamom, rose, and spiced apple. He called it his dream for a restaurant, to have diners weave in and out and chat as he cooks.