Denmark to explore legally classifying gastronomy as fine art

Denmark’s culture minister, Jakob Engel-Schmidt, announced on Jan. 30, 2026, in Copenhagen a new initiative to explore legally acknowledging gastronomy as a fine art. The exploratory move could, if approved, make high-level chefs eligible for the same types of arts funding and protection given to painters or ballet companies.

The plan will begin by convening experts to consider a reclassification of gastronomy from craft to art, a change that would ultimately require parliamentary approval. If passed, Engel-Schmidt said it would make the industry’s highest-level chefs eligible for state subsidies and funding from private foundations that support the arts.

“Hopefully, it will allow gastronomy to be considered not just nourishment but a form of expression,” he said after announcing the move at Convergence, a symposium for chefs. The initiative is partly framed as a way to maintain Denmark’s standing after the rise of New Nordic cuisine, credited in the article to chefs such as René Redzepi of Noma.

Rasmus Munk of the Alchemist, who organized the symposium, said that support could give chefs time and space to develop creativity: “Musicians don’t have to write their new album while they are onstage performing.” The Alchemist was described as staging dinners beneath a planetarium-style dome and serving dishes like a grilled cod jaw wrapped in a dehydrated cod skin intended as a comment on ocean pollution.

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