In 2020, Greenlandic chefs Salik Parbst Frederiksen and Miki Siegstad were busy – but bored. Miki was cooking for fishermen aboard a trawler, while Salik had just started a touring company. But the duo, who'd previously worked together at a food festival, were frustrated by the lack of opportunities for Inuit chefs and people with an affinity for culinary culture in Greenland. Salik suggested that they open a pop-up in the capital, Nuuk, focused on locally sourced Greenlandic food.

Two weeks later, the duo set up in the capital's harbor, serving smoked reindeer and pulled lamb sandwiches out of a food stand for one evening. The enthusiastic reactions from the community were enough to outweigh the near-zero profit. Today, they've brought Igapall, their pop-up dining experience, to six locations across the country, aiming to put Greenland on the world map of food destinations.

Keeping it local

‘There haven't been many of us [Greenlanders] working with food,’ Salik explains. ‘Greenland was a colony for many years. The people who had the money to establish restaurants were mostly foreigners [who] came with their own country's idea of food.’

While there is a local culinary school – Inuili in Narsaq, in south Greenland – it requires students to travel to Denmark to complete their training and exams (Greenland is an autonomous country with its own government within the Kingdom of Denmark). Igapall is creating local demand for skilled Greenlandic chefs, using techniques that are honed from an early age, such as hunting, fishing and foraging.

‘They want us to lift Greenlandic dishes to the next level,’ says Igapall chef Aggu Broberg. ‘Salik and Miki's way is to put a chef's name to a plate.’

Pushing what's already there

Greenland's fishing industry sustains almost the entire country's economy, accounting for more than a fifth of its workforce. The crustaceans and fish trawled in Greenland are mostly exported or bought by fishing companies like Royal Greenland and sold back to regional grocery chains. The little arable soil in Greenland also means that there's a heavy reliance on imported produce.

For Miki and Salik, innovation is about an improved process – more local and independent, starting by reintroducing Greenland to the ingredients that it's known all along. When they're cooking in west Greenland, dishes will center around musk ox, Arctic hare and ptarmigan (a game bird). Further south, main courses often come from the sea – redfish, salmon, halibut or Arctic char – or locally farmed lamb.

Side dishes could be locally grown potatoes or fresh vegetables from vertical farm project Greenlandic Greenhouse. While ice and permafrost make up 80% of Greenland's terrain, wild herbs, such as Arctic thyme and Labrador tea, grow in rocky areas.

Natural adaptations

Beyond the capital, Igapall has held pop-ups in remote towns dotted along the west and south coasts. Being a floating kitchen with no fixed location allows the chefs to make food culture accessible and sustainable – but it also presents logistical challenges and high expenses.

There are no roads connecting settlements in Greenland. Traveling and shipping are extremely costly and, outside of Nuuk, kitchens and dining spaces are few and far between. The extreme weather and heavy reliance on imports mean making pivots and finding alternatives are paramount to running the food business.

‘It'd be easier to open a place in Nuuk,’ Salik admits. ‘[But] to go somewhere remote and show people how you can use the products we have, no matter where you are, is the point of Igapall.’

For more on how Igapall is paving the way for Greenlandic ingredients and chefs, check out the full story here.

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