🇳🇴 Norway · Norwegian cuisine · b. 1980
The Danish-born chef who made Maaemo Norway's first three-Michelin-star restaurant — built entirely on Norwegian biodynamic and wild ingredients.
Esben Holmboe Bang is a Danish-born chef and the chef-patron of Maaemo in Oslo, the first restaurant in Norway to be awarded three Michelin stars (in the 2016 Michelin Guide Nordic Countries — it has held them ever since). Maaemo means 'mother earth' in Old Norse and the restaurant is built on a strict principle: every ingredient on the menu, with no exception, must come from a Norwegian biodynamic or organic producer, or be foraged in the wild on the Norwegian mainland or in Norwegian waters. There is no olive oil, no citrus, no rice and no pepper on the menu.
Holmboe Bang was born in Copenhagen in 1980 to a Danish father and a Norwegian mother, and grew up between the two countries; he has described foraging trips with his Norwegian grandfather in the Hardanger fjord as his earliest food memory. He trained at the Lille Sct. Thomas restaurant in Frederiksberg, Copenhagen, then at the Hotel D'Angleterre in central Copenhagen and the now-closed Søllerød Kro north of the city. In his early twenties he moved to Oslo to cook at the modern Norwegian restaurant Oro under Terje Ness, and later at Aquavit-trained restaurants in the city. In 2009, with the entrepreneurs Pontus Dahlström and the sommelier Pål 'Pucca' Haugen Lillelien, he co-founded Maaemo in the converted Barcode district of central Oslo.
Maaemo earned its first Michelin star in 2011, two years after opening — the fastest a Norwegian restaurant had ever earned a star at that point — its second in 2012, and its third in 2016, becoming the first restaurant in Norwegian history to hold three stars. It moved in 2019 from its original Schweigaards gate premises to a purpose-built location on Dronning Eufemias gate in Oslo's Bjørvika neighbourhood, designed by the Norwegian architects Snøhetta. The menu, a twenty-course tasting served over four hours, draws on dishes such as oyster from Bømlo with mussel emulsion and dill; raw langoustine from Hitra with sea-buckthorn and beach mustard; reindeer heart from Finnmark with juniper and pine; and the much-imitated 'mother and child' egg yolk with cured trout roe. Holmboe Bang has been ranked on Le Chef magazine's '100 Chefs in the World' list every year since 2017 and was named European Chef of the Year by the OAD (Opinionated About Dining) European Restaurant Guide in 2018.
A purely Norwegian larder. Maaemo's founding rule — every ingredient on the menu must come from a Norwegian biodynamic, organic or wild source — is the kitchen's principal creative constraint. The team works with roughly fifty named small producers across Norway, from oyster divers in Bømlo to reindeer herders in Finnmark and grain growers in Hedmark. The constraint, Holmboe Bang argues, is what makes the cuisine Norwegian rather than simply 'New Nordic.'
Three Michelin stars since 2016; co-founded with Pontus Dahlström and Pål Lillelien in 2009. Moved to its purpose-built Snøhetta-designed location in 2019.
Consulting menu work with the cultural-centre restaurant; not a permanent role.
His formative role under Terje Ness — the kitchen that introduced him to modern Norwegian fine dining.
“We do not cook 'Nordic.' We cook Norwegian. There is a difference, and it is the entire menu.”
— Financial Times interview (2017)
“If you take olive oil out of a kitchen, you discover the butter you have been ignoring.”
— Maaemo cookbook (2016), introduction
Begins his culinary training at Lille Sct. Thomas restaurant in Frederiksberg, Copenhagen.
Moves to Oslo to join the modern Norwegian restaurant Oro under Terje Ness.
Co-founds Maaemo in the Barcode district of central Oslo with Pontus Dahlström and Pål Haugen Lillelien.
Maaemo earns its first Michelin star in the 2012 guide — two years after opening, the fastest a Norwegian restaurant had ever done so.
Maaemo is promoted to two Michelin stars.
Named Best Restaurant in the Nordics by the White Guide Nordic.
Maaemo becomes the first restaurant in Norwegian history to be awarded three Michelin stars.
Named European Chef of the Year by the OAD European Restaurant Guide.
Moves Maaemo to a new Snøhetta-designed building on Dronning Eufemias gate in Bjørvika; receives Norway's St. Olav's Order, 1st Class.
Maaemo retains three Michelin stars in the post-pandemic Nordic guide.
Yes. Maaemo became the first restaurant in Norway ever to hold three Michelin stars when it was promoted in the 2016 Michelin Guide Nordic Countries. It has held three stars continuously since.
Maaemo operates under a strict founding rule: every ingredient on the menu must come from a Norwegian biodynamic, organic or wild source. Olive oil, citrus, rice, pepper and other non-Norwegian staples are therefore excluded. Holmboe Bang argues that the constraint, not the inclusion of fashionable Nordic ingredients, is what defines the cuisine as genuinely Norwegian.
He is Danish by birth — born in Copenhagen in 1980 — and Norwegian by maternal heritage and by residence since 2003. He holds dual citizenship and has lived in Oslo since his early twenties.
Maaemo moved in 2019 from its original Schweigaards gate premises to a purpose-built restaurant on Dronning Eufemias gate in Oslo's Bjørvika district. The new building was designed by Snøhetta, the Oslo-based architecture practice also responsible for the Oslo Opera House and the September 11 Memorial Museum pavilion in New York.
'Maaemo' is the Old Norse word for 'Mother Earth.' The name was chosen to signal the restaurant's founding commitment to biodynamic and wild Norwegian ingredients.
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