Kenneth Hojgaard

Copenhagen House of Food

Kenneth Højgaard was part of the team that founded the Copenhagen House of Food (Københavns Madhus) in 2007, where he worked until 2019. The organisation was created with a clear mission: to improve the quality of the 80,000 public meals served every day by the City of Copenhagen.

At the same time, Copenhagen had set an ambitious goal: 90% organic food in all municipal kitchens by 2015 – without increasing food budgets. Organic food was not treated as an optional, but as hygiene factor, a basic condition for changing the food system.

To make this possible, the Copenhagen House of Food developed Køkkenløftet – "The Kitchen Lift", a model for measuring and improving meal quality. The Danish word løft carries two meanings: to lift something – raising the quality – and to make a promise. 

Through Køkkenløftet, kitchens worked simultaneously with cooking skills, ingredients, sustainability, organisation and the experience of eating.

The same thinking shaped EAT, Copenhagen's school meal programme, serving around 8,000 students, and the development of Food Schools, where students themselves participate in preparing meals for their fellow students.

The guiding ambition was simple but far-reaching:

"We aim to create a sustainable, healthy and joyful meal culture in the Municipality of Copenhagen."