Nordic Food Entrepreneur

Goes to a person, a company or an organization, who has developed a new method which is built on food artisan tradition and has broad appeal and market potential.

Johannes Jensen

Faroe Islands

Johannes Jensen was raised in a hotel, worked in the Faroese Seafood industry for 18 years and now 15 years in the hotel – restaurant business. He has started 13 restaurants, all of whom have unique concepts, and has played a significant role in showcasing Faroese cuisine to both a national and international audience.

Among his restaurants is KOKS, an 2 michelin-starred restaurant that focuses on local raw ingredients, and Heima í Havn, a collective of four restaurants in adjacent historic houses that have been restored to past grandeur with grass roofs and tarred wood in narrow cobbled streets. One of these restaurants, RÆST, is solely focused on the traditional fermented products on the Faroe Islands, something that would have been unthinkable just 10 years ago.

Johannes thus embodies the risk-willingness, diversity and innovation that is necessary to sustain the faroese food community.