28-year-old Mikkel Klintmann is head chef at Aarøsund Badehotel in Denmark. In just a few months he will publish the cookbook “Food from the Heart” but it is not just a book about food, it is also the story of how he has become who he is.
To JydskeVestkysten he explains that he has always wanted to know more about the person behind the food when he read cookbooks. Who are they? And how did they become so talented?
He has therefore chosen to share personal stories in his own cookbook and one of the things that have characterized Mikkel Klintmann and his outlook on life is a holiday in Thailand in 2004.
Right there in Thailand in 2004, when the tsunami killed 225,000 people, Mikkel, and his family was by chance not among the 30,000 who lost their lives on the island that they had actually planned to visit. In the morning they changed their plans, but they still got caught in the tsunami.
“When the first wave hit we fled up a mountain where we stayed for 24 hours. We lost everything and did not know how to get back,” Mikkel Klintmann says.
The devastation was enormous.
“When I came back to school in Denmark people cried. They thought I was dead” he says.
The experience traumatized him and for several years after he was never the first one to jump into the water as he was convinced he would be sucked away.
Among other things, the experience in Thailand is today part of his drive and he knows what he wants in his kitchen. The sources of inspiration are many and can be something as simple as a walk by the beach the hotel is located on.
The book contains 50 recipes for everything from snacks to filled chocolates and for Mikkel Klintmann, it is about sharing the joy of food.
The book “Food from the Heart” will be published on June 13 by the publisher DreamLitt.
