COPENHAGEN: Kadeau became the first serious casualty of the restaurant world when the Kadeau Group filed for bankruptcy because of the COVID-19 crisis.
Finans newspaper in Denmark reports that the group which includes the two Michelin star restaurants in Copenhagen and Bornholm among others has filed for bankruptcy on Tuesday morning.
This is the first reported bankruptcy of a top restaurant group since the coronavirus crisis hit.
Kadeau in Copenhagen had two Michelin stars while the restaurant in Bornholm had one.
Apart from the two Michelin star restaurants, the Kadeau Group operated a hotel in Bornholm as well as a number of other restaurants in the country. All subsidiaries and activities have been included in the bankruptcy filing.
Danish newspapers quoted the CEO of the Kadeau Group Magnus Klein Kofoed as saying that the restaurant had millions in debts over the past years with the group reporting a total loss EUR 1.4 million over the past three years.
During the current crisis, the Kadeau Group reduced the pay of its employees but this and various government assistance packages were not enough to save the group. “It is a life’s work that we’ve been growing over the last several years but now it is over and it is affecting us all,” Kofoed said.
Among the owners of the group is Lukas Forchhammer, lead singer of Lukas Graham.
The head-chef of Kadeau is Nicolai Norregaard. He grew up in Svaneke on the island of Bornholm and cooked with his grandfather from an early age. He met his business partner Rasmus Kofoed in the local handball club when he was 11. Kadeau in Copenhagen earned a Michelin star in 2014 and a second star in 2018. Kadeau Bornholm received a star in 2016. The backbone of their cuisine was the nature of Bornholm.
On March 18, the Group said that as more and more measures were being taken to stop the spread of the corona virus in Denmark, it confirmed the right decision to close all restaurants a week earlier.
In an Instagram post they said “these are challenging times for us all, but especially to everyone in the hospitality industry. We have all worked hard and passionately and it breaks our hears to see both ourselves and all of our friends and colleagues in this incredibly difficult situation.”
Leave a Reply