In Conversation with Claus Meyer - from humble beginnings and a food movement that made all the difference

On 17 October 2011, the Singapore Experience Awards (SEA) ceremony was held to recognize the best in Singapore ' s tourism industry. Organised by the Singapore Tourism Board (STB), the SEA is the most prestigious awards platform on which distinctive marks of excellence are conferred upon recipients who consistently innovate, create and deliver compelling and memorable destination experiences.

Opening the day's programme and TravelRave 2011 - a week-long mega travel and tourism festival also organised by STB - was the second edition of the Singapore Experience Conversation. Organised to inspire continuous innovation and productivity in experience creation, this forum is an annual highlight and provides the opportunity for experience providers to engage in open and constructive dialogue about key issues and challenges arising from an ever-changing consumer landscape.

This year's edition was themed "Singapore, A City That Inspires" and featured Mr Claus Meyer as its keynote speaker and whose journey illustrated how a powerful experience could serve to change lives.

Meyer is the co-founder of Noma restaurant in Copenhagen, which has been named the best restaurant in the world in 2010 and 2011. Besides that, he also runs the Meyer Group which covers a multitude of companies encompassing catering, cooking courses, canteens, delis and, very recently, a micro vinegar brewery.

Throughout his life, he has been a strong proponent of the new Nordic Cuisine and has devised a whole movement around transforming a regional food culture.

The humble beginnings of Noma started in 2003, when Meyer and his partner decided to open a restaurant in a warehouse district of Copenhagen, where food and the kitchen were going to be the focus. Not the interior, not the paper on which the menus were going to be printed on and certainly not the drapes in the restaurant, but its cuisine.

"We all want to go to heaven, but only a few of us are willing to die to get there. " This is the passion that Meyer exemplifies as he shared his experiences on how he got started.

As Meyers remembers, the Puritan surroundings in which he grew up enforced the notion that eating was a matter of economical efficiency. Food should be cheap and be prepared in less than 30 minutes. It served a functional purpose and was definitely not something to be enjoyed.

It was the year he'd spent in France while still a teenager that served as his inspiration in the field of cooking and gastronomy and transformed the course of his life. The French "joie de vivre" and the joy of everything to do with food and wine struck a chord with the young Meyers and profoundly changed him.

He returned to Denmark at 20 with a new calling and a desire to change Danish food culture, which for several decades had been in decline.

In an age where commercial principles rule the day, his ethos is admirable. Never spend money on marketing. Reinvest all profits into changing the Danish food culture. Build your experience and credibility with a string of companies from importing chocolate to organic bakeries to restaurants.

When he started Noma, he wanted to open a Nordic restaurant which would only use local produce and was, in fact, abundant in Denmark and the region. Back then, this was a very novel concept. His efforts and conviction were backed by, to put it simply, deliciousness.

In a short decade, this new experience that he was creating for food lovers was transformed the tastes and demand of consumers and had a prominent impact on Danish society.

It certainly helped that Nordic society was also ready for this transformation. For one, the region has huge buying power which left consumers less than satisfied with mediocrity. In addition, Nordic cuisine is closely tied to its geographical origins with a strong sense of both physical and cultural place, and thus cannot be copied. By doing away with a logo, it became an inclusive movement and represented the joy of local stakeholders in building true value together by bridging pleasure with sustainability.

"We need a capacity to change, " says Meyer. The world over, obesity is becoming a serious problem. Today's kids are growing up on fast food and soft drinks. According to Meyers, what the world needs is strong experiences to create change amongst the new Coca-Cola generation.

For Meyer, the process of creating experiences that generates change is organic. Underlying the journey is a continuous reinvention that stems from strong experiences. To someone who has lived through it himself, this is what creates successful people, companies and countries.