Sander Mollerup
Apprentice at Restaurant JA
I find the inspiration for my dishes when I come home to my region, and visit my childhood favourite places, especially the coast. My goal at the European Young Chef Award was to elevate my cooking and get inspired by networking with other young chefs.
Sander Mollerup is the finalist who represented Central Denmark, European Region of Gastronomy awarded 2017 at the European Young Chef Award 2023 and won 3rd Prize.
20-year-old Sander Mollerup is a chef student at Restaurant JA in Holstebro, Denmark. His ambition is to first work in the best restaurants and learn from the best chefs, and then open his own gourmet restaurant.
Sander chose to become a chef because he finds it fun and exciting to combine flavours and textures. He has always had a great interest in food, especially since when, at an early age, he used to help milking cows on a farm.
Sander is a very active person who, in his spare time, likes running, training and playing golf.
At the European Young Chef Award 2023, he presented the dish The Danish West Coast, his innovative interpretation of the traditional dish Smørrebrød with Bakskuld. Smørrebrød is an open-faced sandwich and a common lunch dish, beloved all over Denmark, where it is served in various forms and with different toppings. In Sander’s region smørrebrød is usually served with Bakskuld on top, a salted, dried, and smoked common dab. In the old times, fishermen used to hang fish in the sails to get it dried by the salty coastal wind. In this way, the fish could be preserved for the long and poor winters, when they could not go out to sea.