Restaurant ESSE is chef Matt Orlando’s new Copenhagen restaurant, built around bold flavors and thoughtful sustainability. Located a stone’s throw from MURI HQ in Nordhavn, ESSE continues Matt’s pioneering approach to zero-waste fine dining in a hip, graffiti-clad warehouse.

Matt is well known as the former head chef of Noma and founder of the acclaimed restaurant Amass. He's worked in some of the world’s most influential kitchens, including Le Bernardin, The Fat Duck, and Per Se.

Murray (MURI's Founder) first met Matt while training as a distiller at Empirical, when Matt was head chef at Amass next door.

“In those early days at Empirical, we were always working late into the night. Matt was kind enough to save us some of the Amass staff meal for those of us on the late shift, and I remember thinking how insanely lucky I was to eat his food for dinner every evening! He's not only this legendary chef but the warmest, most humble bloke in the industry.”

When we were developing Passing Clouds in 2020, Matt was the first chef we took a bottle to for tasting. Murray remembers being absolutely terrified:

“We have such an enormous amount of respect for him that I was slightly petrified he might say it was crap — but he loved it. I remember leaving the tasting and calling the team to say, ‘I think we’re in business here.’”

Image: the kitchen team snatching a break before service

Creativity is the bedrock of the collaboration. We have to work fast with the changing seasons and ingredients, and our previous precise, meticulous methods were not suitable - we had to adapt and change mindset. As we had to let our imagination run free we started to question everything. Can the drink be hot or savory? Can it be served in ceramic ware? How should it interact with the food ? Should it match the dish or provide contrast? Our ideation sessions became wild brainstorming conversations.

Some of the beverages are prepared at MURI, then finished and garnished by the front of house team at the point of serving which broadens the scope for what we can achieve. Our after dinner cream liqueur made from blackened mushrooms, lacto-honey and potato skins is finished with whole milk during service.

We found that using spent ingredients challenged us to think differently - to explore new avenues for flavor creation and seek new sources of inspiration from alternate drinks that aren't wine. Our friend the chef Doug McMaster once said "waste is a failure of imagination" and it is an ethos that we adhere to in our collaboration with ESSE.

Image: on the pass at ESSE

ESSE is one of the leaders of the circular gastronomy movement. The extent to which the team innovates so that there is no waste, only deliciousness, is setting the bar for others to follow suit. Matt continually challenges us to use spent ingredients from the kitchen to showcase them again in new drinks. Spent carrot pulp, potato skins, beet pulp, spent malt, herb vinegars, white currant lees, smoked mussels - all have been reused and turned into new delicious blends.

We also re-use the bottles. Special labels are attached in the restaurant with a band so we can pick up, clean and reuse each bottle so there is no glass waste after service, and we reuse all the cardboard boxes to take the bottles back to the blendery for the next batch.

Image: spent ingredients fermented into other purposes

Eva wanted to begin the meal with something bright, precise, and quietly celebratory — a pairing designed to awaken the palate with the same elegance and anticipation that Champagne brings to the start of a menu. The challenge was to create a non-alcoholic pairing with equal lift, texture, and sense of occasion.

Pairing #1 is built around fermented gooseberries, fat-washed with butter infused with wild rose petals. The butter lends a soft, rounded texture reminiscent of fine oak ageing, while the rose brings delicate floral lift and aromatic tension. This is layered with a fragrant water kefir scented with blackberry leaves we pick directly outside our HQ, bruise and oxidize, and turn into a tannic tea for structure. An addition of foraged linden flowers, brings freshness and gentle complexity.

The result is vibrant yet structured: floral, mineral, lightly creamy, and deeply refreshing. At Restaurant ÉSSE, Eva currently pairs it with dehydrated celeriac with a cheese sauce, as well as their iconic potato bread and cultured butter — dishes where the drink’s freshness and subtle savoury depth can fully unfold.

"How crazy do you want to go?”

Matt asked us this during one of our first ideation sessions at ÉSSE, testing just how adventurous we were willing to be with the ingredients. Naturally, the answer was: as crazy as possible.

A few moments later, he returned from the kitchen carrying a container of dried smoked mussels — leftovers from the dashi stock used in the restaurant. Challenge accepted.

We had already been experimenting with ice-clarified tomato water, and the idea immediately evoked the savory depth of Clamato — the cult Canadian blend of tomato and clam juice best known as the backbone of a Bloody Mary. From there, the drink evolved over months into something far more layered and gastronomic.

We built depth through koji amazake for softness and umami, alongside a browned butter and kombu fat wash that gives the drink a remarkable texture and length on the palate. A vibrant lovage kefir brings freshness and subtle celery notes, tying the whole expression back to the classic Bloody Mary profile while taking it into entirely new territory.

The result is profoundly savory, smoky, saline, and unapologetically complex — a drink designed very much with food in mind. It’s not a “beginner” non-alcoholic pairing; it asks for attention and rewards curiosity. But alongside richly savory dishes, roasted meats, mushrooms, or seafood, it becomes something deeply compelling: a non-alcoholic pairing with the structure, persistence, and intrigue usually associated with big red wines.

How do you finish a meal with the same elegance and sense of occasion with which it began? Too often, non-alcoholic pairings overlook the dessert course entirely — yet this final pairing is what lingers in the memory long after the meal has ended.

For this pairing, we wanted to create something deeply expressive while remaining singular in focus. The starting point was an extraordinary harvest of green Reine Claude plums from the Danish island of Lilleø — fruit with such purity we felt that it deserved to tell its own story.

Through carbonic maceration, we first softened and transformed the plums’ sweet flesh, drawing out both freshness and perfume. From there, we blackened some of the fruit and stones and held them gently at low temperature for weeks, slowly developing darker notes of caramelised fruit, almond kernel, and spice. The remainder was lacto-fermented for acidity and freshness. The result is a layered and deeply nuanced expression built entirely around one ingredient explored through multiple techniques.

At ÉSSE, the pairing was created to accompany the kitchen’s pastry work, where its balance of ripe fruit, bright acidity, and savoury depth allows it to move seamlessly between richness and freshness. Elegant yet quietly complex, it is intended as a final impression that feels as thoughtful and memorable as the meal itself.

We asked ESSE's Beverage Director Eva Baumgartner for her pairing tips:

"Pairing #1 is vibrant, floral, and incredibly versatile. It has both freshness and structure, making it ideal at the beginning of a meal.

I have an urge to drink it with the fresh salads from my home town in Tyrol - vibrant leaves with crispy speck and fresh herbs and a bit of ricotta. The floral aromatics bring lift, while the gentle tannins give enough body to carry more savoury flavours than you might initially expect. Any sort of raw seafood is also a good idea - crudo, oysters, zingy ceviche.

It’s equally enjoyable as a refreshing aperitif on its own - I'd recommend cracking open a bottle with friends sitting on a sunny terrace with a few salty snacks."

"Pairing #2 is probably the most boundary-pushing drink in the collaboration. It explores savory depth and texture in a way that feels unusually gastronomic for a non-alcoholic pairing.

I find what makes the drink so compelling is its persistence on the palate — the long, umami-driven finish gives it the structure to stand alongside dishes you would normally reserve for tannic wines. At the restaurant it works beautifully with both punchy fish and poultry mains, particularly richer preparations where the drink’s smoky, mineral complexity can mirror the depth of the dish.

We found it's particularly important to make sure this blend is served cold to promote its vibrancy - you do not want this to warm up in the glass, so keep it chilled during the meal and keep the pours small and regular to maintain low temperatures.

This drink is a bit mad, and I would recommend you embrace the madness and experiment pairing it with bold, fiery, or very heavy umami dishes. For example try it with dishes drenched in bottarga or pecorino."

"Pairing #3 is a beautiful example of how expressive a single ingredient can become when treated with precision. Rather than building complexity through many components, the drink focuses entirely on revealing the full character of the plum itself.

Alongside the fresh fruit notes, there are deeper layers of almond kernel, caramelised stone fruit, and subtle nuttiness, giving the drink both richness and elegance. The balance between ripe fruit and bright acidity makes it remarkably versatile at the table.

At ESSE, we first paired it with venison, where its dark fruit character complemented the richness of the meat beautifully. Later, it also found a natural place alongside desserts, thanks to its freshness and refined sweetness. At home, it works especially well with game, roasted root vegetables, baked fruit desserts, or hard cheeses.

If you're feeling lazy, I would highly recommend having a glass with a scoop of good vanilla gelato or apfelstrudel."