Daniel Burns

Canadian from Nova Scotia, before returning to his continent Daniel Burns learnt the ropes in some of the most important kitchens in Europe. He was pastry-chef in Bray, at Heston Blumenthal’s Fat Duck, an important experience just like the following one, also in England, at St. John in London. The following three years, 2006-2009, were even more essential, when he was pastry-chef and sous-chef at the helm of Noma in Copenhagen.

This is where he met David Chang, a colleague and friend of Rene Redzepi, who offered Burns to follow him to New York and finalise the Momofuku Test Kitchen, basically an experimental laboratory for Chang’s empire in America, he accepted and worked there for three more years. And as the desire to open a place of his own grew, Daniel met Jeppe Jarnit-Bjergs, with whom he opened beer bar Tørst early in 2013 and in July, same year, restaurant Luksus, in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

The concept is revolutionary: you enter a real brewery with a bar behind which they are serving some 20 draught beers from all around the world. At the end of the room, a small door leads to a micro-restaurant with 4 tables and an open view kitchen in which Daniel and another couple of guys work at lightning speed. The food has a strong Nordic influence, dishes have a predominant acid note as in the Seaweed biscuits with hazelnuts, Marinated cabbage with Sot-l’y lasse and cauliflower purée or the Lamb sweetbreads in gribiche sauce. There are no wines as for pairings, only great craft beers, 150 to be precise. This is why the Michelin star, which arrived right away, in November, generated uproar. It’s the first time it happens to a restaurant that hasn’t got one single wine in the list. So Burns has something to celebrate: his two degrees, in mathematics and philosophy, turned out to be useful.

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