In the Kitchen with Auren's

We headed to Frederiksberg, Copenhagen, to spend the morning with Henry at Auren's, the neighbourhood restaurant and grocery store founded by Henry and Pernille.

In the Kitchen With is an original series from Honest Toil exploring the chefs, kitchens and restaurants using our extra virgin olive oil every day. Through conversations, dishes and behind-the-scenes moments, the series captures the people shaping thoughtful, ingredient-led cooking and the role olive oil plays in restaurant kitchens across London.

Auren's began during lockdown, when the pair started farming a small plot of land outside the city and soon found themselves with more produce than they knew what to do with. Both came from fine dining backgrounds, where reducing waste and respecting good produce were fundamental. In July 2022, they opened Auren's: part grocery store, part service space, connecting their neighbourhood with high-quality local produce while giving anything bruised, cracked or unsold another life in the kitchen.

Neither Henry nor Pernille came to Auren's as trained chefs. They learnt as they went, cooking from books and taking inspiration from places they loved, particularly London restaurants like Rochelle Canteen and Towpath. Almost four years on, they've found their own rhythm, built around strong relationships with local farmers and a considered approach to anything brought in from further afield.

"If we are importing stuff from abroad, we try to make sure we have a really nice, strong relationship with the people that are doing it. The product itself is really important to us, something that we can really justify why it's on our shelf." That ethos naturally extends to Honest Toil, which has found a home in both the Auren's kitchen and grocery store.

Creating a genuine neighbourhood spot was equally important. After years in fine dining, where guests might only return once a year, Henry and Pernille wanted somewhere people could weave into their everyday lives. Henry grew up around pubs in the UK and loved the idea of creating a similar community hub in Frederiksberg. Eventually, the original concept became too busy for one room. The grocery store and dining space had initially lived side by side, but as Auren's grew, so did the slightly chaotic reality of running both at once, a full restaurant service happening while someone appeared with a basket of groceries ready to pay. Last year, they moved the grocery shop just 100 metres down the road, giving both sides of Auren's the space to become their own thing. Expansion was never really part of Henry and Pernille's plan; it happened naturally as the business grew.

The restaurant itself was designed to feel just as fluid. Rather than separating the kitchen, front of house and guests, a large central island sits at the heart of the room, allowing everything to happen in view and the team to move easily between roles. Henry and Pernille wanted to create a space that encouraged curiosity and conversation, where guests could see how things were being made rather than having the workings of the restaurant hidden away. Records from Henry's personal collection, alongside others contributed by friends, play throughout the day, while bottles of wine line the room instead of being tucked away on a traditional wine list. The result feels less like a formal restaurant and more like being welcomed into a very good living room, which, Henry says, was partly the point: knowing how much time they'd spend there, they essentially brought a little of home to work.

Rooted in relationships, led by what's good around them, and never too fussy about the rest.

For us, Henry made the dish that has remained on the menu almost since the beginning: tomatoes and fresh cheese on toast. Inspired originally by a Towpath dish, Auren's version pairs local Danish tomatoes with fresh goat's cheese from a farm around an hour west of Copenhagen. On the morning we visited, white nectarines brought extra sweetness alongside fresh tarragon, salt, pepper and a very generous pour of Honest Toil. Henry's rule for the latter? "You put on olive oil until you feel shame."

It's simple, generous cooking that feels very much at home at Auren's – good ingredients, sourced from people they know and given the space to really shine. Nearly four years later, the dish is still on the menu, shifting slightly with the seasons but remaining a constant as everything around it has grown. In many ways, it feels like Auren's in a dish: rooted in relationships, led by what's good around them and never too fussy about the rest.

What began with Henry and Pernille growing a little too much produce on a plot of land outside Copenhagen has become something neither of them quite planned for: two spaces, a team of twelve and a community of regulars who have made Auren's part of their everyday lives. Yet despite all that growth, the original idea feels remarkably intact – to know where things come from, waste as little as possible, and create a place that feels genuinely connected to the people who walk through its doors. Not bad for something that started with a few too many vegetables.