John Pawson on his perfect restaurant experience

John Pawson: The experience of eating at a restaurant is the sum of so many parts. It encompasses the specificity of the occasion, the physical space, the quality of the light, the nature of the food and how it is served, the character of the human interactions – with people you know and those you don’t – and the atmosphere, which is both the accumulation of all these things and something distinct
in itself.

Feeling at ease is always important to me. This derives in large part from the feeling that those around me are also at ease, but can also be disrupted by something as singular as strong perfume or certain sounds.

I am generally a person of simple tastes: I can find profound pleasure in something as simple as a bowl of soup or a plate of cheese. But at the same time, my mind is currently full of memories of three exceptional meals that I recently ate in Copenhagen: one at Kong Hans Kaelder, one at Sushi Anaba, and the other at Noma. All were exemplary in every detail – a succession of honed sensations, each of them the outcome of unstinting commitments of intellectual and physical endeavour.

This article appears as part of Laila Gohar’s guest editor section of the October 2024 issue of Wallpaper*, available in print on newsstands, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today