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An award-winning chef offers a taste of Greenland's history and culture through food

A halibut dish that Chef Inunnguaq Hegelund prepared in his home kitchen in Nuuk, Greenland.
Grace Widyatmadja/NPR
A halibut dish that Chef Inunnguaq Hegelund prepared in his home kitchen in Nuuk, Greenland.

NUUK, Greenland — Chef Inunnguaq Hegelund is constantly moving.

On a recent trip to a local hunter's market, the car barely stops moving before the star chef jumps out to see what options are available for dinner.

"The fisherman or the hunter will come with this fish or meat here, and then we can buy it fresh," he says as he inspects the offerings. The market advertises musk ox, belugas, narwhals, seals, caribou, polar bear and walrus. He settles on an eider, a type of sea duck.

Hegelund has been a chef for about 20 years and is now working to preserve Greenland's Indigenous food traditions by leaning into what he describes as new Arctic cuisine. It's a movement toward local, sustainable and traditional food — more about the ingredients and sourcing them than any particular technique.

"In Greenland, we have the world's wildest kitchen, but we also have the [cleanest tasting] foods in the world," he says.

Hegelund stops by a traditional hunter's market in Nuuk to see what is available to buy.
Grace Widyatmadja/NPR /
Hegelund stops by a traditional hunter's market in Nuuk to see what is available to buy.
Hegelund cuts up the blubber of a narwhal. He shows us a thin line in the blubber, indicating that the narwhal was young. The thin line is similar to rings on a tree.
Grace Widyatmadja/NPR /
Hegelund cuts up the blubber of a narwhal. He shows us a thin line in the blubber, indicating that the narwhal was young. The thin line is similar to rings on a tree.

All Things Considered recently spent an evening with Hegelund to learn more about the island's history through food.

Hegelund says most of the food, like different types of vegetables and most dairy, is imported from other countries. At the grocery store, he points out freezers with only locally produced Greenlandic foods. He fills a cart with locally caught halibut and smoked salmon, narwhal meat and dried whale.

Hegelund says when non-Greenlanders think of Inuit food, they always mention whale blubber. When he thinks about Inuit food, his mind immediately goes to dried fish. There are hundreds of varieties.

"I normally compare it to curry," he says. "Because a family in India will have their own recipe in their own house. And this is the same with the dried fish up here."

He wants Greenland to be self-sufficient and to preserve the time-honored traditions of local food. He says where the food comes from and how it's sourced matters.

Hegelund sets out some dried fish.
Grace Widyatmadja/NPR /
Hegelund sets out some dried fish.
Grace Widyatmadja/NPR /
A red fish dish that Hegelund prepared in his home.
Grace Widyatmadja/NPR /
A red fish dish that Hegelund prepared in his home.

The food he's preparing for us has been through a journey.

"[Greenlanders] do a lot of hunting. [They] are out in rough nature," Hegelund says. There's probably a fisherman who went out in "negative-30 degrees on a dogsled and [drove] 30 kilometers (about 18 miles) to get to this hole where he's fishing."

Hegelund lives in a small apartment shared with a roommate that overlooks the Nuuk fjord. This is where we join him for dinner. And as soon as we walk in the door, he jumps into action — a flurry of activity in a small galley kitchen.

When Hegelund breaks down the duck from the hunter's market, he gives out a warning: "Take care of your teeth because [there might be] bullets." That's how fresh the food is here.

Near the start of the pandemic, Hegelund opened his own restaurant but struggled. He says his restaurant hadn't been open long enough to qualify for government pandemic assistance. Ultimately, he had to shut it down —and went to work on a fishing boat as he rebuilt his life.

Hegelund prepares dinner in his home. He says he loves seeing how people respond to his food.
Grace Widyatmadja/NPR /
Hegelund prepares dinner in his home. He says he loves seeing how people respond to his food.
Some fish dishes that Hegelund prepared in his home kitchen.
Grace Widyatmadja/NPR /
Some fish dishes that Hegelund prepared in his home kitchen.

Today, he has a wide portfolio of culinary projects, including a food festival and a national competition for chefs.

Back in the kitchen, he is juggling dishes of Greenlandic lamb smothered in a mushroom sauce, smoked salmon salad and seared halibut.

Hegelund says he loves being a chef because seeing the way people respond to his food is like "medicine."

Copyright 2025 NPR

Juana Summers
Juana Summers is a co-host of NPR's All Things Considered, alongside Ailsa Chang, Ari Shapiro and Mary Louise Kelly. She joined All Things Considered in June 2022.
Matt Ozug
[Copyright 2024 NPR]
Ashley Brown
Ashley Brown is a senior editor for All Things Considered.