Jennifer Gould

Jennifer Gould

Food & Drink

World-renowned chef helps kids experience fine dining

Imagine your kid getting a taste of fine dining at top restaurants like Agern, Jean Georges, the Modern and Zuma.

No chicken fingers allowed — and no parents, either.

That’s the vision-made-real of Claus Meyer, co-founder of Copenhagen’s world-famous Noma restaurant, whose Kid’s Table project is gearing up for its second annual run in the Big Apple next month.

For one day a year, Kid’s Table gives kids aged 7 to 14 the chance to experience fine dining with their peers — for a reasonable cost of $35 per child.

“New York City’s eating scene is a little bit adult-centric. Imagine if together we could change it?” Meyer tells Side Dish.

Meyer — whose Noma, famed for transforming foraged Nordic fare into fine cuisine, was designated the world’s best restaurant four times before it closed earlier this year — also launched Kid’s Table in 2011 in Denmark, where it sells out within hours. Meyer, a Danish TV personality, is also co-owner of multiple restaurants in Denmark including Radio, which has one Michelin star.

This is Kid’s Table’s second year in New York, where Meyer is launching his own empire, from Agern and the Great Northern Food Hall in Grand Central Station to Meyers Bageri in Williamsburg. He also has over the top buzz for Aska, the two-Michelin-starred eatery with Chef Fredrik Berselius and Restaurant Norman, with Berselius, in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, which also has a cafe, bakery and bar.

“Loris Malaguzzi [the childhood expert] once said that children are born with 100 languages, but we deprive them of 99. Our kids have the capacity to heal the broken food systems. It just won’t happen if they grow up on fast food,” said Meyer, known as the father of New Nordic Cuisine.

“This current generation of kids could be the first in history to teach their parents how to cook. I want to grow old knowing that I did what I could to make that happen.”

This year, the event is on June 8, from 4 pm to 5:30 pm. Chefs will create three-course menus using three pre-selected ingredients: asparagus, guinea hen and strawberry.

The money goes to Meyer’s charity, Melting Pot Foundation, which has a project in Bolivia, and will also operate the new Brownsville Community Culinary Center in East New York, and charities chosen by the other participating restaurants, which this year include Blue Hill, Colonie, Perry Street, and Rebelle. While Per Se participated last year, it is not on this year’s list.

Parents sign their kids in and are asked to wait outside the restaurants.

Ticket sales launch Monday.