Louise Nimb (9 October 1842 – 3 May 1903) was a Danish chef and owner-manager of several restaurants in Copenhagen in the 19th century.

Her father, Aron Abraham Gunst, was a Jewish merchant who had moved to Holstebro from Dresden in Germany.

Unfortunately, the arrival of the railways made the business unviable, so they took over a restaurant in the Student Association (Studenterforeningen) in Copenhagen.

In her hands the Divan 2 changed style and character, beginning to attract members of the upper class.

Despite their wide-ranging activities they never became rich and in 1880 were taking in a lodger, the Danish writer Herman Bang, who was to write beautifully about her on her death in 1903.

It included the classical repertoire of French dishes as well as German, English and Danish meals.

The target group was the ladies of the private homes, as well as their cooks, who were given a handbook that enabled them to prepare large and small dinners.

In 1899, she published a menu dictionary in French, English, German and Danish and the following year a small book with recipes for tomatoes, the first in Denmark.

Thus, she collaborated with a horticultural theorist about the jam book and with a doctor about Cookbook and Menus for Diabetic Patients, published in 1900.

[1][2][3][5] Nimb's daughters continued the restaurant business, but her cookbook, which ran to three editions during her lifetime, slowly went out of vogue (it was republished in 1996).