René Redzepi’s radical and exacting resourcefulness is famous. When the intrepid chef based noma, his experimental Copenhagen-based restaurant, 21 years in the past, he insisted on utilizing solely native meals that had been in season, typically foraging for components like pine cones and pea shoots within the Scandinavian wild and turning to strategies like fermentation and pickling to protect components throughout barren seasons—altering the panorama of fantastic eating and garnering a cult following within the course of.
Within the extremely creative palms of Redzepi and his crew, deserted cod heads grow to be a show-stopping delicacy, ants from the woods emerge as a tart deal with, and kelp washed up on the seaside transforms right into a wondrous elixir. At noma, the oft-tired idiom that “one man’s trash is one other man’s treasure” will get a cheeky refresh—one man’s meals waste is one other man’s very in-demand tasting menu.
L-R: Bess Spaeth, Peter Kreiner, Rene Redzepi
Courtesy of American Specific Centurion
This was by no means extra evident to me than after I joined Redzepi and his staff for an intimate meal at Centurion New York, the place they’re internet hosting a multi-night dinner collection this week with Resy and American Specific. I discovered myself massaging a bowl of rye bread crumbs (rescued from the stale leftovers of Denmark’s Hart Bakery, after all) right into a mushy pile of barley koji and salt to make a batch of ryeso—noma’s rye-bread-powered model of miso. It was the beginning of an evening full of witnessing (and tasting) the creation of flavors from essentially the most unorthodox locations, from a roasted pumpkin unfold served on a magnolia petal that was a lifeless ringer for a nut butter to a crunchy dried-ant garnish that had all the intense zing of lemon zest. When you had informed me per week in the past that I’d be consuming a candied child pine cone with gusto, I’d have hardly believed you, however that was earlier than I met Redzepi and his blue apron-clad military of cooks.
Forward of the dinner, I obtained a crash course in noma’s Fermentation Lab practices (therefore my foray into making ryeso) and the inside workings of the take a look at kitchen, together with listening to concerning the foraging the noma workers did in Central Park earlier that day. (It’s possible you’ll be shocked to listen to that they discovered the park abundantly filled with potential components and that New York Metropolis ants style just like these sourced within the Danish woods.) Additionally they launched the Ocean Bundle, the newest launch from Noma Initiatives, the meals product line they began in 2022. Every launch includes a limited-edition assortment of merchandise featured on noma’s present menu—on this case, a trio of clever plant-based sauces: Elderflower Peaso, Ocean à la Crème, and Nordic Shoyu.
Noma Initiatives Merchandise
Courtesy of American Specific Centurion
For Redzepi, the foraging and fermentation course of is the guts of noma, one he holds expensive as he ushers the restaurant into a brand new chapter. Final yr, Redzepi introduced that the restaurant can be closing on the finish of 2024—after nabbing three Michelin stars and successful first place in The World’s 50 Finest Restaurant Awards 5 occasions. He plans to transition the area right into a full-time take a look at kitchen, with an emphasised give attention to Noma Initiatives and internet hosting worldwide pop-ups, like final yr’s wildly fashionable Kyoto outpost. In his estimation, with these new ventures, noma’s mission stays the identical: to fearlessly create one thing new out of one thing surprising.
“Our superpower is to develop flavors,” Redzepi stated on the occasion. “We imagine a lot within the potential and the facility of taste, notably once you need to put a bit of dent of positivity or develop into the meals world—if it is carried out via the lens of deliciousness, I imagine personally, it turns into a lot simpler to truly implement that.”
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