René Redzepi - Noma

March 20th 2009

It is funny to see how food critics like to make new idols. Directly after having praised the molecular cuisine for years and while keeping on maintaining silly rankings among restaurants which are so different to each other, they have decided to put forward a purely anti-molecular cuisine which is well supported by the young generation of Scandinavian chefs. One of them is this talented René Redzepi who runs his restaurant Noma in Copenhagen.

Well despite that previous comment and my loath of hipsters' trends, I must tell that I have spent a wonderful lunch at Noma. Guests are served a beautiful and apparently simple cuisine made of local products. The dishes are witty and tasty. Among the highlights of the meals, I can count the hay-smoked quail eggs, the carrots in edible soil (!), and a fantastic very-lightly seared langoustine on a hot stone.

On the can-do-better side, I could mention the desserts (but hey when you're used to French pastry, you become extremely picky) and he service which is done by the cooks themselves. I believe cooking and service are two different things and you can't always be good at both.

Also I wasn't so fond of the fact that you were supposed to eat some dishes with your fingers.  Let me have a fork please and let me decide for myself!

Unfortunately, René Redzepi wasn't there on that day but the restaurant was well-run nevertheless.

Those few critical comments should not overshadow the very high quality of this cuisine and the exemplary philosophy around it. This is truly an outstanding place which brilliantly represents one of the mot excellent streams of nowadays' cuisine.

Smoked quail eggs

Rye bread, chicken skin, lump fish roe and smoked cheese

Carots, soil and herbs

Toast, herbs, cod fish roe and vinegar

Shrimp and white currants, Crème and chorophyll

Squid and cucumber juice, kohlrabi and spinach

Tartar and wood sorrel, Aromatic juniper and tarragon

Razor Clams and parsley, Dill and mussel juice

Langoustine and Söl, seawater

Radishes from Lammefjorden, sea weed and egg yolk

Burnt salsify and milk skin, Truffles from Gotland and wild herbs

Skate and vegetable stems, Pickled ramson onion

Caramelized milk and yogurt, garden sorrel and rape seed oil

Øllebrød and frothed milk, Skyr and toasted rye kernels

Noma
Strandgade 93

1401 København K

Denmark
+45 32 96 32 97