noma: behind the scenes

It was truly an honor to not only meet but also speak with Chef Redzepi.  Jon, myself and Chef Rene Redzepi.

and now for our feature presentation...noma!

noma is on the far left and has the first and second levels.

Dining room at noma.  Seats about 15 tables depending on the size of the party.

Fresh Berries and Lemon Thyme

Oland Wheat and virgin butter

Cabbage leaves and white currants

Green shoots of the season with scallop marinade


Greens slightly grilled, some fresh, some grilled.  Horseradish flower, nettle, fudge with dries scallop.

 

Eat the green shoots with your hands so you can soak up all of the marinade

Sweet peas, milk curd and sliced kelp
Chef Redzepi closed his restaurant and took all of his staff to Japan.  He created a pop up restaurant in northern Japan for 5 weeks.   Staff forages in the forest every morning and afternoon for the lunch and dinner menus.  They foraged in the forest and used all greens from JAPAN.   The one item they brought back was Japanese kelp as an item to introduce into their menu.

Flower tart.  Crust was made out of pulverized seaweed made into a flour to make the dough.

New Danish potato and nettle

Eat the potato like so...unwrap from the nettle pouch and dip into cream.  When finished with the potatos eat the Nettle wrap.

Cabbage and samphire (a seaweed from Denmark's beach)

Mahogany clam and grains.  This clam is over 150 years old.

Monkfish liver.  This was frozen and shaved and so temperature sensitive.  It was one of my favorite dishes.

This dish deserves a description.  Chef Rene Redzepi goes to MAD every year.  It is a not for profit organization to expand knowledge of food to make every meal a better meal and to move those ideas from theory to practice.  To do this they put on symposiums and talks for those interested in making a better meal.  One year they had a symposium on insects.  Chef Redzepi interpreted what he learned in the below dish...

Black garlic and wood ants.  The ants have a lemon flavor that go beautifully with the black garlic.  The two flavors actually and the preparation of the ants create a fruit leather taste and texture.  The ants are mashed and then dried.  

Sweet shrimps wrapped in nasturtium leaves.  This was a soup.  The soup was poured over these nasturtium tortellini like so...

Pumpkin, rose petal and caviar

Vegetable flower

Lobster and nasturtium

Roasted bone marrow

How you were to eat the roasted bone marrow.  It was like constructing a fajita.  

Berries and greens soaked in vinegar for one year to eat after the fatty bone marrow to cleanse the pallet.

Rhubarb and sheep milk yogurt

Forest flavors, chocolate and egg liqueur

Homemade egg nogg.

Cherry and apple schnapps, an alcohol that the Dane's are known for.

View from the noma lounge

noma lounge

Contemplating a delicious and artistic meal in the noma lounge over coffee and schnapps

Getting ready for our feature presentation, noma

After Geranium and having a sneak peak into noma, we are nervous as we get ready to sample what was once the #1 Restaurant in the World.  Now at #3 I cannot imagine it is any less of an amazing experience.  Make no mistake, we are not nervous about the slipping in rank of noma but rather the "more experimental and less casual" comment we heard from the staff at Geranium.  Is it going to be unapproachable?  Will I actually not like a dish?  So far, every dish I have been served on a tasting menu anywhere in the U.S. I have loved.  I turned down my first dish at Geranium so I cannot say I haven't turned down any dish worldwide.  Will there be more at noma that I cannot bear to try?  Will the experience be too casual for my taste?  I appreciate a good experience.  After the dish served in the kitchen at Geranium I don't know how noma will top it but I have a sneaky suspicion they might.  They weren't #1 two years in a row for nothing.  They aren't #3 now for nothing.

Our experience at Geranium the world's 42nd Best Restaurant

Geranium is "a lucid, light and dynamic kitchen. Their mission is to create meals that involve all the senses - restores, challenges and enriches." Geranium was voted 42nd of the World's 50 Best Restaurants in 2014. Also in 2014, they were voted the Best Restaurant of the Nordic Countries. They also work with the best. Their coffee is from Kenya and is an Arabica. It comes from Coffee Collective and Klaus Thompson who was voted the Best Coffee Barista in early 2000. He uses Fair Trade coffee and visits Kenya to ensure the coffee is grown and tended as promised. He trained Geranium on how to make the coffee. It is only brewed by pour over method.

We started with towels for our hands.  No, these are not the first course. Although, I saw some try to eat them.

APPETIZERS

Crispy Grains from Kornly

Milk, Fermented Juice from Carrot, Crab & Sea Buckthorn Oil

Raw Asaparagus, Asparagus Vinegar & Lemon Verbena

Jerusalem Artichoke Leaf, Rye Vinegar & Walnut

Some views of the Restaurant

The Lounge

Dining Room

Our table with a view

Dried Apple, Apple Juice & Dried Flowers

"Charred Potato" & Lightly Smoked Sheep Milk Butter

Next Dish was served in the kitchen!  It was an awesome experience!

Cep Mushroom Soup

Maria photo bombed!  They had such fun in the kitchen and serving in the dining room.  It was not formal or stuffy but serious and at the same time light hearted.

"Seaweed & Razor Clam" Impressions of the Beach

The whole razor clam (shell and all) was edible!

DISHES

Jelled Ham, Tomato Water & Wild Flowers

Dried salmon and flowers with ham & Salmon oil and clarified tomato water

Dillstones 

Dill and salted mackerel 

With horseradish cream and frozen cucumber crumbles

Salted Hake, Buttermilk, Lojrom (Cod Roe) & Herb Stems

Bread with Amaranth and Spelt

Biodynamic Onions with Chamomile & Melted Hay Cheese

Flavors of the Ocean, Beach Plants, Brown Butter & Dried Scallop Roe

Egg Yolk in Melted & Smoked Lard, Beetroot & Essence of Black Currant Leaves

View from Geranium.  From their website: 

"The restaurant is situated on the 8th floor in Fælledparken (Common Gardens) in the center of Copenhagen, from where one can follow the seasons' journey through the tree crowns, catch glimpses of the citys green copper roofs and just see the windmills of Oeresund. The location emphasizes Geraniums vision of gastronomic clarity and diversity. We explore the area of tension between the urbane and the natural."

Chicken, Pointed Cabbage, Pine Sprouts and Meadow Hay Beer.  The chicken first arrived as so...

Then was cut and placed in this bowl.  A note on the chicken and pine shoots, the breast, leg and thigh meat were removed then pureed into a mousse.  The mousse was then stuffed into the wing.  The pine shoots are found at the end of the pine branch.  They are harvested once a year and pickled.  Last year's batch were in this year's dish.

DESSERTS

Rhubarb, Crystallized Rose Hip & Sheep Yogurt.  Forget-Me-Nots, Spanish Chervil and a few other aromatic herbs placed on each state of rhubarb - juice, gelatin, pickled and boiled.  It was to be eaten with the frozen sheep's milk yogurt.

Beeswax Ice Cream, Cloudberries and Salted Caramel.  Served on a bed of bee pollen (not to be eaten).

Woodruff & Wood Sorrel

WIne Cellar they just created and opened up for a tour just tonight.

SWEETS

Lingonberry Bush with Beetroot, Onion Caramel with Strawberries, Cake from Pumpkin Seed Oil and Green Egg with Pine