Photograph courtesy of Sauce Communications
We’d never heard the word “shitty” used so many times in 90 minutes, but that’s how famed chef René Redzepi of Noma in Copenhagen, purportedly the world’s best restaurant, chose to describe the “vintage” carrots and potatoes used in some of his nouveau Nordic dishes. He also managed to mention his “shitty” potatoes and carrots are delicious despite being left in the ground abnormally long and tending to be terribly ugly.
Before a packed house at Freemasons’ Hall for the launch of his new cookbook (reckoned the most important of the year), Redzepi wowed his audience with tales of foraging Denmark’s marshes and beaches in search of local flavour for his haute cuisine.
More gourmet eroticism than actual food porn, the video and live cooking presentations by the potty mouthed thirty-something chef and crew were a delectable tease. Cauliflower with spruce? Moss that’s “crazy delicious”? Recipes created by imagining what it’s like to be a chicken? We and seemingly everybody in the hall were enthralled and trying to not drool.
As to whether Noma is indeed the best restaurant in the world, we’d savour any opportunity to dine there and find out (and were actually looking into flights to Denmark soon after the event concluded).
