That Danish super chef
"Noma is perhaps the most influential restaurant of the past decade, responsible for all the foraged, pickled and dried stuff you see on menus everywhere."
He's not very old and for several years his restaurant Noma was voted the best in the world. He has just opened Noma 2. He had ten weeks with a pop up Noma if you can call it that in Sydney whilst Noma 2 was being built. Why am I writing about him - well there was an article in the AFR luxury magazine this weekend and coincidentally, so therefore serendipity, I saw a reference to 'peaso' his version of miso a day or so ago somewhere.
So first of all - peaso. The AFR article was all about his enthusiasm for fermenting and his invention of this paste - which seems to be miso but made with peas (yellow ones) rather than soya beans. I even found a video he produced on how to do it. Relatively simple really I guess - well if you can find the right fungus and you have a steamer and a cellar or attic to store it in for 3 months. Plus you want to do it in the first place.
"If René Redzepi tells you that the next big movement in food will be rotten, stinky, mouldy food, you put down your glass of pinot noir and listen. Redzeki declaring the Age of Fermentation is like Karl Lagerfeld declaring that men will wear skirts."
Thus does Jill Dupleix begin her article in the AFR. And note that she compares his food to haute couture - another exclusive world for the rich. And yes we do know that fermented food is very in. The supermarket shelves are full of kombucha, kefir, kimchi, and the like. Michael Mosley preaches it, as do all the health freaks - so really did it all come from René Redzeki or is it just that he has latched on to it and since he has clout others will follow? Fermented foods have been around for centuries after all - it was probably the first means of preserving foods. I suppose the difference is that previously fermented foods were peasant foods, and with someone like Redzeki pushing them it then moves into the luxury food sector. So I hope that doesn't mean that they all go up in price.
What Jill Dupleix says is that Redzepi:
"led the restaurant world away from the dominant Spanish chemistry-laboratory cuisine of the 2000s and into the wilder, more natural, foraged gastronomy we see today."
All very true - there is great emphasis on locally produced food, indigenous food, ancient food as we know. Indigenous Australian foods are beginning to appear in the supermarkets. The supermarkets bang on endlessly about how they work closely with their producers, some of whom are personally named in their magazines. Celebrity chefs like Jamie Oliver, Stephanie Alexander, Maggie Beer, Dan Hunter et al. are pushing local producers like you wouldn't believe. So yes, foraging and authentic are in - but is that really all from him?
“Most enduring has been his international effect—the Nordic-style bistro with wooden tables, ceramic plates, natural wines and short seasonal menus.” Mattias Kroon
That is certainly true. It's a modern kind of style. But did it really come just from him? Pared back and inclusive are some of the words you often see in relation to his restaurant - he is famous for making his cooks act as waiters too. If you cook it you should serve it is his philosophy. And yet, going back to that comment about chemistry laboratory, as part of his new venture Noma 2 there is a science lab and he has just written a book on fermentation, his current passion, of which Jill Dupleix says:
"Be warned, there's a lot of chemistry to take in before you can start to think about cooking dinner from this book."
What I find interesting is that the man himself sort of mirrors the change in food styles. His father was ethnically Albanian and lived in Macedonia. His mother was a Danish cleaner. I think that Redzepi himself grew up in Denmark to which his father emigrated when the old Yugoslavia became a battle zone. But he spent many summer holidays in Macedonia in the rural farming community which was his father's home. In Denmark they were very poor with not a lot of food on the table. He did not cook at home but at the age of 15 went with a friend to learn to be a cook and discovered his passion. From there he worked in various lauded international restaurants until he opened Noma in Copenhagen to critical acclaim. Now he cooks 'extreme' food for the rich. The pop up in Sydney cost almost $500 per person to 'enjoy'. But it was sold out. Here are some examples of his food.
Top row from left to right - Ants on shrimp - the ants are alive, and I think I read somewhere that the prawns or shrimps were almost alive too! The hen and the egg, Tartare of ox, wood sorrel, juniper and oyster emulsion - which you eat with your hands. On the bottom row we have a very pretty Flower Pie, Finnish moss with Pulverized Ceps and Green Macadamias with Spanner Crab Broth.
None of which you could say is either 'normal' - I saw the word 'challenging' used once, or repeatable at home. So let's just admire - as I admire Karl Lagerfeld. And, of course, what starts in the stratosphere of food (and fashion) ultimately filters down in simpler form to the masses.
"Ultimately, it’s his philosophy that inspires, rather than any particular dish. Ferran Adrià handed chefs technical and conceptual tool kits to become instant auteurs. René, showed us that the tools are around us, in nature.” Ryan Poli
And to be fair, it seems that he does have a social conscience and is interested in finding ways of feeding the world in a more sustainable way.
“Most ingredients have been used at one point, whether it was just after the second world war when people ate whatever there was because of no money, or whether it was when people actually had to use everything there was to survive through winter, and therefore pickle and dry.”
Perhaps ultimately in his lab he will find a way to feed the world and what could be more praiseworthy than that.
"in his typically rational-romantic way, Redzepi talks of his quest for a magic bacteria that will help convert tons of global food waste into something delicious." Anya von Bremzen
Now wouldn't that be great? Two problems solved in one go.
