This review is some 8 months late but I still felt it would be worthwhile to revisit the experience. Noma is the brainchild of head chef René Redzepi & his business partner Claus Meyer and was established in 2004 in Copenhagen, Denmark. The word Noma is an amalgamation of the words “Nordisk” (Nordic) & “mad” (food) and highlights the restaurant’s core philosophy of providing exploratory and cutting edge Nordic-style cuisine using only ingredients sourced from the Scandinavian region.
Redzepi’s epiphany to expunge all French influences from his cooking proved to be the turning point and induction for the exponential rise in gastronomic superstardom that were to follow. Out went the foie gras and tomatoes and in came the foraging and militant acquisition of ingredients sourced purely from the Scandinavian region. He developed his concept of “time and place”, main ingredients paired with the ingredients from their natural environment e.g. wild boar served with grain and berries. Distinguished international critical acclaim and innumerable awards, such as their second Michelin star in 2009, shortly followed. In 2010, 800 critics and industry experts from across the globe voted Noma as number one in Restaurant Magazine’s San Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants awards following a steep climb up the ranking over the previous three years. It had toppled the seemingly immovable behemoth that was El Bulli. Noma, and Copenhagen, had been firmly cemented on the restaurant map and forever in gastronomy folklore. They retained first place again this year in 2011.
For myself, it was the first appearance on the TV programme Masterchef back in 2009 that first brought Noma to my attention. A capricious desire and drive to one day visit this epicurean shrine had been persevered as a mere fancy for countless reasons. Then eventually, with a little push I decided to bite the bullet, which is a little easier said than done. Following its establishment as the top restaurant in the world, the place is fully booked for both lunch and dinner three months in advance. For the average person such as myself, on the first day of every month, they open reservations for the month that is three ahead (e.g. in January they take reservations for the whole of April). Needless to say, all covers for that month are filled in one morning. In September, after over 100 attempted phone calls, I somehow managed to secure a table for a Saturday afternoon in December. Then I just had the small matter of planning how to get there.
Fast forward to December and we arrived in a bitterly cold and snowy Copenhagen, overflowing with anticipation. The restaurant is situated in the Christianshavn neighbourhood in a converted warehouse on some docks that used to serve as an essential trading port for various fish and whaling products. The outside is rather unassuming and easy to miss. An unpretentious simplicity for the exterior, complementing the honesty and refinement of the operation running within.
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| Outside Noma |
The dining area is large and airy, white and brown wood everywhere with sheepskin over the chairs, reminding me of a crisp winter morning. Large floor to ceiling windows let in loads of light and provide a lovely view of the sea.
Right from the beginning, all the staff are congenial, chatty and extremely knowledgeable, milling around the restaurant, performing their duties effortlessly. All the waiters appeared to be in tending to each table as opposed to one being assigned to each and this provided a fluid service. The maître’d was an affable chap from Australia (if memory serves me correct) and was very helpful for a wine novice such as myself. In the end we went for a glass of the house champagne. They also had a wide selection of fresh juices and we got one glass of lingonberry and one of sea buckthorn. The champagne was lovely, crisp and refreshing whilst the juices were exceptional quality. Sea buckthorn is rather sour, very lemony in flavour, whilst lingberry is sweeter and only slightly tart and I hadn’t tasted anything like the lingonberry before (which turned out to be the theme of the day). The juices were great and in retrospect I wish we’d tried more.
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| Sea buckthorn juice (left) & lingonberry juice (right) |
Almost upon arrival you are greeted by a succession of 8 amuse bouche, brought to the table one at a time in quick succession. One of the features of the service that was rather unique is that the dishes are served and explained to you by the chef that has cooked that particular dish. I found this to be a rather charming touch. Below are the pictures with a description of each.
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| Silver moss from Finland with crème fraiche |
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| Leather of sea buckthorn & pickled rose petals |
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| Savoury cookie with apple rolled in blackberry powder with a sorrel leaf |
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| Biodynamic leek with garlic puree injected into the bulb, which is steamed. The roots are deep-fried |
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| Chicken sandwich made with chicken skin, rye bread & smoked cheese |
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| Pickled & smoked quail's eggs |
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| Toast with vinegar powder, herbs & cod roe |
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| Radishes, turnips & carrots in their own soil, sheep's cheese |
All were wonderful and most certainly intriguing. My favourites, for the novelty factor, had to be the root vegetables in soil, whilst on taste, the chicken sandwich or the silver moss were the winners.
Now the opening act had concluded, it was time to commence the main event. Since I’d travelled all the way there and had to plan the whole trip for nearly 4 months, I felt obliged to go all out and get the full 12-course ‘Noma Nassaaq’ tasting menu.
First up was a parcel containing a loaf of sourdough bread, a particular favourite of mine. Warm, fresh bread is always a perfect way to whet my appetite before a meal and this surely did not disappoint. The pork fat accompaniment was salty and unctuous, made all the more appealing by its naughtiness.
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| Fresh sourdough bread. Pork fat with pork crisps (left) & goat’s butter (right). |
Onto the first dish of hazelnuts with a salad emulsion. This was enjoyable but for me, the worst dish of the day. A bit bland, however it was an extremely memorable dish for the salad emulsion alone. It had an incredibly strong and unexpected concentrated taste of well… leaves.
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| Raw hazelnuts, junipers, chargrilled salad emulsion & vinaigrette |
Dried scallops were once again an enthralling concentration of flavour, packing a serious oceanic punch in every mouthful, whilst the contrasting textures were spot on. Raw chestnuts & walnuts with fish eggs again provided a textural master class, enhanced by cutting the chestnuts in two different thicknesses.
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| Twenty four hour dried scallops, various grains in a watercress puree, nuts and squid ink sauce |
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| Raw chestnuts in two thicknesses, chopped walnuts, rye bread, mustard cress & a sour butter sauce with Bleak fish eggs |
Then the kitchen decided to up the ante and turn the drama up a notch. Our chef came over carrying a big black stone, which we were told had been procured from the beach right next to the restaurant. Lying on top was the fattest langoustine I think I’ve ever seen, looking like a bloated caterpillar surrounded by green blobs of oyster and watercress emulsion, covered in a purple powder. The langoustine was lightly seared so it was mainly raw on the inside and supposed to be eaten in one bite. It was beautiful, plump and juicy. Then came individual black pots, opening up to reveal a large oyster resting on a bed of more rocks from the seashore. The flavour from this blanched oyster was subtler than the langoustine, tempered by the cream, but the quality shone through. Within a plateful of pine leaves a small caramelised cauliflower was nestled next to some horseradish flavoured whipped cream. The taste of pine was infused throughout the dish, a lovely and very unique savoury/sweet flavour and the horseradish equipped the dish with a sharp contrast.
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| Lightly seared Danish langoustine, oyster and water cress emulsion with red Icelandic seaweed |
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| “Oyster & the Ocean”: Blanched Danish oyster, vinegared tapioca pearls, beach herbs and cream |
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| Caramelised cauliflower infused with pine, yoghurt whey sauce with pine oil and & a lightly whipped cream with horseradish |
A black ball covered with a few leaves turned out to be a baby celeriac with black truffles and sorrel. I absolutely love truffle so the combination of that with a perfectly cooked bit of celeriac was more than enough to satisfy.
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| Baby celeriac with black truffles, sorrel & truffle vinaigrette |
Cooking our own fried egg was undoubtedly the most jocular dish of the day. The waitress brought over a hot plate on a bed of hay and we were instructed to crack our own eggs on top of some hay oil whilst she left a timer. Once it ran down she returned with further directions to add herbs, curly potato crisps and a lustrous Swedish cheese sauce. The conglomerate of herbs worked well with the rich yolk and Swedish cheese.
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| Cooking the egg in hay oil |
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| Lovage, baby spinach, wild herbs & parsley butter |
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| Herbs added to hot plate |
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| The finished product – “the hen & the egg”. Fried egg with herbs, Swedish cheese sauce and potato crisps |
That was cleared and then the waitress simply brought over what appeared to be a hunter’s knife bound in leather, clearly an attempt to build anticipation for the meat, a duty that was duly fulfilled. When the duck and apples arrived it failed to disappoint, a classic combination given that Noma twist I was beginning to become accustomed to. This turned out to be the only meat dish of the 12 courses and the desserts followed.
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| Breast of wild duck, aromatic herbs, rose powder & Elstar apples (tubes pickled in apple juice & wedges cooked in smoked butter). Sauce made with duck bones, caramelised apples and brown butter. |
First up was half a pear with a large flocculent sponge-thing on the side, which turned out to be a pine parfait. This was the most unusual dish of the day; the pine parfait was an absolute triumph. As far as I’m usually aware, a parfait is a frozen dessert, similar to an ice cream, this on the other hand was fluffy and airy, reminiscent of candyfloss. The flavour was special; a slight sweetness with a subtle saltiness to follow at the end. It was an exceptional complement to the syrupy pear.
The savoury theme continued onto the next dish called “Jerusalem artichoke & marjoram, apple & malt”. Another unusual combination that combined exceptionally well, the malt cookie dough discs providing a slight grainy contrast to the smoothness of the artichoke ice cream and applesauce.
A beetroot parfait (in a style that I was more familiar with) with a Norwegian cheese was rather interesting, the sweet icy beetroot & light liquorice giving way to the wonderfully smooth and creamy cheese.
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| Poached pear, pear puree and pine parfait |
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| “Jerusalem artichoke & marjoram, apple & malt”. Jerusalem artichoke ice cream, applesauce, marjoram, compressed apple discs & malt cookie dough discs. |
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| Ganache of Norwegian brown cheese, beetroot parfait,tarragon, dried blackcurrants & liquorice |
With the winter sun fast descending from the Scandinavian sky, my journey through the Redzepi’s ‘time and place in Nordic cuisine’ had sadly drawn to a close. The accolades for Noma and René Redzepi require no further embellishment so I’ll try and keep it as succinct as possible. The whole experience was nothing short of phenomenal. There is always a real danger for anything with such hype to fall disappointingly short of the stratospheric expectations that inevitably follow, but Noma really does hit the mark and beyond. Each dish was thought provoking, unusual and most importantly damn tasty. Anybody who loves eating as much as I do must make the pilgrimage to this foodie Mecca. You won’t regret it.
Location: Strandgade 93, 1401 Copenhagen, Denmark, 3296 3297
Opening Hours: 12pm - 10pm Tues - Sat
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