“There are the tiny shoots, the needles, the delicious sap, the gelatinous layer between the bark and the tree, the mosses and not to forget the fruit: the chestnuts, hazelnuts and so on.”
René Redzepi, Head Chef at Noma, describing the overlooked tree as a source of food
Have you ever wondered what it is like to eat at the top-ranked restaurant in the world? Noma had been on our bucket list since it burst onto the scene in 2010 when it was ranked the top restaurant in the world by Restaurant magazine. The restaurant is world-renowned for its reinvention of Nordic cuisine, hence starting the New Nordic craze. They led the foraging and fermentation movement and the popularity of eating local and seasonal. Noma foragers scavenge the coastline and woodlands to source seasonal products. Aromatic grasses come from Danish beaches while Swedish trees are a source for edible lichen and mosses. They have their own greenhouse, hydroponic herb garden, and food lab where the experimentation happens. They study the biochemistry of micro-organisms and the chemistry of flavor compounds.
Nature, science, and ingenuity come together to provide the unusual, seasonal ingredients one expects from Noma. But, they have also mastered an art form. The plating process starts early in the day and often calls for the use of medical-grade tweezers for surgeries. Plating at NOMA is complicated with layers of vegetables, foam, meats, moss, sauce, herbs, and berries arranged to be dinner and a beautiful landscape. The head chef, René Redzepi, likes to surprise his visitors, and although we have been to multiple Michelin-star restaurants that specialize in molecular gastronomy, I will say that we were NOT prepared for what was going to be put in front of us this night. We were still absolutely blown away!
When I found out I’d be going to Copenhagen for a genomics conference, Jimmy immediately volunteered to tag along on my work trip and treat me to a night out at Noma. We tried to make a reservation. No luck. Getting a ticket to one of the most sought-after tables in the world is tough. But, we put our name in the lottery for a shared table experience. We anxiously awaited an email for weeks to find out if we got two of the coveted tickets. A week before the trip an email arrived…we were in! They had space available for 20 people to share dinner in their private party dining room. We’ve never shared an expensive dinner with 20 strangers, but this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so there was no way we were passing it up.
The experience began with a staff member escorting us along the banks of a lake from our Uber to the green house. We were given a welcome drink while we waited amongst the greenery and drying foodstuffs for all the members of our dinner party to arrive.
Dishes at Noma must be Nordic and seasonal, so great lengths are taken to increase longevity through drying and pickling because the Danish growing season is not long. Behind us, you can see jars full of all kinds of things fermenting. Humans have been fermenting foods for thousands of years, so using all those years of ingenuity, the chefs at Noma have found unique ways to ferment all kinds of foods to preserve the fresh seasonal ingredients for later use during the harsh Nordic winters.
Once everyone had arrived, we paraded through the open kitchen with its pristine oak wood islands and were greeted by all the chefs and waitstaff while being escorted to our long party table in a private room. The other people joining us were all pretty cool, and we hit it off with the couple across from us and enjoyed conversation with them all night. We were a bit worried about dining with strangers, but we really enjoyed having other like-minded people to share in this crazy experience.
The night consisted of 17 courses paired with 8 different wines. The theme was Forest and Game. When each course was presented, our waiter talked us through the dish explaining all the different elements. Many are so complicated that we honestly couldn’t keep up with all the details, but it led to funny comments and chatter amongst the guests trying to figure out what everything is.
The first course was an apple salad with a beetle leaf. Delicious. Simple. Beautiful.
The second course quickly picked up the pace to something we wouldn’t ever order on our own. But, that is why we were there, right? Before I tell you what it is, isn’t it gorgeously plated?
Those beautifully plated pieces are reindeer offal. Starting at the bottom left: sweetbreads (thymus), tongue, scavenged mushroom, bone marrow, and for a palate cleanser, berries followed by a candied pine cone. The mini pine cone was cooked in sweet syrup for 12 hrs. All of these pieces were arranged on top of a deer broth that you drink through the deer moss. I have to admit that I was scared to eat most of this dish, but I was pleasantly surprised and really enjoyed every bite.
The next course was a chestnut, roasted for three months, in jellied rabbit broth.
This was followed by another nut dish – hazelnut slices beautifully arranged in a chestnut cream topped with caviar.
Strange yet delicious with contrasting textures. And the meticulous presentation…very impressive.
Chestnuts must have been in-season in Denmark as the next dish also highlighted them. This was one of my favorite dishes of the night. The base was a chestnut dough wrapped around truffled nuts. This was topped with a beech leaf covered in duck skin. What? Did I hear that right?
Who cares?!?! The flavor was so unique that I can’t even describe it. One of the most amazing flavor and texture combinations I’ve ever put in my mouth.
I wish I could have had five rounds of that, but we were off to something drastically different, a bright, citrusy dish – pumpkin cooked in marigold oil with Japanese quince and pine cones.
Pretty good…but the next dish was another showstopper and battled for favorite course of the night. Here a Mexican oregano leaf, which we learned is surprisingly strong and crisp, made the perfect “tortilla” for our reindeer brain taco.
Obviously, no part of the reindeer was wasted in our Forest and Game feast tonight. Topped with edible blossoms and herbs and served atop sleek, grey rocks, the chefs managed to create an inviting dish for something, again, I never would have imagined myself ever eating.
The next dish may look simple but was an ingenious combination of forest ingredients: bee pollen-filled dried tomatoes and strawberries with a rabbit caramel sauce.
The next course excited our inner carnivore and made the top three dishes for sure: wild boar lardo on herbs and a crisp potato.
The boar was melt-in-your-mouth perfection, and the crispy potato and herbs offered a nice contrast.
The main course was the biggest shocker of the night (didn’t think that was possible after reindeer brains, did you?). Duck feast sounded pretty innocent and right up my alley as duck breast tends to be my go-to at fancy restaurants. But, this was not the duck feast I was expecting, and the presentation was a bit of a jaw-dropper.
I should have learned from the previous reindeer courses that no piece of an animal is wasted at Noma. Underneath the feather was a tempura fried duck brain. Inside the beak, we were surprised to find smoked duck heart tartare.
Even the duck leg was served more “au naturale” than we are used to.
The duck leg was topped with crispy skin pieces and sprinkled with one of Noma’s most famous ingredients, Danish wood ants. The wood ants near Copenhagen have a special ginger-lemongrass flavor thanks to their pheromones being made out of a similar molecular structure to lemongrass and pine. Foraging the forest floors in Denmark truly is a specialty of the team at Noma.
The next course of the duck feast was smoked duck breast, and even after all the surprises, this simple piece of smoked meat surpassed expectations.
Just when we thought we’d had our fill of duck, the final course of the duck feast came out: duck charcuterie atop a month-long pickled partridge egg.
I used to think I didn’t like pickled foods. Well, Noma has introduced me to a whole new world of possibilities (that unfortunately are not available at your local grocer…sorry pickles…you are still my most hated food).
Our final savory dish was the first course that I had to grin and bear it. I’ve never been a fan of mushrooms (which follows a close 2nd to my hatred of pickles). Something about the texture just grosses me out, but I refused to be the person that couldn’t eat something given to me at the top restaurant in the world. To my dismay, it wasn’t even just a single mushroom or two but a huge bowl filled with a ragout of seasonal Danish mushrooms and Australian truffles.
Black currant was used for the broth, so there was a slight fruitiness to the expectedly salty dish. Of course, Jimmy thought this course was pretty awesome.
I was relieved when the desserts started to parade around the table. First, we had a yogurt and white currant mousse with poppy seed sauce. Then, we enjoyed a BBQed waffle with cloudberry cream.
Both were good but nothing super exciting like the savory dishes. Our final bite was a pine tree caramel. Interesting with a hint of sadness because the experience was over just like that.
Noma operates at the cutting edge of gourmet cuisine with continual innovation and collaboration. Each new dish takes 80-90 hours to develop. Their unrelenting creativity and remarkable craftsmanship most certainly provided us with a dining experience to remember. The theme Forest and Game had a whole new meaning when we walked out those doors. We had a new appreciation for nose-to-tail dining and the amazing flavors and textures hidden in nature. Each course at Noma takes you to a particular place at a particular time, possibly, the forest floor in the fall, for you to taste the essence of rocks and trees and the creatures that live amongst them.
Leave a reply