28-02-2018
Noma in Copenhagen, number one restaurant in the World's 50Best in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2014, opened its new location on the 16th of February. Open at lunchtime and in the evening, and closed on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. Every detail in our 100-photo essay
Noma 2.0 is in Christianshavn, the same neighbourhood as the first Noma. They’re 1.5 km apart, a 15 minutes’ walk. This picture shows the distance: to the right, there’s the warehouse of the old location (in Strandgade 93), to the left the smokestacks of Amager Bakke, the futuristic incinerator below which stands the new Noma (in Refshalevej 96)
Weather permitting, you can have a peaceful walk between the previous Noma to today’s Noma
The new Noma is on an isthmus surrounded by canals. In the future they also want to reclaim some small parts for hydroponic farming
Bucolic scene with incinerator
Bikes left outside Noma. It’s the favourite means of transport among employees and interns
The long path taking you to the restaurant. The fence on the left shows how works are still in progress
On the two sides of the path there are the two new sections of the "Noma village", each with its specialty: grill, hot dishes, snacks, fermentations... In one month’s time, behind the fence we’ll have greenhouses, the test kitchen and the bread making area
To the left, before arriving at the restaurant, the future test kitchen. This will be run by Danish Mette Søberg with Riccardo Canella. "My first challenge?", reveals the latter, for a long time sous chef here, "is to work on the extraction of essential oils"
The future Test Kitchen
The temporary gangway to the restaurant
Looking from the door to the restaurant, there’s a lake and the smokestacks puffing vapour from the Amager Bakke incinerator. It’s a futuristic project, both in terms of sustainability and architecture. It’s also known as Amager Slope or Copenhill, and its author is starchitect Bjarke Ingels, the same who designed the new Noma. Gradually opened in 2017, it transforms waste into electricity. The goal is to donate electricity to 62500 houses and hot water to 160000. It’s part of an ambitious project to transform Copenhagen into the first city in the world in terms of zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2025. By autumn this year, Amager Slope should open its ski slope, a climbing wall and a hiking track. You’ll be able to slalom on top of the incinerator
The windows from the dining room
Work is still in progress (photo taken on Thursday 22nd February 2018)
Traces of the old building, with barbwire. During WWII, they built bombs here
A view of the dining room at night (photo from Instagram/James Spreadbury)
The entrance to the restaurant
The usual ritual: a welcome from the entire staff, led by Rene Redzepi
Behind the entrance, there are formaldehyde tanks with creatures from the abyss, shaped as in Damien Hirst’s works. The first image once you’re inside is to reproduce a Scandinavian village
The service kitchen is larger, more spacious and a completely open view from the dining room: "It’s the heart of our Scandinavian village", says Canella. There are 30 cooks working here now. 10 more, compared to the previous Noma
Large skylights above the cooks
There are currently more than 100 people working at Noma, of whom 63 are cooks - 26 employed, and 37 as interns
There’s fire in the kitchen, for the first time
On average, the dining room can host 40 people. "However", complains Redzepi, "there’s always someone who turns up with more people than the ones booked"
While the dining room is set, the outside space still need to be defined
The staff made the dining room decorations. There are no overly expensive designer objects
Dried fish
Seaweeds hanging from the ceiling
Dried octopus heads preserved in salt (with a balloon inside)
Bjarke Ingels and Redzepi’s plan included the wish to recreate a Danish farm
The luminous private dining room
The counter in the dining room. They drew the beams from the canals around the restaurant
The mise en place, bare and strictly without tablecloths
Water jug, candle, flower vase
A warm cloth, to begin with
Australian James Spreadbury, restaurant manager and partner at Noma
Welcome drink: Champagne extra brut Blanc d'Argile from Domaine Vouette et Sorbée
Sea Snail broth. The welcome dish at Noma is, as usual, a hot “soup”
Stefano Ferrano, from Torino, presents the following dish. There’s always a large Italian colony at Noma
Venus clams. Molluscs from Limfjord (Denmark) mixed with decorative clams, typical of Noma. Beside them, shells with blackcurrant oil and “Danish curry”, made with toasted coriander seeds, fennel and fennel seeds
The lid above the following dish. The mussels are not edible
Best of the mussel. Mussels open in a pan with water of fermented barley. «We recreate the mussel», says Canella, «using just the flaps, the best part». The paste is made with scraps from the mussel, cooked in smoked butter
The next dish is conceived and served by Riccardo Canella, the Paduan sous chef who conquered Redzepi, here with dining room intern Feline Hansen
Dried fruits and shrimps. In this case, the heads are not a decoration, but you must suck them –best not eat them because of the bones: they’re filled with a lovely prawn cream. The small crustaceans are still alive when they arrive on a ship straight from the Norwegian fjords
Inside, under the prawn broth skin, there’s fruits and vegetable preserved from the previous summer with raw prawns and gooseberry sauce with blackcurrant oil
How about beverages? There are three options, as usual: wine pairing (6 glasses plus a beer plus sake, 150 euros), juice pairing (juices and extracts, 110 euros) or a choice from the list. They recommend Champagne Chut... Libre from Val'Frison pour Dominique Derain, 50% Pinot Noir, 50% Chardonnay created by a couple who met at the old Noma. Well bodied, it will be a good match throughout the meal
As usual, the wine list starts with Champagne: the cheapest is 1400 crowns (190 euros)
White wines begin with labels from cold climates: first Austria, increasingly popular for its natural wines, then Germany, then all the others
How about Italy? Few names, among the white wines, from North and South
A dozen red/orange wines
Sea star, that is to say Cured trout roe and eggs, the emblem dish of this new era. They recommend moving the teaspoon from the heart to the edges of the tentacles. Aesthetics win over taste
Jellyfish. The jellyfish gel in the middle is in fact a clarified broth of calamari and recalls the texture of jellyfish. "We tried to cook jellyfish in 300 different ways but none was convincing so far". All around, pickled seaweed. The gel is almost tasteless, it serves to clean the palate after the pickles
Rene Redzepi himself presents the content of the first Seafood platter.
French style service with a small plate below for the empty shells
It’s made of two (per two) pieces: queen clam and mahogany clam
The Queen Clam is a very small variety of Norwegian scallop, seasoned with a vegetal reduction made with cucumber and peas miso. The red tip is the coral. "You should eat it using the top shell ", recommends Redzepi
The Mahogany clam is a centennial clam from the North Sea, very popular in Denmark and Iceland. «You can tell the age by the number of rings, like with trees», says Redzepi, «In 2007 they found one that was 450 years old. We’ve had it in the menu for a decade or so». The razor clam shell serves as teaspoon
Inside, there’s obviously not just a bare Mahogany. «We open it when the client arrives», says Canella, «remove the entrails and then slice it so as to preserve its firm texture». It’s seasoned with stir-fried gooseberry, capers of blackcurrants and blackcurrant sprouts preserved in vinegar. The sauce is made with mussel water
A note on the chairs: they’re more minimalistic. They’re no longer covered in sheepskin or leather from other Danish animals, in the style of Noma 1.0. The most significant element is the napkin: if you go to the toilet, they no longer replace it with a new one. There’s the old one, tied to the chair. "This is sustainability", they explain
The second seafood platter. It’s made of Sea cucumber and sour cream in various textures, including «chicharrones» (at 9 o’clock), sea urchins (at 12 and 3) and gigas oyster (at 6)
Sea urchins pressed in fresh cream and pumpkin seeds
Giga Oyster, a huge oyster from the Pacific, quickly steamed and garnished with pickles. Noma only reserved one thousand of these. In the menu until available
The following dish, off the menu, is again from Canella: horse mussel ragout, rare specimen of which 30 arrive at 'Noma each week
They cook the mussel as if it were kidney, in a sort of Bolognese sauce but with ginger. Ginger? "Yes, we’ve decided to include it, as with other spices, after our Mexican experience"
Another Italian presents a dish, Edoardo Fiaschi from Prato, at Noma for 3 years now
Squid in seaweed butter. An almost neglected Danish squid lightly seared in fermented koji oil, rolled and seasoned with seaweed butter and served on sticks of blackcurrant that widen its aromas. Formidable and beautiful
The following dish is inside a nice bee wax container. It’s made with balloons covered multiple times in bee wax. «We spent weeks making them. We’ve made thousands». They’re disposable...
Sea snail and roses. They recommend to: "Eat it keeping the bee wax on your hands "
Sea snail. Another small nibble from the top part of the sea snail, lightly warmed up in water and served on a reduction of lemon thyme
A sea snail toothpick, initially carved by Redzepi himself
Head of the cod, (right), the real main course at Noma
Another rather laborious recipe. «It takes half an hour just to separate the head. We remove the skin, the collagen, we cut mandibles, tongue, cheek and the part behind. We rinse it in water, spices, koji and cook it in the yakitori with a glaze of mushrooms and spiced fennel broth»
You can garnish the cod as you choose, with a paste of ants (top right corner), a slightly spicy emulsion of koji oil, water and horseradish sauce (left) and Danish curry (bottom)
On the side of the cod, there’s also wild garlic seasoned with smoked butter and roasted yeast. Intense flavour
Cod bones after the tasting
An interlocutory snack made of cod cheek
Pickled vegetables and arctic herbs. The only vegetable dish in the menu, marks the passage from savoury to sweet dishes. Between June and August 2018 the menu at Noma will be 100% vegetarian
Preparation time: half an hour! A challenge for the person making it
Mussels appear once again, a classic emblem
This time it’s a dessert in the shape of a small sandwich. Pear and roasted kelp ice cream
Cloudberries and pinecones. A dessert that continues Redzepi’s saga of unsweet sweets: cloudberries, pinecones preserved in sugar, yogurt snow (by Italian Jessica Natali) and a sea snail made with cloudberry sorbet
Filtered coffee made with stolen kenyoti seeds farmed in Honduras by a Norwegian guy. Italian sommelier Francesca Niro tells us this story. «In Denmark», she says, «coffee is not a final act»
Sugar kelp tart. Tartelletta di alga kelp con pralinato di pino (sul modello di quello di mandorle, autore Canella), panna e crisp di ostrica
Sugar kelp tart. Jessica Natali, 23, from the March, has been at Noma for 4 years now
Natali introduces the last dish, Plankton cake
It’s Redzepi’s tribute to Andalusian chef Angel Leon, the chef who brought the abyss of the sea on fine dining tables. A final trivia fact at the end of the meal: we were never served bread, a historic strongpoint at Noma. "There’s no need for bread in this menu", said Redzepi
With Canella we walk the very long corridor that starts from the opposite side of the room, right after the entrance
It’s the rationalised and enlarged equivalent of the previous Noma’s first floor. Dozens of guys are making the pre-preparations
Canella with Ali Sonko, Noma’s famous kitchen hand from Gambia who then became partner
Sea cucumbers and huge Artic crabs swim in the water tanks
Ants on a shrimp, the emblem of Noma’s pop-up in Tokyo
The new equipment includes a sonicator for emulsions, a Rotovapor, essential oil extractors. Natural extraction, like that of perfumes, is an idea that Canella would like to develop in all possible ways, following the example of Alajmo
Temporary location for wild herbs
The staff area
Final relax in the lounge next to the dining room, much larger and more luminous than the previous one
They give us the bill: a total of 3250 crowns (436 euros), including the 2250 Danish crown menu (302 euros), already paid when booking 3 months ago, 50 crowns for water (6.50 euros), 700 for champagne (half of 1400 crowns, that is to say 190 euros), 175 (23,50) for the welcome Champagne glass and 75 (10 euros) for coffee. Ten percent of the places are reserved for students at a shared table: they pay a special fee of 1000 crowns (134 euros) for the menu including either the wine or juice pairing. For reservations click here
How about the old Noma? It’s been replaced by Barr, serving traditional Danish classics paired with craft beer and aquavit
The old entrance to Noma, now with the Barr sign
For every dish that makes it to the menu at Noma, 10 don’t. Find out which from Rene Redzepi’s Instagram account
The 100 pics' gallery starts by clicking the left picture up here
«Hello, what’s your name?». Lunch starts with the smile of a young woman welcoming guests outside. Behind her, a white and red work in progress tape brushes against her back. A narrow path starts here: to the right, the finished building, with doors and windows; to the left, a long wood fence topped with glass sloping roofs. In a few weeks’ time, these huts will host the new greenhouses, the bread making area and the test kitchen. On the 22nd February 2018 the new Noma is still partly a building site. Rene Redzepi’s would have liked to open with everything already working, but there are still things that need to be done. He couldn’t wait for works to end, because every day without revenue weighs on their finances. Since the 24th February 2017, the last service at Noma 1.0, the chef of Macedonian descent has been paying dozens of employees without having a revenue (the pop-up opened in Mexico doesn’t count). Besides, it’s not like you could make the thousands of people who had already reserved a table online in November wait, having paid the tasting menu in advance -2250 Danish crowns (some 300 euros). Even the induction stoves and the work counters only arrived at the last minute. «We first set foot to cook here two days before opening to the public. We finished fixing the last screws only minutes ago» later told us Italian Jessica Natali. They’ve made a huge effort to open just 24 hours after the planned date, on the 16th February instead of the 15th. How about the 80 people who made reservations for lunch and supper on the 15th? «We asked them to change the date. We had two extra services last Saturday», said maître and partner James Spreadbury, «and they understood». Who knows what kind of complaints, had it happened in Italy. After all, people think differently in Denmark. For instance, how can we explain an Italian that in Copenhagen they’re happy to open a restaurant in front of an incinerator? The windows in the new dining room look over a lake and some smokestacks puffing columns of steam. It’s called Amager Bakke. Bjarke Ingels, the same architect of the new Noma, designed it. It’s a zero impact incinerator which in a few month’s time will open a ski slope on its roof. We’ll be able to work off our Nordic lunch while slaloming on waste.
Amager Bakke, the zero impact incinerator in front of the new Noma
Sea star, the first emblem of this new era
Translated into English by Slawka G. Scarso See also Arrivederci Noma, the last menu of the first era, in February 2017 Noma Caput Mundi, in 2012
Gabriele Zanatta’s opinion: on establishments, chefs and trends in Italy and the world
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born in Milan, 1973, freelance journalist, coordinator of Identità Golose World restaurant guidebook since 2007, he is a contributor for several magazines and teaches History of gastronomy and Culinary global trends into universities and institutes. twitter @gabrielezanatt instagram @gabrielezanatt