The Noma pantry is absent of any imported foods from other climates like citrus or extra virgin olive oil. Instead, the kitchen is filled with locally foraged foods from forests, fields and coastal waters just outside the city. Verbena, dill, juniper, pine, currants, and radishes all make appearances in the spring. Proteins include elk and any number of fish and shellfish from the sea that pounds on Noma’s dock.
pickled vegetable slivers — Nordic-centric vegetables like beets and carrots alongside just picked flowers and herbs — and bone marrow coins was the perfect balance of the transition from winter to spring. I found it clever, fatty and most certainly the best use of pickledanything that I have ever tasted.
Redzepi’s charge is simple: cook with what you have right now; use what the earth and the weather are offering. And that’s what he and his staff did.
The pleasures served at the very end of the meal, halfsweet half-savory chocolate bites, were wrapped and concealed in vintage tins sourced from local antique shops. The soft, rich caramel was made with animal fat in lieu of butter and served in a hollowed-out bone, wrapped in butcher’s craft paper and tangled red butcher twine. In addition to the tins and wrapping paper, a local potter handcrafts each dish used at Noma.
Course after course, the flavors were a confluence of the first of everything new and the last of the previous season’s harvest, the kitchen making full use of its pantry. The meal itself was a history lesson of sorts, which makes sense because Redzepi takes Danish history seriously, working with food historians as he researches and creates his menus. A dish that included dried scallops and beechnuts was oddly fresh and salty, entirely reminiscent of the centuries old heritage of catching and preserving fish along Denmark’s 4,500-mile coastline. The squid with unripe sloe berry, white currant and Douglas fir woke me up as if I’d eaten nothing of any interest all winter long. And that plate of
(From left) Presenting the wine service; "Blue mussel and celery" served on a bed of polished mussel shells. Opposite Page (Clockwise from top left): Saucepans in the kitchen at Noma; Preparing the malt flatbread; Chefs working in the kitchen; The caramels and chocolates presented at the end of the meal in vintage tins.
may.jun 2012 | spensermag.com
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