I am writing to let you know some very exciting news.

It has been seventeen years since I began my work at noma and it’s been an incredible run so far. I’ve been able to work with some of the best people in our industry – managers, cooks, sous chefs, sommeliers, dishwashers and partners who have all contributed to our success and what this restaurant has become. We recently moved to our new home, and this move is just one of many seeds we have been planting for the future of noma.

Over the past 6 years, my investment partner and friend, Marc Blazer, has played a key role in our journey from one location on the docks of Christianshavn, to a business with interests in multiple restaurants in Copenhagen and even in Tokyo, as well as the further development of the non-profit MAD foundation into an institution in our industry.

I am happy to share, and grateful to Marc, that he has now helped us engineer a way for me and the team to own our own business, by selling Overture’s shares to us. This will be the first time that I will become majority owner of this project that has become my life’s work, and today involves my entire family and many who I now consider family.

As a result, the next chapter of noma will be about giving back to this extended family and bringing them even closer to the business. It will also be about continuing to work with friends and former team members whose own projects we have been lucky enough to be a part of.

Marc and I are excited about this new chapter for noma and for me, and I can’t thank him enough for enabling what will be an exciting future.

Thank you for all of the support, it’s been seventeen years and yet, we are at a fresh beginning.

Best,
René Redzepi

As the restaurant grows into its 16th year, we find ourselves for want of someone with either very special skills, or a very special aptitude. At Noma, we zoom into the natural world with a curiosity that turns small experiments into whole departments. From fermentation to foraging, each door opened for us opens countless more. And to be sure, we aren’t going to stop knocking. Our kitchen manager, Simon, responsible for ordering and inventory, also takes care of one of the most important aspects of restaurant life; our ingredients. Not just what comes through our doors, but making sure they do every day. At the moment, he’s juggling a LOT of them. 

⠀ 

As Noma keeps growing in scope, our creativity has to keep pace. So Simon’s job is being split in two. We’re searching for a full-time INGREDIENT RESEARCHER to scour Scandinavia for all the things we haven’t already found. This person will need to find inspiration in nooks and crannies—to build relationships with farmers, fishers, herders and craftspeople to link noma to the unique aliments they produce. In some cases, goods that aren’t even for sale.  This is no desk job. It will require plenty of travel, resourcefulness, collaboration, organization and clear communication with Noma’s creative kitchens, all while planning months and even years out to make sure ingredients are in the ground or on the way before each season starts. 

⠀ 

Being based in Scandinavia and speaking the language is a bonus. Being impassioned about the possibilities of a yet-to-be discovered taste or smell however, is paramount. A minimum 5 years work experience in professional kitchens is required and prior management experience will be heavily weighted. Proficiency on programs such as Evernote and Excel is beneficial. A knowledge of the region, farming practices and wild plants is a must, but if you don’t come with it, you’ll need to prove that you’ve at least learned how to learn. Send a thoughtful cover letter and CV with the subject RESEARCHER to tpm@noma.dk. This one of a kind job calls for a one of a kind person. We hope you’re reading this message. Only serious applications will be considered. 

UPDATE: The application process is now closed, and we are no longer accepting additional applicants.

We are looking for waiters to join our FOH team. Are you interested….?

Right now  is one of the most exciting times for our restaurant.

After only just re opening in our new home, the team is expanding, and we are looking for ambitious and fun people to join the family, in our Front of House team, to be a part of figuring out our new space and helping set the tone and pace for the years to come. We are on a new adventure, and moving forward.

We need you to be professional, positive and curious about everything that goes on in our wonderful industry. We place a huge emphasis on togetherness; one of the main foundations of our team culture. You should hold enough confidence to help every person around you. You strive to make your teammates better than you – you ensure that newcomers do not fall into the mistakes that you have made. You also have the essential drive to surrender yourself every day to the service of our guests, and Smile.

Furthermore, you have a basic understanding of wine and beverages in general. You also know the basics about food – the rest we will teach you if you are eager enough. The perfect candidate has had a few years of experience, has been educated, speaks fluent English, and preferably one more language.

If you choose to apply here, don’t do so if you are only looking for a short-term adventure. If you come here, it is because you know you want to be here for some years. This is important. Once you get here, you will understand that one year is not enough. We can promise you that it is going to be fun, you’ll learn a lot and you will be a part of what we consider to be one of the best teams on the planet: a team that constantly pushes.

We too have travelled the world together, taking our team and their families to incredible places, to learn and apply our way of doing things in other places. To take that into consideration, you can be sure we will travel again someday.

Up for the challenge? Please email foh@noma.dk with your CV and letter of motivation. We look forward to hearing from you!

*Unfortunately, due to Danish immigration laws, only citizens of the European Union (EU) will be eligible to apply for this position.

Kære gæster,

Vi er glade for at kunne fortælle, vi er klar til at åbne noma igen fra februar 2018.

Som vi tidligere har fortalt, kommer vi til at dele året op i tre sæsoner, i hvilke menuen vil ændre sig drastisk for at afspejle de ingredienser, der er bedst i løbet af året.

Vores åbningsmenu vil være fokuseret omkring havet, fisk og skalddyr fra Skandinavien, som er bedst i de kolde vintermåneder. Hver servering på menuen vil indeholde et element fra havet. Hav gerne dette i baghovedet, når du bestiller bord. Hvis du har en allergi overfor fisk eller skalddyr, eller af princip ikke spiser fisk, er vegetar eller veganer, er de andre to sæsoner mere oplagte:

• Sæson for planteriget, fra tidlig sommer til tidlig efterår. Denne menu er perfekt til vegetarer og veganere og kommer til at være fokuseret omkring vores urbane have. Vores samlere vil også arbejde ekstra for at få fat i de bedste råvarer denne tid på året, hvor planteriget er det mest dominerende.
• Vildt- og skovsæson, fra tidlig efterår til januar. Dette er det eneste tidspunkt hvor kød vil have en bærende rolle på menuen på noma. I denne sæson vil vi fokusere på dyr fra skoven og de råvarer, der gror omkring dem: Bær, svampe, nødder og vilde planter, sammen med alt det vi har samlet under høsten.

Reservationer vil åbne: 16. november 2017 kl. 16.00

Mulige reservationer: 15. februar – 29. april 2018.

For reservation: https://noma.dk/da/reservation/

Vores nye restaurant har 40 pladser, og vi holder åbent både frokost og aften fra onsdag til lørdag.

Det vil være muligt at booke borde til 2, 4, 6 og 8 personer og vil kræve en forudbetaling af menuen.

For større selskaber end 8 kan man reservere vores separate lokale, hvor der er plads til 16 personer. Kontakt os venligst på e-mail booking@noma.dk for reservation.

Når det er muligt, vil vi også tilbyde pladser ved et delebord. Det er muligt, at skrive sig op til delebordet på venteliste, og vi vil kontakte gæster, i det omfang vi har plads.

For mere information om reservationsprocessen og afbestillingsregler, klik venligst på: https://noma.dk/da/reservation/

Vi glæder os til at se dig!

René and the noma team

Dear guests,

We’re so excited to announce that we are ready to open noma again, beginning in February 2018.

As we’ve mentioned in the past, we’ll be dividing our year into three seasons, during which the menu will change dramatically to match the type of ingredients that are at their peak at any given time of the year.

Our opening menu will celebrate Scandinavian seafood, which is at its absolute best during the cold, winter months. Each serving on the menu will include some element from the ocean. Please keep this in mind when booking a table. If you have an aversion or allergy to any foods from the ocean, or adhere to a vegetarian or vegan diet, please join us during one of our other two seasons:

• Vegetable season, from early summer to early fall. This menu is perfect for vegetarians and vegans and will make full use of our urban garden. Our foragers will also be working overtime to maximize the time of the year when the plant kingdom reigns supreme.
• Game and forest season, from early fall to January. This is the only period of the year when meat will play a starring role at restaurant noma. During this season, we’ll pay homage to the animals and things that grow from the forest: berries, mushrooms, nuts, and wild plants, along with the bounty of the harvest season.

Reservations will open: 16 November, 4pm local time in Copenhagen (CET)

Booking window: 15 February – 29 April 2018

To book: https://noma.dk/reservations/ 

Our new restaurant has 40 seats in the dining room, and we’ll be serving lunch and dinner, Wednesday through Saturday.

Tables will be available for parties of 2, 4, 6, or 8 and will require prepayment of the menu.

For parties greater than 8 people, we will also have a private dining room available with a maximum capacity of 16 guests. To book, please contact us via email at booking@noma.dk.

A shared table will also be offered on occasion. Please sign up for the shared table waiting list if interested, and we will contact guests as they become available.

For more information on booking process and cancellation policy, please see: https://noma.dk/reservations/

We hope to see you soon!

René and the noma team

Kære venner,

Det har været et begivenhedsrigt år indtil nu! Vi lukkede noma på Strandgade, åbnede en pop-up i Mexico, laver nu mad under Knippelsbro og har rejst rundt i Skandinavien i vores søgen efter råvarer og inspiration til vores menu på noma 2.0. I mellemtiden har vi planlagt alt fra bestik til personalets garderobeskabe på vores nye restaurant. Bygningerne begynder at tage form – fundamentet er lagt og væggene er godt undervejs.

Vi ændrer formen på vores menu og vil arbejde endnu mere med sæsonerne som omdrejningspunkt. I vintermånederne, hvor få ting gror på land, er det højsæson i havet. Mærkelige muslinger, dybhavstang, torskeøjne, tynde skiver frisk hummer – vi ved endnu ikke, hvad vi kommer til at servere, men det bliver helt sikkert med fisk og skaldyr som hovedingrediens. Menuen vil også indeholde de ting vi har samlet og konserveret fra foråret, sommeren og efteråret – og naturligvis vinterens grøntsager.

Fiske- og skaldyrssæsonen løber denne gang fra d. 1. februar til slutningen af maj.

Vi holder åbent fra onsdag til lørdag og tilbyder samme menu til frokost og aften.

Vi kan allerede nu afsløre, at vi åbner for reservationer til noma 2.0 torsdag den 16. november kl. 16.00.

Vi vil anbefale, at I tilmelder jer vores nyhedsbrev, så vi kan holde jer opdateret om booking-processen og detaljer omkring åbningen.

Sidst, men ikke mindst, vil vi gerne minde om vores pop-up under Knippelsbro. Vi serverer mad ved langbordet 6 uger endnu! Book Under Broen her.

Varme hilsner,

René og noma holde

Dear friends,

What a year it has been so far. We closed noma on Strandgade, did a popup in Mexico, have popped-up under a bridge in Copenhagen and travelled around Scandinavia in search of products and inspiration for our menu at noma 2.0. In the meantime, we’ve been planning every other detail of the new space from the spoons to the staff locker room. The building is starting to take shape, its foundation has been laid, and the walls are up.

For our new menu, you may have heard that we are changing our format to work even more closely with seasonality. In the cold months when few things grow, high season is in the oceans. Weird shells, deep water seaweed, the eyeball of a cod, slivers of fresh lobster – we’re not sure yet what we will serve, but it is certain that the menu will be based around seafood. Also on the menu will be the foods that we have been preserving from this spring, summer and autumn and of course the winter agricultural staples of our region.

The seafood season this time will be from February to May.

We will be open from Wednesday to Saturday, offering the same menu for both lunch and dinner.

We are excited to let you know that we will be opening for bookings for noma 2.0 on Thursday, the 16th of November at 4:00pm local Copenhagen time (CET).

Please sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date with all information regarding the booking process and final details of our opening in the next few weeks.

Lastly, we would like to remind you about our popup currently running under the Knipplesbro Bridge in Copenhagen. Open for only 6 more weeks! Book for Under the Bridge here. 

best wishes,

René and the noma team

Check out the video for a little update from us on our most recent travels as we prepare for the opening of noma 2.0.

Dear friends,

Here is an update of what’s going on. Noma 2.0 is still on track to open in December. We’re working hard to keep our deadlines. The creative team is currently traveling through the Nordic region to meet all of our friends and collaborators, and to seek out new ones. The rest of the team, about 30 of them, will be opening their own popup restaurant in Copenhagen.

The sous chefs and restaurant managers have joined forces to create an outdoor, family style, open fire restaurant. Our team is from all parts of the world; will this influence our menu? It certainly will. They are going to serve the freshest food of the day cooked how they want to, not necessarily how it would be at noma. The essence of it is that while we are waiting for the new noma to open, the noma staff will be collaborating on a menu of simple delicious food that they would eat themselves on a summer night.

It will be in collaboration with our old friends and wine suppliers, Rosforth & Rosforth in their outdoor space, under Knippelsbro Bridge. Please don’t expect Michelin star seating. Of course the weather in Copenhagen can be unreliable but don’t worry about that, it is covered and we have taken the necessary measures to ensure that our guests will be dry and warm.

The popup will open on the 19th of July and will run through to the 3rd of September from Wednesday to Sunday. We offer a fixed menu inclusive of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks.

We will also have a wine bar that will be open from 2pm each day Wednesday – Sunday, so you’re welcome to come early before your reservation, stick around after, or just stop by for a few drinks with out a reservation. (Please note that drinks at the wine bar are not included in the ticket price).

Tickets are on sale here.

We can’t wait for you to join us under the bridge!

Warmly,

The noma team and Rosforth & Rosforth

Knippelsbrogade 10

1409 København K

 

Dear friends,

For years, I have been talking with René about creating a new kind of restaurant in Copenhagen. We have been holding out for the perfect space – and we finally found it, inside the old home of noma on the city’s iconic waterfront. Together in partnership we are opening restaurant Barr, on Wednesday, 5^th July.

Barr will not be another Nordic restaurant. Rather, it will draw from the eating and drinking traditions of the North Sea; an area that spans Scandinavia, Benelux and the British Isles. The name Barr is an old Irish word for “crops” and an old Nordic word for “barley,” a staple throughout this stretch of Europe, and, of course, one of the foundations of beer. Barr will celebrate this diverse region’s cold-country cooking, its breweries, and its shared devotion to conviviality.

The cooking of this region has always fascinated me – from classic dishes like the humble frikadeller (Danish meatballs) and schnitzel, to the use of marmite in cooking in Britain. At Barr, we will serve familiar foods in the best way we can, building on the last decade’s gastronomic development in Copenhagen. We want to carry on the spirit of experimentation and knowledge, serving our versions of traditional dishes, along with a great selection of beers and aquavit from this extraordinary area.

We want Barr to be welcoming, comfortable, and delicious, a place you’ll visit regularly with your family and friends.

We hope to see you soon!

Thorsten Schmidt & the Barr team

The menu will be a la carte and will change with the seasons.

The restaurant seats 60, with an additional 30 seat bar.

Barr will be open for dinner from Wednesday to Saturday, and lunch Friday to Sunday. From August 6^th, the restaurant will introduce its special Sunday lunch menu, designed to share, and bringing families and friends together.

Reservations are now open at the Barr website: restaurantbarr.com.

Barr
Strandgade 93, Copenhagen
Website: restaurantbarr.com
Phone: +45 32963293
General Press: hej@restaurantbarr.com

Follow us on social media:
Instagram: @barrcph
Facebook: facebook.com/barrcph
Twitter: @restaurantbarr

Dear friends,

We are now settled into our residency here in Mexico and have a few weeks of service under our belt. Much of our success so far is attributed to the people from all over Mexico who have helped us finalize every detail, material and the produce we need for our restaurant. Many of these people have become our friends, including the Mundo Maya Foundation (Fundación Haciendas del Mundo Maya).

Mundo Maya works for the sustainable social and economic development of Mayan communities in the Yucatan Peninsula. Their focus is on promoting the quality and tradition of the work of local producers and master artisans. We have sourced a great deal of produce and crafts through the Mundo Maya – everything from tomatoes, corn and pumpkin to napkins, cup holders and serving baskets. We know our relationship with the Mundo Maya will continue well beyond our time here in Tulum. For us, this is the first chapter in a very long collaboration.

For that reason, we have spent the last couple of weeks also honing in on a menu for our bar. This is our chance to serve a few more guests, and an opportunity to give a little back to Mundo Maya.

From Wednesday the 3^rd of May, we will be opening up our bar. There will be only 12 seats available each night. The menu costs $100, $90 of that will go directly to our friends at Mundo Maya, which will be channeled to support the producers and craftspeople themselves.

Practical information to know about the walk-in bar

• We are open from Wednesday to Sunday (Closed Mondays and Tuesdays. Please note that we will also be closed on May 20th. Our last bar menu service will take place on Sunday, May 21st)
• The bar menu is $100 for five servings consisting of four savory courses, one dessert and beverages (price excludes 25% tax and service).
• We welcome guests to line up each day at 12pm out in front of the restaurant on the wooden boardwalk
  • Please note that we may start processing tickets as soon as the line reaches 12 people which might occur before 12pm
• The first 12 present in line will buy their ticket, and will then come back at 5:45pm for the start of service
• Please note that each person can only buy one seat for his or herself, and must be physically present in line
• Tickets are non-transferrable
• Bar service runs between 5:45pm and 7:15pm each evening; the serving starts promptly at 5:45pm for all 12 guests
• We accept cash and credit (all cards accepted)
• We are only able to accommodate the following dietary restrictions: vegetarian, pescetarian, gluten-free and lactose-free

We look forward to welcoming you!

All the best,

René Redzepi & Rosio Sanchez

Dear friends,

This week we want to share a bit about the process of designing and building our restaurant in the jungle.

It truly is jungle. About 50 meters from the water begins a thick dense landscape. Full of animals; birds of all colors and sizes, snakes, caimans and even jaguars. There is no existing infrastructure at all, no plumbing electricity or water – we are bringing all of that in. In this post we are going to share with you small snippets from the people who are helping to make all of this possible. Currently there are more than 3 dozen people at the building site laying the floors of the restaurant and finding space for a roof among the palm trees.

We have the opportunity to partner with Colibri Boutique Hotels, who are providing us the land and helping us build our restaurant just behind one of their beachside hotels. Over the years, and with family and friends, we have stayed at La Zebra and gotten to know the owner John, his family, and his team. We have spent a lot of time on the beach thinking about how we might be able to create something together.

We have partnered with a group of local architects, designers, builders and artisans to create a restaurant that reflects the spirit of the area, whilst keeping a sense of Noma.

La Metropolitana is a young Mexican design company based out of Mexico City that is helping us to develop some of the larger aspects of the space such as structural elements and furniture. They are collaborating with a Tulum based firm called Studio Arquitectos, who are actually working on the ground to carry out their designs. La Metropolitana draws inspiration from a mixture of Mexican concepts surrounding street food and Mexico’s traditional markets. Some of the market’s most characteristic elements like the open plan and a partially covered roof will define the space. This concept fits well with our desire to maintain a key element of Noma: its open kitchen. This provides guests and chefs the opportunity to see what is happening both in and outside of the kitchen.

Cecilia León de la Barra, a designer based in Mexico City, is on board working to bridge our identity with the design and tradition of Mexico. She is helping us to source pieces from the local craftspeople and fine tune all of the smaller design features in the restaurant such as lighting, tableware and decorations that will help build the atmosphere.

One new thing that we’ve never worked with before is the comal, which is a traditional way of making tortillas. Four chefs from the little community of Yaxunah have requested this to be included in our kitchen design. Not only are they growing all of the Naal Teel corn themselves, but they will also themselves be working with us in the restaurant to help make our tortillas and to teach us.

This is the first time that we have taken on the process of building a full space from the ground up. It sure has been challenging and at times interesting, like that one time a snake fell from above onto Rosio’s foot! But, it has been a rewarding process so far working with all of the people responsible for everything from the plumbing, to the walls, to the salt bowls and forks. We can’t wait to see the space once every detail is in place, and truly look forward to sharing it with you!

See you soon,

René Redzepi & Rosio Sanchez

************************************************************************************************

Our restaurant is situated under the canopy of the jungle and across the road from the beach and La Zebra hotel. Our partners at Colibri have a small allocation of tables which are still available for guests who purchase a special accommodation package, so if you missed out on a reservation the first time around, this is another chance to book a table with us. For more information please visit:  http://www.colibriboutiquehotels.com/noma-accommodation-package/

Dear friends,

This week we would like to update you on a bit of what goes on in our fermentation lab as we prepare our menu for Noma Mexico.

Fermented foods play a definitive role in our menu in Copenhagen. Fermentation is a way of thinking about the possibilities of ingredients, and the approach we use at Noma can be applied all over the world. Using Noma’s lens, we have applied our methods of fermentation to the ingredients of Japan and Australia – Noma Mexico will certainly be no different.

Fermentation is a significant element of food culture in Mexico, but the traditional processes that we have encountered are very different to our own. It’s thrilling to take the same ingredients used in traditional Mexican cooking and transform them into something novel. There is an explosion of possibility when we apply our processes to the ingredients of a new culture and landscape.

We will be treating many of the ingredients in Mexico the same way we do here in Copenhagen. For example, we use koji, a fungus traditionally used to ferment rice and soybeans when making soy sauce and miso, to create many of our own unique ferments such as peaso (a miso made from yellow peas instead of soybeans). We drew inspiration from a process steeped in Japanese history and used it to transform a very Danish ingredient, peas, into something completely new.

Similarly, we will grow koji on Mexican rice to transform some of the raw ingredients we discovered in Mexico to create new ferments; a pantry of flavors specific to Noma Mexico. This is what we truly love the most about fermentation; the ablity to create genuine moments of surprise, as you taste things you’ve never tasted before.

The possibilities are endless in terms of how these ferments could be used on our menu: sauces, marinades, soups, even ice creams. We still don’t know exactly how they’ll come to life, or even if they’ll all fit in, but we’re just too excited to not share a small peek into the fermentations of Noma Mexico.

We prepare these Mexican grasshoppers exactly the same way as the Danish ones that we use to make our grasshopper garum. They are blended with rice koji, then placed in the heat to slowly breakdown with the enzymes produced by the koji. The enzymes snip the proteins into delicious  free amino acids for a mouth-smacking and moreish flavor. The fermented chapulines turn into a dark, rich paste; savory and complex, pleasantly salty like soy sauce and still retains the heat of the chilies.

Here we see the beautiful gem-like kernels of Mexican blue corn. First we make masa out of the dried kernels by cooking and soaking them with lime (calcium hydroxide, not the citrus) and grinding them. We mix the masa with rice koji and salt and allow it to ferment for a couple months. The result is an incredibly fragrant, tropically fruity, sweet and delicious soft mash.

We’ve made spin-offs of the fermented masa with achiote, cocoa and cascara, each with its own character.

The black bean miso is perhaps the subtlest of our Mexican ferments; soft and satisfying from the beans with a light sweetness from the koji.

Our Pepita miso, made of heavily roasted pumpkin seeds mixed with koji, is toasty, with a nice bite and mild fermented flavor.

We hope this peek into the fermentation bunker gets you excited for the flavors of Noma Mexico! Stay tuned for more…

All the best,

René Redzepi & Rosio Sanchez

Dear friends,

Noma Mexico update number four, and this time we are sharing stories regarding a few of the communities who are growing ingredients for our pop-up menu.

During our journey throughout the country, we encountered passionate and talented people who grow some extraordinary produce. We would like to share some stories about a few of these ingredients and the communities who have been growing them for thousands of years.

There are 15 Mayan communities speckled throughout the Yucatán Peninsula who will be supplying us with some of the staple foods of the region such as corn, beans and pumpkin. They have an incredible history and tradition surrounding food that they grow either in their backyards, or in milpas (crop fields). These crops are simply some of the best we have ever tasted.

The Traspatio Maya is a part of a non-profit organization that helps support the 15 communities and their food traditions. They do so by helping them recover ancestral seeds to maintain the indigenous ingredients of the region, which are an integral part of their culture.

We are collaborating with Traspaito Maya to source our produce from this network. The ingredients that we have chosen for our menu have been selected for their incredible taste and quality. We are excited to be working with these wonderful communities, they have a remarkable history and possess a wealth of knowledge about food.

These are just a few of the ingredients from the region:

Ixil onions

(feature image)

This is a very rare and native variety that grows in very particular conditions of soil, not common in all regions of Yucatán, but you will find it in the community called Ixil, its namesake. They are generally kept in Mayan kitchens, known for their unique and delicate sweet flavor and easiness to chop.

Yaxunah’s Naal Teel Corn

Corn is the core of the milpa and the basis of the Mayan diet and a main element of culture, history and tradition that has been passed from generation to generation. The corn in the milpa creates an ideal environment for the growth of both pumpkin and beans. These plants thrive symbiotically which has solidified the three of them as mainstays of the regional Mayan diet.

The variety offered this season for the restaurant is the white Naal teel or Knuk´naal.  We chose to source our corn from Yaxunah because it was there that we tasted the best tortillas of our entire trip.

Pepita

Pepita is the local name for the pumpkin seed from the variety known as Xtop, a large and strong flavored variety of pumpkin. Generally, the producers eat the pumpkins themselves and grind the pepita for selling.  One of the most traditional dishes in Mayan tables is the Dzikil pac made with tomato and pepita.

Ibes

Ibes (white beans) is the third essential product of the milpa ecology. It grows naturally adapted to the chemistry of the soil where the corn grows, using the plant as guide for catching the sunlight. It grows beside other kind of beans like Xpelón or black beans, which are also part of the Mayan diet.

Bee larva

Bee larva was traditionally part of the Mayan diet, as a source of protein instead of meat. The larva consumed by Mayan people comes from the wild hives of wasps called Ek. They were part of the diet of ancient families in times of food shortages, and their harvest can only happen during a crescent moon when the larvae are in development.

This tradition has diminished over time and the use of bee larvae of Ek or Apis Melifera in dishes is very rare. We are excited to use this on our menu because this is an ingredient that we already are very familiar with in Copenhagen.

Melipona Honey

Melipona honey is a thick, sweet and sour liquid obtained from the stingless bee Xunan Kab of the Yucatán Peninsula, an endemic species unique to the region. It is richer in nutrients than any other type of honey in the area. With medicinal properties, it was traditionally used in Mayan medicine.

This honey comes from a town in Calakmul Reserve Biosphere on a Unesco world heritage site, making this some of the purest melipona honey available.

We can’t wait to show you how these ingredients will be used on our menu! Until then, stay tuned for more from us.

All the best,

René Redzepi & Rosio Sanchez

Dear friends,

Letter three with updates on our Noma Mexico adventures.

During our travels around this great country from vast markets to tiny hilltop towns, we have witnessed incredible craftsmanship. Plateware, glassware, knives, wooden spoons, ornate decorated linens, woven pieces, tools and beautiful art.

Many of these crafts are the result of thousands of years of tradition; skills and techniques that have been passed down through countless generations.

We would like to tell a few stories about some of the craftspeople who we are collaborating with, to highlight their amazing crafts and tradition. While in Oaxaca we met with the organization, Colectivo 1050°, which is a collective of potters and designers who work together to create traditional ceramics; they represent more than 45 artisans in seven villages. Their focus is to make traditional pottery a dignified trade, to create new paths for artisans, and to offer a sustainable way of life for them, their families and communities.

The plateware that we have selected for the restaurant is produced in three villages (two of them we visited), Santa María Atzompa, San Marcos Tlapazola and Santo Domingo Tonaltepec.

Santa María Atzompa

Atzompa: means “Sobre la cabeza del agua” or atop the head of water

Elevation: 1,580 m (5,184 ft.) above sea level

5 km (3 miles) away from the city of Oaxaca

Santa María Atzompa has been producing pottery for over 4,000 years. Their methods of producing pots changed with the arrival of the Spaniards in 1520. Atzompa pottery is revered for its traditional green glaze. While Atzompa’s pots have a variety shapes and uses, most are produced using the rolling technique.

The workshop who is producing products for our restaurant in Santa María Atzompa is the Ruiz López family.

San Marcos Tlapazola

Tlapazola: means “Lugar de codornices” or “place of quails”

Elevation: 2,040 m (6,693 ft.) above sea level

44 km (27 miles) away from the City of Oaxaca

San Marcos Tlapazola is a traditional Zapotec village, which has supplied pots for centuries to the Oaxacan Valley and the Tlacolula market. The family who will be producing the cooking pots, bowls and spoons for Noma Mexico is the Mateo Family, of 8 women. Since 1980, Macrina Martínez and her family have created new shapes with upgraded quality, that have inspired other potters in this community. These innovations have led to increased sales and sense of agency.

These pots exhibit a characteristic red color, and smooth surface brought to life by meticulous burnishing.

Santo Domingo Tonaltepec

 Tonaltepec: means “Loma de Peña” or “hill of rock”

Altitude: 2,511 m (8,238 ft.) above sea level

114 km (71 miles) away from the City of Oaxaca

 The pottery from Santo Domingo Tonaltepec has a unique appearance. Pieces are fired inside a stone oven which may have pre-Hispanic origins.

Afterwards, they are dyed with spontaneous and expressive splashes of tannin pigment, to provide a Jackson Pollock effect. The family who produces some of the bowls we have chosen for the restaurant is the Cortés Cruz family. They are the last family in the village who continues to produce pottery with this unique technique.

We hope that in working with these craftspeople, we will be able to help in our own small way to preserve this knowledge and bring light to some of these amazing local traditions.

We look forward to sharing more stories about the people who help make Noma Mexico a reality with you!

All the best,

René Redzepi & Rosio Sanchez

Dear friends,

Round two of the Noma Mexico updates, and this one will be about students.

We’ve already had hundreds of people applying to be a part of the Noma Mexico team. If you would like to participate feel free to email intern@noma.dk. However, this post is mostly about two other projects that we have been working on for a while now.

Noma Mexico will only be open for dinner. However, during the last two weeks of our residency there, we will open up for lunch. All of the seats are reserved for Mexican culinary students. You are invited to come and have the full experience with us, free of charge. We want to cook for you and show you how we have been inspired by your incredible food culture. You must be a culinary student. Please email us at mexstudents@noma.dk to find out how you can get a seat at the table.

Then, we are also very happy to announce that we are creating a scholarship fund to allow Mexican culinary students to travel to Copenhagen and intern with both Noma and Hija de Sanchez. We will set up English classes beforehand, take care of travel, accommodation and give a per diem. This is something that we are really excited to be offering again. We first tested this idea a few years back with great success and ever since we have been waiting for the right moment to have a project where we can continue fostering our relationship to Mexico, and help give opportunity to young talents. Of course, we will make sure that the internships are during summer so you won’t freeze your ass off. :D Please email us at intern@noma.dk with a headline called “Mexico Scholarship” to find out how you can apply.

That is all from us for now. We have just returned to the Yucatan from Tabasco, and the research for the ingredients and a better understanding of Mexico is going very well.

Among the next couple of updates we will be featuring some of the artisans who we are working with on the project, so stay tuned. We look forward to sharing more about Noma Mexico with you!

All the best,

René Redzepi & Rosio Sanchez

Queridos amigos:

Segunda ronda de actualizaciones de Noma México, y esta será acerca de los estudiantes.

Ya tenemos cientos de solicitudes de personas que quieren formar parte del equipo de Noma México. Si deseas participar, envíanos un correo electrónico a intern@noma.dk. Sin embargo, esta publicación trata principalmente de otros dos proyectos en los que hemos estado trabajando desde hace algún tiempo.

Noma México solo abrirá para la cena. No obstante, durante las dos últimas semanas de nuestra residencia allí, abriremos para la comida. Todos los asientos están reservados para estudiantes de cocina mexicanos. Te invitamos a venir y disfrutar con nosotros de la experiencia completa de forma gratuita. Queremos cocinar para ti y enseñarte cómo nos hemos inspirado en tu increíble cultura gastronómica. Debes ser un estudiante de cocina. Por favor, envíanos un correo electrónico a mexstudents@noma.dk para averiguar cómo se puede conseguir un asiento en la mesa.

También estamos muy contentos de anunciar que estamos creando un fondo de becas para que los estudiantes de cocina mexicanos puedan viajar a Copenhague en prácticas con Noma e Hija de Sánchez. Estableceremos de antemano clases de inglés, nos ocuparemos del viaje y el alojamiento y ofreceremos dietas para gastos de manutención. Nos emociona de verdad poder ofrecer algo así nuevamente. Hace ya algunos años pusimos en práctica esta idea con gran éxito. Desde entonces, hemos estado esperando el momento adecuado para tener un proyecto en el que seguir fomentando nuestra relación con México y ayudar a dar oportunidades a los jóvenes talentos. Por supuesto, vamos a asegurarnos de que las prácticas sean durante el verano, para que no se te congelen las posaderas. :D. Por favor, envíanos un correo electrónico a intern@noma.dk con el asunto «Beca México» para averiguar cómo realizar la solicitud.

Esto es todo por nuestra parte. Acabamos de regresar a Yucatán desde Tabasco, y la investigación de los ingredientes y una mejor comprensión de México está yendo muy bien.

Entre las próximas actualizaciones presentaremos a algunos de los artesanos con los que estamos trabajando en el proyecto, así que mantente atento. ¡Estamos deseando compartir más cosas acerca de Noma México contigo!

Todo lo mejor,
René Redzepi y Rosio Sánchez

]]> https://noma.dk/the-weather-report/what-goes-into-doing-a-pop-up/ Mon, 21 Nov 2016 16:18:06 +0000 https://noma.dk/?p=2656

Dear friends,

Over the course of the next few weeks we will be publishing a series of posts to explain the details of Noma Mexico. These will include more information about the booking process, sharing favorite moments from our research trip, and highlighting some of the amazing producers we have been collaborating with so far.

To start, we would like to explain a bit of the work that goes into making our pop-ups a reality, while noting that each is a bit different.… More »

 

Dear friends,

Over the course of the next few weeks we will be publishing a series of posts to explain the details of Noma Mexico. These will include more information about the booking process, sharing favorite moments from our research trip, and highlighting some of the amazing producers we have been collaborating with so far.

To start, we would like to explain a bit of the work that goes into making our pop-ups a reality, while noting that each is a bit different. Besides running Restaurant Noma, planning and organizing every detail of our residency in Mexico is what takes up every bit of our spare time, and we have two full-time project managers for a year to coordinate all the moving parts.

First, we set out to make our team of over 60 people happy. We handle all the everyday logistics for everyone, the small details we all take for granted at home. Everything from visa applications, a doctor’s appointment and daily transportation (we are renting bikes for everyone, which is a demand from most of our team), to providing and funding apartments for everyone. Providing airfare for the team, finding schools and day-care for all our kids, and ensuring a Danish wage standard no matter where they are in the world.

Then there is the restaurant itself, starting with months of research, which has been especially important this time since Mexico is so diverse. These long trips both inspire our menu and help us find special people to work with. We seek out artisanal producers to grow our cilantro and fresh tomato, and craft our plates and tableware. This time, we are helping build the restaurant from the ground up, which is a first for us. Everything from the structure, electricity and plumbing, to the kitchen equipment, the furniture and more. We’re making special effort to work only with local designers and makers to source original pieces for the restaurant. We can proudly say that these collaborations make a difference to a lot of the people we have been working with. These details are everything to us; they are essential to what makes us who we are in Copenhagen, and are possibly even more important when we pop-up as visitors in other places around the world.

These travel experiences are simply some of the most amazing that we have ever had. Personally and professionally, the pop-ups we’ve done so far have been the highlights of my life, and that is why we keep coming back for more. To learn and be challenged, to build bridges to cultures that are different than ours, to connect with the team in a profound way, and to explore life’s opportunities. We have come to understand that this strengthens us and makes us better at what we do. We believe that the future of Noma and the development of our future requires more cross-pollination, more friendship, more expansiveness and not isolating ourselves in the cold north. This is what motivates us. Nothing else.

Some people ask how we fund such an undertaking, and it is very difficult. For instance, one of our partners pulled out just last week, because of the sudden drop in the peso and the tense economic situation. Did that impact our pricing? Yes. However, we are lucky to have our great partners American Express and Colibri Boutique Hotels. They play a big role in making this happen, but most of the undertaking falls on Noma. For Mexico, this is especially the case. All expenses related to getting us here and setting up lives for our staff also influences how much we end up charging. Yet, after these hard decisions are made, we truly believe that what we are doing here is great for our team, good for the artisans who we work with, and we can promise that every single dime, every working hour possible, and all our effort goes to making our guests happy, and creating something unique for the people who have been following us for 13 years.

 

Stay tuned for more details on what it takes to create Noma Mexico!

All the very best, René Redzepi & Rosio Sanchez

]]>

Credits:
Produced by Fantomfilm
Sounds by Efterklang
Stills by Ditte Isager
Drone footage by droner.dk

Thank you:
Phaidon
Nordatlantens Brygge
Arktisk Hus

(Please scroll down for Danish and Spanish versions of the text)
(日本語版は下記をご覧ください)

Let’s start at the beginning.

Let me take you to 2003 when noma first opened. I’d been touring through different restaurants all around the world. I was twenty-five, young and naive, but full of ideas. One day I got a phone call from my pal Claus inviting me to open my own restaurant. I went to see the ancient whaling depot he’d found, and immediately fell in love with the warehouse ambience; the exposed, almost-three-hundred-year-old wooden beams; even the derelict neighborhood.

It just felt right, and I thought to myself, We can really build something here—I can’t turn this down. We shook hands and decided on a grand idea, one which seemed so unlikely at that time: the restaurant would attempt to define the cooking of our region through Nordic produce. And that’s how we began, with a very strict dogma to only use the ingredients from our vast territory, thinking that a new type of cuisine, or a new flavor would evolve from that.

It didn’t take long for us to realize that this wasn’t going to happen. Cooking a goulash only from local ingredients didn’t make that hearty stew taste new or like it was truly from here. We stumbled forward slowly the first couple of years, and realized with each day that distilling our landscape onto plates of food was a very, very complex task. The answers wouldn’t be found in Nordic produce alone.

We began to discover the wild food of our terrain and foraging became a way to sculpt our cuisine. We were also starting to acknowledge that we needed to create building blocks to shape new dishes and flavors. The answer lay in rethinking traditional methods of preservation to cook up new vinegars, new marinades, new potions of umami. Those two discoveries are the most important innovations of the past twelve years of our work: Connecting ourselves to the seasons through foraging, and the wonderful building blocks of cuisine we have fashioned through our fermented kitchen.

Besides that we have been pretty confused about just about everything. For many years I was wrestling with the very definition of the word local. I mean, where do we even draw the borders of the Nordic region? Does it make sense to include Greenland, on the other side of the Atlantic, but not somewhere close with the same climate like Scotland? Do we include Hamburg, which was on the border of Denmark in the nineteenth century? Is it about the type of vegetation that grows, or the political climate of the moment? And what about chocolate, coffee, and wine? I knew I wanted all of those, but they come far from any place Nordic. And how do we consider potatoes, which were introduced from Peru but are now entrenched in modern Scandinavian food? What about pickles from India? How far back in history does one go to be “authentic?” It’s clear that in the world of cooking we haven’t fully understood many of the labels that define us.

Even so, we’ve been fortunate enough to enjoy tremendous success over the past twelve years. We’ve been able to fuel a community of chefs, producers, and guests that all strive for quality and share the belief that moving forward as a group is better for all of us. I genuinely believe what we’re seeing in our little city and our region are merely the baby steps of many more great things to come. And this success often leads people to ask me, “What’s next for noma?”

Well, I’d like to share the plan we’ve secretly been working on for the past three years: We are moving to a place where we can grow our own produce, rethink every part of what we do, and create the best possible workplace for our team.

At one point quite a while ago, in the midst of all the confusion, hard work, and doubt, we realized that we’d been organizing our menus and even methods of work in a stupid and somewhat impractical way. Here we are in a region where the seasons change dramatically from barren cold to warm abundance, yet our restaurant and the menu format more or less stay the same. We haven’t been able to transform as dramatically as the weather does; at least until now. We’ve made the decision to change the restaurant along with three very distinct seasons.

In the cold months of January, February, March, and April, when the ground can be rock solid from frost, nothing grows. Very little from the earth is available, and so we will turn to the ocean. At that moment, most fish are at their pinnacle of quality, the flesh firm and pristine, many of them fat with roe, the other innards sweet and succulent. The diversity of shellfish is incredible. Urchins are plump, the ovaries the color of a ripe orange. Wild oysters are hand harvested alongside all the other wonders of the water season. A meal based around such rich proteins will be shorter, enhanced with our well-stocked larder, those hardy plants that survive the frost, and our own greenhouse. The cutlery, the platewear, every element will reflect an aesthetic of the cold ocean.

And then when the world turns green in spring, so will the menu. Slowly the kitchen will reorganize itself to reflect the incredible diversity from the plant kingdom, resulting in smaller servings, but more of them, a steady stream of the cooked and raw vegetation coming from all sides. In May, June, July, August, and into September, we will become a vegetarian restaurant. Our community of farmers and foragers will be central to this green season, but the new restaurant will be nestled in our own urban farm, and we will grow a significant amount of our own produce. The space will also house larger research kitchens; not many people know that the big fermentation facility that we built two years ago behind noma was set up largely to develop a meal based completely on vegetables. How do you make a plateful of steamed spinach as satisfying as a steak? Through the work done in that half-kitchen, half-mad-laboratory, we have enough potions, liquids, and new flavors that can lift even the simplest carrot to become the star of our menu.

The next change is when the leaves start falling from the trees and our focus shifts toward the forest: the cornucopia of mushrooms, nuts, and berries, coupled with the best of the game. During the end of September, October, November, and December the menu again condenses, maybe organized around whichever game animal might be the centerpiece of the meal. A teal for two, a goose for six, perhaps a leg of moose for eight, and anything in between. Every slice carefully cooked and considered, the innards, each cut of meat, the skin.

And that’s the flow of the year. A true reflection of the landscape at that moment, the unique flavor of that point in time. Three distinct seasons, with a myriad of microseasons within each of them.

It took us a while to figure this all out. Like I said, we’ve been planning for the change for years. That’s why it’s great for me to announce that at the end of December 2016, we will run our last service at noma.

Because we are moving to an incredible new space as we continue to build our community and figure out what it means to be a cook in this region. To keep exploring food and flavor, in a new place where we can dream. A place where we can build a farm right in the city. Where we can grow our own food, a place where we can keep pushing.

We have spent the last twelve years trying to figure out what it means to be a chef in the Nordic region, and now we are ready to start that restaurant we have been practicing for.

—

Lad os starte med begyndelsen.

Lad mig tage jer med tilbage til 2003 da noma åbnede. Jeg havde arbejdet på forskellige restauranter i hele verdenen, jeg var 25, ung og naiv, men fuld af idéer. En dag ringede min kammerat Claus, og han spurgte om jeg ville åbne min egen restaurant. Vi mødtes i et gammelt pakhus på Nordatlantens Brygge, og kiggede rundt i lokalerne, som tidligere blev brugt som depot for hvalprodukter. Jeg forelskede mig i rummet med det samme: Stemningen, de 300 år gamle træbjælker og selv det forladte område var tiltalende.

Det hele føltes bare rigtigt, og jeg tænkte for mig selv; her har vi virkelig mulighed for skabe noget nyt – jeg kan ikke sige nej til det her. Vi gav hånd, og besluttede os for at forfølge en vild idé om, at åbne en restaurant, der kun skulle servere nordiske råvarer, som et forsøg på at definere vores region. En helt urealistisk idé, set i lyset af hvad der ellers skete dengang, men det var nu engang sådan vi startede, med et meget strikt dogme; kun at bruge ingredienser fra vores enorme territorium, med håbet om at et nyt køkken, og nye smage ville komme helt naturligt som følge.

Der gik ikke lang tid før det gik op for os, at det ikke hang sådan sammen. At lave en gullasch med lokale ingredienser fik den ikke til at smage som hverken en autentisk nordisk ret, eller som noget nyt. De første år famlede vi os langsomt fremad i blinde, og med hver dag der gik, indså vi mere og mere, hvor stor en opgave det er, at nedkoge vores landskab til en meningsfuld ret. Vi lærte også, at vi ikke kun fandt svaret i de nordiske råvarer. Vi gik i gang med at udforske den vilde mad i vores natur; for os blev sankning langsomt en måde at udvikle vores køkken på. Vi indså også, at vi havde brug for at opfinde nye værktøjer for at kunne konstruere de retter og smage vi drømte om. Løsningen lå i at gentænke traditionelle former for præservering, som en inspiration til at udvikle nye slags eddiker, marinader og umami-eliksirer. De opdagelser har været helt centrale for vores arbejde de sidste 12 år. Først – at udforske det vilde landskab, at finde en forbindelse til årstiderne via sanketure. Og derefter alle de værktøjer, som vi har udviklet i vores ”fermenterede køkken”.

Bortset fra disse to opdagelser, så er der meget vi har været i tvivl om. Det meste, faktisk. Jeg har i flere år funderet over ordet ”lokal”, og brugt uanede mængder af tid på at finde ud af, hvad et faktisk betyder. Der er mange spørgsmål som popper op; Hvor skal vi sætter grænserne for den Nordiske region? Giver det overhovedet mening at inkludere Grønland, som ligger på den anden side af Atlanten, men ikke Skotland, som har samme klima som her? Skal vi inkludere Hamborg, hvortil det danske kongerigets grænser strakte sig i 1800-tallet? Handler det om den type vegetation der vokser i et område, eller om et lands politiske situation? Og hvad med chokolade, kaffe og vin? Jeg vidste fra starten, at jeg ville servere alle tre, selvom de stammer fra områder der aldrig vil blive betragtet som nordiske. Og hvad skal vi tænke om kartoflen, som blev importeret fra Peru – eller agurken, som staffer fra Indien? Begge dele er jo dele af moderne skandinavisk mad. Hvor lang tilbage i historien skal vi gå for at være ”autentiske”? En ting er klart, og det er at vi i køkkenet stadig ikke forstår de mærkater vi bliver påduttet.
Men på trods af det, har vi været utroligt heldige og har nydt en enorm succes i løbet af de sidste årti. Vi har haft mulighed for at være med til at skabe et fællesskab af kokke, landmænd og gæster, som alle stræber efter kvalitet. Troen på at vi kommer længst hvis vi står sammen, har været med til at gøre arbejdet til en glæde, selv når det har været hårdt. Ærlig talt, så tror jeg at det vi ser i vores lille by, og i hele vores region, kun er de første skridt på vejen mod noget større.

Al den succes vi har oplevet får ofte folk til at spørge mig, ”hvad kommer der til at ske med noma fremover?”.

I løbet af de sidste 3 år har i vi al hemmelighed arbejdet på en plan for at udvikle noma. Og vi er nu så langt, at vi er klar til at dele den med jer. Noma flytter. Til et sted hvor vi kan gro vores egne grøntsager, gentænke hver en del af hvad vi gør og skabe de bedste arbejdsforhold for hele holdet.

For lang tid siden, i en periode fuld af forvirring, hårdt arbejde og tvivl, gik det op for os at vi havde planlagt både vores menuer og arbejdsrutiner på en måde der var både dum og upraktisk. Vi holder til en i en region, hvor årstiderne skifter dramatisk. Alt ændrer sig fra at være goldt og koldt til fugtigt og varmt i løbet af meget kort tid. Og på trods af dette, forblev vores restaurant og vores menu stort set uændret. Vi var ikke i stand til at transformere i samme drastiske tempo som vejret. Derfor ændrer vi nu vores koncept, som følge af en bedre forståelse af årstiderne; vi vil være skarpere, når det kommer til at servere noget der reflekterer tid og sted.
I de kolde måneder – januar, februar, marts og april – hvor jorden er hård som sten på grund af frost, og der ingenting gror, er der kun få spiselige ting på landjorden. Der vil vi søge mod havet. I denne sæson er fiskenes kvalitet på deres højeste; kødet er fast, mange er med rogn og indmaden er fantastisk. Der er også en fantastisk diversitet blandt skalddyrene; søpindsvinene er fyldige, og har en moden orange kulør. Og de vilde østers er håndhøstet på samme måde som resten af havets mirakler. Et måltid baseret på så fyldige proteiner vil være kortere end normalt, og akkompagneret af elementer fra vores fyldte spisekammer, samt de få planter der kan overleve frosten. Selv bestikket og tallerkenerne – ja, alle elementer i måltidet – vil reflektere det kolde havs æstetik og sæson.

Og så når verden bliver grøn, i løbet af forået, vil menuen følge med. Langsom vil køkkenet ændre sig, for at kunne håndtere den overvældende diversitet i planteriget. Dette vil resultere i mindre serveringer, men mange flere, som en stabil strøm af tilberedte og rå planter der kommer ind fra alle sider. I maj, juni, juli, august og september vil vi blive en vegetarisk restaurant. Vores fællesskab med landmænd og sankere vil blive helt centralt for denne grønne sæson, men den nye restaurant vil være omgivet af vores eget landbrug midt i byen, hvorfra vi vil få en betydelig mængde grøntsager. Den nye restaurant vil også huse større testkøkkener, så vi har bedre rammer for at udvikle os. Hvad kun få ved, er at vores store fermenteringslaboratorium som vi byggede for et par år siden, blev en realitet for at kunne skabe et måltid kun bestående af grøntsager. Hvordan gør man en ret kun bestående af dampet spinat ligeså tiltalende som en stor og saftig bøf? Igennem det arbejde vi har udført i laboratoriet har vi skabt eliksirer, væsker, pastaer og nye smage, så vi kan gøre den simpleste gulerod til stjernen på vores menu.

Den næste ændring starter når bladende falder af træerne, hvilket får os til at skifte fokus til skoven. Den rene overflod af svampe, nødder og bær parret med de vilde dyr. En krikand for to, en gås til seks, og måske et elglår til otte, og alt derimellem. I løbet af september, oktober, november og december vil menuen igen blive fyldigere, og måske vil den endda været bygget op omkring dét vilde, som jægerne kan skaffe os. Hver en bid vil være særligt tilberedt på baggrund af stor tankevirksomhed; nakken, indmaden, hver en udskæring, skindet. Alt skal serveres, som en præcis refleksion af landskabet på det specifikke tidspunkt, og de unikke smage det kan tilbyde.

Og dét bliver vores flow igennem året; tre årstider og et utal af mikro-sæsoner i hver af dem.

Det tog os lang tid at komme frem til denne idé. Og som jeg sagde, så vi har planlagt dette igennem flere år. Derfor er det mig en særlig glæde endelig at kunne sige, at den sidste service på noma vil finde sted i december 2016.

Vi vil blive ved med at undersøge hvad det vil sige at være kok for os, og vil gøre vores for at det fællesskab der er opstået, vil blive ved med at udvikle sig. Men vi flytter. Til et nyt, fantastisk sted, hvor vi kan anlægge marker midt i byen. Et sted hvor vi kan gro vores egen mad, et sted hvor vi kan blive ved med at skubbe grænserne for det mulige.

Vi har brugt de sidste 12 år på at finde ud af hvad det vil sige at være kok i Norden, og nu er vi klar til at åbne den restaurant vi har øvet os på.

—

Vamos a empezar por el principio.

Déjame llevarte al 2003, cuando se inauguró noma. Había estado de gira a través de diferentes restaurantes en todo el mundo, tenía veinticinco años, era joven e ingenuo, pero lleno de ideas. Un día recibo una llamada de mi amigo Claus, y me invitó a abrir mi propio restaurante. Fui a ver el antiguo depósito de caza de ballenas, e inmediatamente me enamoré con del almacén, las vigas de madera expuestos con casi 300 años de antigüedad, e incluso el barrio en ruinas.

Se sentía bien, y pensé: aquí podemos realmente construir algo- no puedo rechazarlo. Nos dimos la mano y nos decidimos por una gran idea; una que parecía tan improbable en ese momento, que el restaurante trataría de definir la cocina de nuestra región a través de los productos nórdicos. Y así es como empezamos, con un dogma muy estricto: utilizar solamente los ingredientes de nuestro vasto territorio, pensando que un nuevo tipo de cocina, o un nuevo sabor evolucionaría con eso.

No pasó mucho tiempo hasta que nos dimos cuenta de que esto no iba a suceder. Cocinar un goulash sólo de ingredientes locales no hizo que el guiso tenga un sabor como si fuera realmente de aquí, ni de algo nuevo. Los primeros años se tambalearon hacia delante lentamente, y con cada día nos dimos cuenta de que condensar nuestro paisaje en platos de comida era una tarea muy, muy compleja. Y las respuestas no se iban a encontrar solo en los productos nórdicos. Para entonces habíamos empezado a descubrir la comida silvestre de nuestro terreno, la recolecta de alimentos lentamente se convirtió en una forma de esculpir nuestra cocina. También estábamos empezando a reconocer que necesitábamos crear cimientos para dar forma a nuevos platos y sabores. La respuesta estaba en repensar el uso tradicional de conservación, como una inspiración para cocinar nuevos vinagres, nuevos adobos, nuevas pociones de umami. Estos dos descubrimientos son las innovaciones más importantes de los últimos doce años de trabajo: Uno-Explorando el paisaje salvaje, conectando con las cuatro estaciones a través de la recolecta de alimentos, y Dos – todos los maravillosos cimientos de la cocina que hemos formado a través de nuestra “cocina fermentada”.

Además de eso hemos estado bastante confundidos acerca de, bueno, casi todo lo demás. Durante muchos años estuve tratando de definir la palabra “local”, rompiéndome la cabeza para averiguar lo que la define. Quiero decir, ¿dónde siquiera se definen las fronteras de la región nórdica? ¿Tiene sentido incluir Groenlandia, al otro lado del Atlántico, pero no un lugar cercano con el mismo clima – como Escocia? ¿Debemos incluir a Hamburgo, que estuvo en la frontera con Dinamarca en el siglo 19? ¿Se trata sobre el tipo de vegetación que crece, o el clima político del momento? ¿Y qué pasa con el chocolate, el café y el vino? Sabía que quería todos, pero vienen lejos de cualquier lugar que se pueda considerar nórdico. ¿Y cómo consideramos las papas, que se introdujeron por Perú- y pepinillos- de la India, pero ahora atrincherados en la cocina escandinava moderna. ¿Cuánto tiempo atrás -o no- en la historia se tiene que ir para ser auténtico? Está claro que en el mundo culinario no hemos entendido muchas de las etiquetas que nos definen.

Aun así, hemos tenido la suerte de disfrutar de un gran éxito durante los últimos doce años. Hemos sido capaces de consolidar una comunidad de cocineros, productores y clientes que se esfuerzan por la calidad, la alegría de trabajar en conjunto con la firme creencia de que seguir adelante como grupo es mejor para todos. Creo, sinceramente, que lo que estamos viendo en nuestra pequeña ciudad, y nuestra región, no son más que los pequeños pasos de muchas cosas más grandes por venir. Y este éxito lleva a que la gente a menudo me pregunte: “¿Qué será lo próximo para noma?”

Bueno, me gustaría compartir el plan secreto que hemos estado trabajando durante los últimos tres años: nos vamos a mudar, a un lugar donde podemos crecer nuestros propios alimentos, repensar cada aspecto de lo que hacemos, a un lugar donde podemos crear el mejor ambiente de trabajo posible para nuestro equipo.

En algún momento en el pasado, en medio de toda la confusión, el trabajo duro y la duda, nos dimos cuenta de que habíamos estado organizando nuestros menús e incluso los métodos de trabajo de una manera tonta y hasta cierto punto impráctica. Aquí, estamos en una región donde las estaciones cambian dramáticamente. El tiempo cambia completamente del frío estéril a una abundancia calurosa, sin embargo, nuestro restaurante y el formato de menú más o menos se había mantenido el mismo. No habíamos sido capaces de transformar de forma tan dramática como lo hace el clima; al menos hasta que tomamos la decisión de hacer precisamente eso, y transformar con tres estaciones bien diferenciadas.

En los meses fríos, enero, febrero, marzo y abril, donde el suelo puede ser duro como piedra por las heladas, nada crece. Muy poco de la tierra está disponible, por lo que iremos al océano. En ese momento la mayoría de los peces están en su punto mas alto de calidad, la carne firma y prístina, muchos de ellos gordos con huevas, las demás tripas dulces y suculentas. La diversidad de los mariscos es increíble: los erizos son rechonchos, los ovarios del color de una naranja madura. Las ostras silvestres se cosechan a mano junto a todas las otras maravillas de la temporada de agua. Una comida basada en este tipo de proteínas ricas será más corta, mejorado con nuestra despensa bien surtida y las plantas resistentes que sobreviven a la escarcha, y nuestro propio invernadero. Los cubiertos, los platos, cada elemento reflejará la estética del océano frío.

Y luego, cuando el mundo se vuelve verde, en algún momento de la primavera, también lo hará el menú. Poco a poco la cocina se reorganizará para manifestar la increíble diversidad del reino vegetal, lo que resulta en porciones más pequeñas, pero más variadas, un flujo constante de la vegetación cocida y cruda proveniente de todos los lados. En mayo, junio, julio, y agosto nos convertiremos en un restaurante vegetariano. Nuestra comunidad de agricultores y recolectores será fundamental para esta temporada verde, pero el nuevo restaurante estará ubicado en nuestra propia granja urbana, y vamos a cultivar una cantidad significativa de nuestros propios productos. El espacio también albergará cocinas de investigación más grandes; no mucha gente sabe que la gran instalación de fermentación que se construyó hace dos años se creó principalmente para el desarrollo de la comida basada por completo en las verduras. ¿Cómo se hace un plato de espinacas al vapor tan satisfactorio como un filete? A través de los trabajos realizados en esa “mitad cocina-mitad laboratorio loco”, tenemos suficientes pociones, líquidos y nuevos sabores que pueden levantar hasta la zanahoria más sencilla a ser la estrella principal de nuestro menú.

El siguiente cambio es cuando las hojas comienzan a caer de los árboles, y nuestro enfoque cambia hacia el bosque. La abundancia de setas, nueces y bayas, junto con lo mejor de la caza. Una cerceta para dos, un ganso para seis, tal vez una pierna de alce para ocho personas y mucho más. Durante septiembre, octubre, noviembre y diciembre el menú se condensa de nuevo, organizada quizá hacia la caza que sería la pieza central de la comida. Cada rebanada cuidadosamente cocinada y considerada, el cuello, las entrañas, cada corte de carne, la piel. Un fiel reflejo del paisaje en ese momento, el sabor único de ese tiempo. Y ese es el flujo del año. Tres estaciones distintas, con una gran variedad de micro-estaciones dentro de cada una de ellas.

Nos tomó tiempo para llegar a entender todo esto. Y hemos estado planeando para el cambio, como he dicho, desde hace años. Por eso es muy grato para mi anunciar que a finales de diciembre del 2016, vamos a ejecutar nuestro último servicio en noma.

Porque nos estamos mudando, a un espacio nuevo e increíble, ya que continuamos construyendo nuestra comunidad y averiguando lo que significa ser un cocinero en esta región. Para seguir explorando la comida y el sabor, en un nuevo lugar en el que podamos soñar. Un lugar donde podamos construir una granja en la ciudad. Donde podamos cultivar nuestra propia comida, un lugar donde podamos seguir empujando.

Hemos pasado los últimos doce años tratando de entender que significa ser cocinero en la región nórdica, y ahora estamos listos para arrancar el restaurante para el que hemos estado practicando.

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信頼なるお客様方へ、

皆様にお伝えしたい素晴らしいニュースがあります。

まずnomaの原点からお話しします。

それはnomaがオープンした２００３年にさかのぼります 。その頃世界中の様々なレストランで修行を重ねた僕は、アイデアに満ち溢れたナイーブな２５歳の若者でした。そんなある日、友人のクラウスから「自分のレストランをやってみないか？」という誘いの電話を受けました。僕は真っ先にその古びた捕鯨用の倉庫を見に行き、３００年以上経過した木造建築、その雰囲気、そしてすぐそばに住むヒッピー達にでさえ瞬く間に心を奪われました。

ここでなら何かやれるという想いにただ駆られ、断ることができませんでした。僕たちは握手を交わし、当時まだ浸透していなかった北欧の食材を使ったレストランにするという決断をしました 。このようにして僕たちは地元の広大な土地にある農作物だけを使うという教義のもと、新たな種類の料理を創造し新しい風味を探求していくことを目指して第一歩を踏み出しました。

しかし、そう事はうまくは運びませんでした。グーラッシュ(ハンガリーの煮込み料理)を北欧の食材で作っても、ここがその料理の郷土のように愛情のこもった料理にはならないことを実感しました。最初の２年間は何度も躓き、北欧の大地を皿の上に表現することの複雑さを毎日痛感してきました。そしてその答えを北欧の農作物だけで導き出すことは困難でした。ちょうどその頃、僕たちは地元にある野生の食材を見つけ、それを少しずつ自分たちの料理を形作るための手段として利用していきました。また、新しい料理と風味を構築するための土台づくりの必要性も認識し始めました。そしてその答えは新しいビネガー、マリネ、そして旨味成分をインスピレーションとした伝統的な食料保存の方法を再認識することにありました。その二つの発見がこの１２年間で最も重要な革新です。一つは山菜採りを通じて季節をより身近に感じながら野生の地を探求すること。もう一つは “発酵した厨房“で形成された素晴らしい料理のための構築材料の数々です。

しかしその一方で、僕たちはあらゆることに頭を抱えてきました。長年にわたり「ローカル」という言葉の意味を定義づけるために知恵を絞り続けてきました。そもそも北欧という地域の境界線は何処だろう？大西洋の反対側にあるグリーンランドは含むべきだろうか？またはより近くて気候の似ているスコットランドか？１９世紀にデンマークの一部だったハンブルグは？野菜の種類、またはその時の政治風土で決めるべきか？チョコレート、コーヒー、ワインはどうだろう？使いたくても北欧と呼ぶには程遠いところで収穫されている。ペルー、インドが原産の芋やきゅうりは？でも今の北欧にはなくてはならない存在だ。どれだけ歴史をさかのぼろうとも起源など存在するのだろうか？ただ明確なのは料理の世界で定義づけられているラベルについて僕たちはほとんど理解していないということだ。

そうであったとしても、この１２年間大きな成功を収めてきました。僕たちはたくさんの料理人や生産者、そして美食家たちを焚き付け続け、一つのコミュニティーとして取り組んでいく楽しみを覚え、チームとして前進していくことの重要性を理解しました。今まで自分の小さな街と地域で探してきたことは、これから起こる様々な素晴らしい出来事の小さな一歩にしかすぎないと思っています。そしてこの成功はみなさんに「nomaの次は？」と言わせるでしょう。

それでは、これまでの３年間密かに取り組んできた移転計画をみなさんと共有したいと思います 。僕たちは食材を自給することができ、すべての取り組みを考え直すことのできる自分のチームにとってこれ以上ない環境がある場所に移ります。

以前、様々なことに対するわだかまりと厳しい労働時間の中で、今あるメニューや労働環境のあり方が馬鹿らしく、どこか非実用的だと思う瞬間がありました。ここは季節の移り変わりが劇的に起こる地域です。天気は不毛で寒い時期から豊作の暖かい時期へと移り変わるのにもかかわらず、レストランではメニュー形式にほとんど変化はありませんでした。正確に３つの異なる季節に沿ってレストランの形態を変えていかない限り、僕たちはこの劇的に移り変わる天候に追いつくことはできません 。

１月、２月、３月、４月の寒くまだ霜が大地を覆っている時期。大地で育つものはなく、入手できる食材はほとんどありません。しかし、その時期こそ海産物の質が最も頂点に近づく季節です。魚の身はしまっていて新鮮です。またそのほとんどが豊満で 卵を持ち、甘く脂がのっています。その一方で、貝の種類は信じられないほど多様です。ウニはふっくらとし、熟したオレンジのような色をしています。天然の牡蠣は他の海の季節の恵みのすぐ隣で手で収穫されます。 この豊かな食材を基盤とした食事は短く、店頭にある独自の土地と温室で育つ植物や保存食によってより素晴らしいものになります。食材だけでなく、食器類を含めるすべての要素がこの海の時期に反映します。

春、地球が緑に染まる頃、メニューも同様に変化します。厨房はゆっくりと　植物王国の多様多彩な食材に合わせて再構築されていきます。料理は少量になり品数は増え 、 生の野菜と調理した野菜を織り交ぜて料理に流れを作り出します。５月、６月、７月、８月には野菜専門のレストランに生まれ変わります。この緑の季節には自分たちのコミュニティーに属する農家、山菜採りの専門家が活躍します。その一方で、 その新しいレストランは 都会の畑でたくさんの食材を収穫することができます。その場所には大規模な研究専門の厨房も設けます。まだ広くは知られていませんが、２年前に備えた発酵食品のための大きな設備は野菜を主とした食事を作る上で必要不可欠なものです。どうやったらステーキと同じくらい満足できる蒸したほうれん草が生み出せるのだろう？nomaの厨房とMADの研究所はただの人参でさえメニューの中で輝かせるのに十分な量の液体、そして新しい風味を蓄えることができました。

枯れ葉が木から落ちる頃、レストランの焦点は森へと移り変わります。まさにきのこ、ナッツ、ベリーそして狩猟肉の豊饒の角です。小鴨は2人前、ガチョウは６人前、ヘラジカの足は８人前で他の種はその中間ぐらいです。９月、１０月、１１月、１２月のメニューは濃縮し、多様な種類の狩猟肉が食事の主役になるでしょう。鳥獣の内臓、皮、首を含むすべての部位が丁寧に考えて調理され、その時期の土地のユニークな風味を本当の意味で反映させることができます。 これらの３つのはっきりとした季節とそれらの中にある無数の小さな季節が一年の流れを作り出します。

ここまでたどり着くまでたくさんの時間を費やしてきました。その間ずっとこの計画を練ってきました。よって２０１６年１２月末にnomaで最後の営業を迎えることを報告できることは大変嬉しいことです。

なぜなら、素晴らしい場所に移転して自分たちのコミュニティーを深め続け、この土地で料理人であり続ける意味を探求していけるからです。また、夢にまで見た新たな場所で料理と風味を発掘し続けていけるからです。街の畑がある場所。自分たちの食材を自給でき、挑み続けることができる場所へ。

僕たちは北欧という地域で料理をする意味をずっと探求し続けてきました。今、この１２年間の集大成となるレストランを始動することができます。

Dear waiter,

Thank you for being interested in joining the noma FOH team! For the past 13 years we have developed a very special style of service; a place where the FOH team, blends in with the kitchen staff. From the beginning, this was a new approach on how we wanted to be with our guests.

We want you to be professional, positive and curious about everything that goes on in our wonderful industry. We place a huge emphasis on togetherness; you hold enough confidence to help every person around you. You strive to make your teammates better than you – you ensure that newcomers do not fall into the mistakes that you have made. You also have the necessary poise to surrender yourself every day to the service of our guests.

Furthermore, you have a basic understanding of wine and beverages in general. You also know the basics about food – the rest we will teach you if you are eager enough. The perfect candidate has had a few years of experience, has been educated, speaks fluent English, and preferably one more language, and is at least 22 years old.

Furthermore, if you choose to apply to us, you will also participate in a few major upcoming projects. We are about to move noma to a new location. This means we will be opening a new restaurant together; with all the trials and tribulations that endeavour offers. In other words – it’s gonna get tough and it is expected that we all do everything necessary to have a fresh, smooth and exiting opening for our new home. There is also the possibility of extended traveling – we have been to Japan and we have been to Australia. We closed the entire restaurant and moved the full team for months. We will probably do this again and again. So – do you like to travel?

Other things you have to consider before coming, is that we are asking you to move to Denmark. You should be acquainted with our home before committing yourself. Sometimes the winter here can be long and brutal. It is a wonderful city and a wonderful cooking community: Where everyone in town knows each other and helps each other. This is just one of the great benefits of being in Copenhagen – being a part of this community. But always remember: Winter is coming.That being said, it is not that bad – we love winter! It is a time to reflect, learn and read books. The buzz in the restaurant scene in Copenhagen fully compensates that.

If you choose to apply here, don’t do so if you are only looking for a short-term adventure for a year or less. If you come here, it is because you know you want to be here for a while. This is important. Once you get here, you will understand that one year is not enough. We can promise you that it is going to be fun, you’ll learn a lot and you will be a part of what we consider to be one of the best teams on the planet: A team that constantly pushes, never being satisfied with what happened yesterday. You’ll have friends for the rest of your life.

Up for the challenge? Please email foh@noma.dk with your CV and letter of motivation. We look forward to hearing from you!

*You probably have to be EU citizen BUT if you are an incredible candidate we will of course do whatever we can to get a visa for you.