Eating at Noma

This afternoon I had the best meal of my life. Although it was delicious, what really made it the best was how innovative it was. I was fortunate to be able to have lunch at Noma, a Copenhagen restaurant that was ranked as the best restaurant in the world in 2010, 2011, and 2012. Since Noma became famous, I've heard many NPR interviews with René Redzepi, the head chef and read many articles about the groundbreaking culinary work at the restaurant. Noma (the name comes from the Danish words for Nordic and food) is known for pioneering "new Nordic cuisine," a style of cooking which embraces the nature and produce of the Nordic region as well as taking inspiration from molecular gastronomy.

The restaurant is small, it probably seats between 40 and 50 people, and they serve lunch and dinner five days a week. Because of its popularity and small size, it is difficult to get a reservation. However, they are egalitarian in getting reservations because they open up an online system once a month. In early March, when it was possible to make reservations for May, Juliana, Jared, and I were all online hitting refresh over and over until Juliana was able to get through and schedule my meal for today. The meal was my birthday present from my parents and I have been anticipating it since March.

I was immediately impressed by the service and continued to be throughout the whole meal. When I came in, they said, "You must be Elizabeth," and as I went to my table, all the staff greeted me warmly. Although I did have a waiter assigned to me, I was attended to by several waitstaff. In addition, each dish was brought out by a chef. The dishes all needed explaining and some had to be eaten in a certain way or were served with certain elements that were not edible. During the meal I really felt that everyone wanted me to have the best possible experience. Even though it was clear that I wouldn't be buying expensive bottles of wine, I still felt special and taken care of. Given that Danish restaurant service is generally very hands off, this was especially impressive.

The meal is a tasting menu. Although they asked at the beginning if I had any allergies or dislikes, I had no say over what I got and I could tell that although everyone was getting similar dishes we did not all eat identical meals. In total, I think I was served 28 things. Some of them were just one bite, but it was still a lot of dishes. My reservation was at noon and I didn't finish lunch until 4. I hadn't been planning on taking pictures, but I did take some with my iPad. I'm glad I did. There were so many dishes, it would be hard to remember them all otherwise and having the pictures makes me appreciate the creativity of the cooking all over again.

From the first dish I was served, I knew that it was going to be an unforgettable meal. It began with the Nordic coconut: a whole potato hollowed out and filled with a warm juice which you drank through a dill straw.

Following the Nordic Coconut, I was surprised when a chef came out and put a small bowl of crème fraîche on the table and then moved the vase of flowers in front of me and told me that was the next dish. In the center of the vase was a sort of cracker that was edible and was supposed to be dipped into the crème fraîche. (The brown thing sticking up right in the middle is the edible part).

Following this, I was served eleven other "snacks," small dishes that were often just one or two bites. During the snacks portion, I had tried several unusual things including mashed grasshoppers, vinegar powder, hay ash, moss, and elm seed pods (I should note that I was not vegetarian for this meal, although it was a very vegetable-centric meal). Noma is focused on using native Nordic ingredients in unusual ways. Here are a few of the highlights:

Following the snacks, there were a series of main dishes. One of the most beautiful was this one that looked like tiny lilly pads:

My favorite of the main dishes was a wild duck egg from Sweden. This was a dish that not everyone in the restaurant got. My waiter told me that they only get 6-8 of the eggs a day, so I felt special that I got to have the dish. They brought out a very hot cast iron plate on a bed of straw. Although all the dishes were aromatic, this one was interesting because there was a pleasant bonfire sort of smell that went with it.

When they brought out the hot plate, I broke the egg onto it. The egg had a really thick shell and it was hard to break. I got a few pieces of shell into the egg, but the chef serving it was prepared with a pair of tweezers ro remove the shell fragments. They set a timer. When the timer went off, they instructed me to take the butter on the spoon and melt it next to the cooking egg. Then, I cooked one pile of the herbs and greens in the butter. Once they had wilted, I was instructed to put the rest of the herbs on top as well as break up the potato spiral (visible in the upper lefthand corner of the first picture) on top of the eggs. The chef topped it off with some sauce and it was ready to eat. This dish was fun because it was interactive, but it was also delicious. I had never eaten a duck egg before and it was so rich and flavorful: see how orange the yolk is! Although the final dish here (egg with herbs) was not as unusual as some, it was an example of how simple but delicious ingredients (like an excellent egg), can shine.

Finally, it was time for dessert. In total, there were five different sweet things served. They weren't very traditional desserts, nor very sweet, but continued to be unusual, surprising and delicious: beet licorice anyone? For example, this was a potato and plum dessert. In the middle is a potato purée and on the left is a cream infused with plum pits, which gives it an almond-y flavor. On the right is a plum sauce. I would never have expected potato in a dessert, but it was so light and sweet and worked well with the sauce. 

At the end of the meal, I was offered a tour of the kitchens. This was amazing, in part to see how many people it took to produce this meal: 45 chefs and interns. There were three main kitchen areas: one where the last minute prep and plating is done, one for the pastries, and one upstairs where a lot of prep work is done. They also have a grill area outside where several of today's dishes were cooked. Because the chefs help serve the dishes, the kitchen operates somewhat differently from a normal restaurant kitchen where one chef typically does the same thing the whole time. Instead, they frequently rotate through roles. Getting to go behind the scenes was a final highlight of the meal.

I left feeling like I was walking on air. As you can see from the first pictures, it was a beautiful sunny day in Copenhagen, and I was elated on the bike ride home. I have been happy after many good meals before, but this was on a whole new scale. Eating at Noma was such an incredible experience. The food was innovative and used what might seem like constraints in order to fuel creativity. It really opened my eyes to new ways to look at food and ingredients. The meal brought me such joy and I've spent the rest of the day just savoring and remembering it. This was definitely a once in a lifetime experience and I'm so grateful that I could have it as a part of my Copenhagen adventure.