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Noma Chef René Redzepi is widely known for his work in developing what is now called
New Nordic cuisine — a way of cooking and eating focused on local seasonal ingredients,
traditional foods, and artisanal production.
We joined Chef Redzepi at Noma as the restaurant undergoes renovations.
Redzepi tells us about the changes to the kitchen and what's next for the restaurant and the industry.
[Chef René Redzepi] Because we changed something two years ago, which change our team radically,
and that's what we want to do here.
It's a different type of kitchen we're trying to achieve.
There's no real set rules, as in, you know.... There's not a [....] or "poisson" or....
You know, all the things that you grew up with yourself or that I grew up with as well.
You go through those classic kitchens, mostly because the ingredients that we work with....
It doesn't really make sense. It would make more sense to have, like, an herb section and a vegetable section....
Or a root section and a, you know, fruit section....
Because it's what we have a lot here, all the time, (except for the two three months in winter which are tough),
is a majority — vast majority — of ingredients that come from the plant kingdom.
And then through winter, it's exceptional in the fish and shellfish.
Exceptional.
The last ten years things have just exploded. Not as the diversity is the same, but the availability of it.
It's amazing. And these things have changed so much, it's a real joy to see it, you know. Be a part of it.
And then this is the "Mise en Place" kitchen — this is where where all the rough cuts are made.
Animal remains. Fish gets broke down.
Carrots are peeled. Moss is cleaned.
With do all these things.
So we change this two years ago, and.....
And then feeling we have in here from this kitchen — this is what we want to put downstairs.
So, stepping very much away from the traditional steel cage.
Never, you know, never really seen light and always working in steel. We're still just trying to step away from that.
And when we did this, this really changed our kitchen.
The old, um.... martyrship of being a cook is disappearing....
You cannot — we almost ruined our own trade by making it too tough, too hard, too macho.
There's no more left, you know?
People are entering our trade for the wrong reasons, and then they get so totally surprised when they work 85 hours and....
And, you know, and then they feel tired one day, and then they're out.... you know? It's....
You need to change this. That's what we want to achieve somehow — that we work a lot, there's no way around it....
In the trade, you're gonna work your ass off. And so do we.
But with a little less of the pressure, and a little less of the militaristic dictatorship that used to govern....
That I grew up, you know? It was totally common to see people being thrown around and....
I mean — burnt, and....
We've been like — I've been like this, you know?
But everybody says the same. It's getting more more difficult finding staff.
And this is one of the reasons I think —
That it's a business where you work so much for very little money,
then it needs to be very inspiring. It needs to be very cool, nice, be family. We need to be tight team.
So we're looking very much forward to that downstairs. I think this will....
I mean our cooking became so much better after this space was created.
People became more confident. More confidence, um.....
....Allows people to make more decisions.
When you make more decisions, when you're not afraid....
....of everything that you do, every little single thing — "is the pea good enough as yesterday?!"
."...I'm not gonna say anything, the chef is angry, he's gonna shout...."
You know? "Don't bother him, he's stressed."
It's just — it made everybody more confident. The intuition sharpened, it, it's.....
And that's cooking! You know? It's the cook that cooks the food that creates a magic — it's not the recipe!
To us, here, in this part of the world, it's so new, so unique...
Everybody's so happy for the new clients, that I hear, this new wave....
That if we don't embrace it and try to help each other, it will just...
....I think we will kill it.
This is building on the momentum. Not being selfish, you know?