Though Noma, the Copenhagen restaurant often called the best in the world, will close for regular service, its influence will live on through its imitators, the Times restaurant critic Pete Wells writes.
Noma's innovations included its methods of foraging and fermentation, its rustic hand-thrown pottery and its list of odd-smelling natural wines. "I don't think any restaurant came up with so many ideas that were shoplifted by so many other places in so many other cities so quickly," he writes.
Still, a long-awaited lunch at Noma convinced Peter that the copycats could never capture the original: "The restaurant that had inspired so many imitators was fluid, it was graceful, it was coherent."
It thus seemed only too appropriate to focus my Tuesday nostalgia on that restaurant. There is something about the intense pressure of being the best restaurant in the world that insures for an early end.
The first example was elBulli (many times spelled El Bulli) located in Roses, Spain, located around 100 miles north of Barcelona. Interesting to note that both chefs, René Redzepi of Noma and Ferran Adrià of El Bulli, began by washing dishes. Adrià :
- At age 18 cleaned kitchen pots to fund a summer of partying in Ibiza, later being drafted and becoming a cook in the military.
- Then in 1984 at the age of 22, he got his big break, a month of work experience at elBulli, already with two Michelin stars.
- Not a bad intern ordeal, for a year and a half later he became head chef!
- With British chef Heston Blumenthal of Fat Duck, they invented molecular gastronomy, such as culinary foam.
- The whole point of his cuisine is to contrast flavor, temperature and texture to provoke, surprise and delight.
- In 2002 elBulli was named #1 in the World's 50 Best Restaurants, and repeated this 5 times. Opened only six months of the year, from mid-June to mid-December.
- In 2010 the restaurant closed for good to become a creative center to foster innovation, and #1 became Redzepi's Noma.
- That same year, Adriá and José Andrés taught a culinary physics course at Harvard.
- Apparently, Adriá, now 60 years old, will open El Bulli 1846 this summer, overlooking the same Costa Brava cove of Cala Montjoi, 100 miles north of Barcelona.
I've never been to El Bulli and never met Adriá. However, I have twice dined at Noma. First in 2010.
Rene Redzepi was recently voted the best chef on the entire globe. Natural Nordic ingredients are used, almost all from Denmark. They even brew their own beer and wine. As such, no olive oil, no foie gras and not much salt, but a lot of vinegar. Note that the first really French restaurant on the top 50 list, Bras, came in at #7. Three of the best five are Spanish. That's Chef Rene to my left.
Only 32 years old, boyish and understated (I actually thought he was just another staffer when he served me the cheeks), mother Danish cleaner and father a Macedonian (Muslim) taxi driver, he just wandered into cooking school, but had the good fortune to work at The French Laundry (#12) in California and a three Michelin star restaurant in South France.
Returning home, he somehow was selected to open a restaurant in an old dock building, which was being made over for the diplomatic missions of Greenland, Iceland and Faroe Islands. The interior still looks like a warehouse. Note the decor in the next photo. The white color is salt.
I returned five years later in 2015, and reported that Noma had been the #1 restaurant in the world four of the past six years. I said:
There are two oracles of bestness in cuisine: Michelin (yes, a tire company) and Pellegrino (sells water). Michelin does not rank their restaurants, except for awarding 3, 2 and 1 stars. Thus, the source I tend to follow is San Pellegrino from Italy. In comparison, there are around 115 Michelin 3-Star restaurants (the latest are San Francisco's first: Benu and Saison) and the Best 50 of Pellegrino actually goes up to a Best 100. The World's 50 Best Restaurants is a list provided by Restaurant, a British magazine, where the more modern molecular gastronomy is favored. It is here that Chef Rene obtained fame.
To the right Rene with Jiro. Interestingly enough, Jiro has 3 Michelin stars, and Noma only 2, but Sukiyabashi Jiro is #44 among the Best 50 Asian Best Restaurantst, with Noma at #1. Of course, I've too taken that obligatory shot with Jiro, who personally served me.
Of course, that "next" was eight years ago. With all this wanderlust, it was inevitable for René to go by way of Adrià n and El Bulli. Here is a video of Redzepi's comments on creativity, leadership, purpose and people. Noma's doors will not close until late next year, so perhaps I might still be able to somehow get a table there when I next go to Europe. He too will open a food lab, for he has been quoted to say, to continue being Noma, we must change.
Noma representatives responded to the allegations in The New York Times and Financial Times reporting. A spokeswoman for Noma told The New York Times that all restaurant workers are expected to perform repetitive tasks, and that the experience of the intern who produced hundreds of beetles out of fruit and was told not to laugh “does not reflect our workplace or the experience we wish for our interns or anyone on our team.” A spokesperson also disputed the allegations in the Financial Times, saying that “for 20 years, our Noma interns have gained valuable experience and, for many, it has served as a great stepping stone in their career. Achieving a better balance for our team is one of our greatest challenges and something we continuously work to improve.”
People pay to go to college. Whether it be dining establishments or hospitals, interns suffer from long hours and meager earnings. In dining, only the best survive to do well...the same as life in general. Hopefully, it will have all been worth the agony.
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