Chef Ren̩ Redzepi РBehind the Success of Noma

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René Redzepi is popularly known for having revolutionized the Nordic cuisine and taking it to a whole new level but still maintaining its clean flavors.  His restaurant, Noma http://www.noma.dk/, which he co-owns and co-manages with Claus Meyer, has been named as the top restaurant in the globe for this year’s 2010 San Pellegrino Awards.  Noma is situated in Christianshavn, Copenhagen, Denmark, and he is a chef of this two-Michelin star restaurant.

Chef René Redzepi was born in Copenhagen on the 16th of December 1977.  His mother is Danish and his father is Albanian Macedonian, and they came to live in Denmark a yew fears before he was born.

His choice to pursue a career as a culinary chef was done at random.  He first had his training at the Pierre Andre, a new restaurant in Copenhagen which has just recently opened its doors to customers.

It was in 1998 that he first came to El Bulli, but only as a guest.  However, it was the next year that he started working for them as a chef, and he was with them for the 1999 season.  When he went back to Copenhagen, he became chef of Kong Hans Kælder, a restaurant that enjoyed a reputation as being the top gourmet restaurant of Copenhagen since the 1970s.  In between his stint with Kong Hans Kælder, he also became a chef of French Laundry, where he worked for them for four months.

In the late 2002, Claus Meyer got in touch with him.  Meyer got a contract to turn an 18th-century warehouse into a restaurant, and he thought of Chef René Redzepi, so it was in 2004 that Chef René Redzepi got his first big break when Noma was launched.  In Noma, Chef René Redzepi became the head chef.

Chef René Redzepi is the backbone of Noma.  He was the one who put Noma on the map and elevated the restaurant to a status envied by many restaurateurs by reinventing the Old Nordic cuisine into a New Nordic cuisine.  Staying true to its theme of serving authentic Nordic menus, Chef René Redzepi only makes use of local ingredients found in the area.  He prides himself on serving foods that came from the Nordic Region, so it will not be surprising to see seasonal foods in Noma’s menus.  Wintertime will give you dishes with carrots, while summertime will give you bulrushes or oyster mushrooms.

Three years after Noma first opened its doors to the public, it got into the World Restaurant Top 50 Restaurant magazine, landing on the 15th spot.  Come the next year, they got the 10th spot.  Aside from this prestigious award though, Chef René Redzepi also received recognition for pushing Noma to the top place of TripAdvisor’s best restaurant in the globe, as rated by its users.  In the same year, Chef René Redzepi received the International Chef of the Year award at a conference in Sebastian, Spain.  This award was given by the Lo Mejor de la Gastronomia.

The year 2008-2009 also gave him his two stars Michelin Guide and the third spot as the best restaurant in the world.  In 2010, Noma finally landed on the top spot.

When he first started out with Noma, he received a lot of criticisms from many of his colleagues, telling him that Nordic cuisine is French cuisine.  However, Chef René Redzepi wanted to showcase the authentic Nordic cuisine, and showcase it he did.  The proof of which can be seen in the success of Noma.  Today, Noma is enjoying thousands of customers daily, and you have to book a table months ahead to be able to sample their exquisite cuisine.

Chef René Redzepi’s Deep Blue Carrot and Sorrel Salad

Ingredients:

Carrots:

• 4 deep blue carrots
• 200g of goats butter
• aromatic herbs for sauteing, such as lemon thyme, chamomile, sage, marjoran and normal thyme
• Sea salt

Butter emulsion:

• 100g of water
• 200g of goats butter

Garnish:

• 40 big sorrel stems, leaves kept for juice
• 8 small sheep sorrel
• 8 red sorrel
• 8 daisy leaves
• 8 sprouge shoots
• 40 small hemlock shoots
• 40 small garden sorrel

Sorrel juice:

• 4 green apples
• sorrel scraps from making the stems
• 10g of grapeseed oil

1. For the carrot: Saute the carrots in a little oil. Turn down the heat and add the goats butter and herbs. Slow cook the carrots for approx 45 min. keep adding aromatic herbs and basting with the butter until they are cooked through. Cut them lengthwise in half’s and brush some of the butter on and season with salt.
2. For the butter emulsion: Cook the butter and water together and handblend it for a creamy emulsion.
3. For the garnish: Place the sorrel stems in a sieve and pour the hot butter emulsion over just before serving. All the different sorrel leaves and herbs are cleaned and refreshed in ice water. Spin off all water and keep in an airtight container.
4. For the sorrel juice: Blend the apples and sorrel scraps together for 1 min. strain through a fine sieve and split with the grapeseed oil. Keep it cold..
5. Serving: Put two pieces of carrot on a semi-deep plate. Start dressing with the in butter emulsion warmed up sorrel stems and continue with all tips of sorrel and herbs. Finish the dish with a good amount of warmed up sorrel juice on a plate

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