He loves playing this to the hilt. Along
with the birch sap, he's very excited
about the restaurant's newest purchase.
"This year, we bought a car to go pickin'
herbs," he said, grinning. Three or four
times a week, Redzepi and crew drive out
of town and get in touch with their
products. "Fifteen minutes out of the
city, you have a forest [where they pick
their herbs] Copenhagen is like a big
village."
Plus, Redzepi said he has his staff
on the lookout, just in case. "If
they're out with their family and they
see a field of wild violets, they stop
and pick it."
On this night's seven-course tasting
menu he's got a dish called Onions From
Laeso in Different Textures that ought
to just be called ONIONS, YUM! YUM!
There are crisp rings, little rings, a
puree, some raw, some roasted, all
accented by grassy-green thyme oil and
little crisps of dried Jutland sausages.
Later, he serves up a dish of turbot
and bread pudding with, among other
things, watercress and crispy slices of
Jerusalem artichoke, which bring lots of
unexpected and earthy textures into a
seafood plate.
Though Redzepi's cooking certainly
has a touch of dainty froufrou that
borrows from French nouvelle cuisine,
there's an authenticity at the core of
it all and no chance you'll go home
hungry.
When you're not dining at noma,
Redzepi has a list of favorite spots in
town that are as eclectic as his tastes,
and they give a good cross section of
Copenhagen's food scene.
The first place he mentions is a
classic, Toldbod Bodega. With its
slightly funky twist on classic Danish
atmosphere (the hostess floats around
the floor in an outfit seemingly nicked
from the Danish version of "The Love
Boat"), the place seems custom-made for
the families and old friends who
congregate there.
For more avant-garde cuisine, Redzepi
recommends restaurant MR, in the center
of town.
"The chef is my best friend," he
said. "We've done everything together."
After working in noma's kitchen for
its first three months, Mads Reflund
split, opened MR, and has been receiving
a great deal of praise ever since. "It's
like El Bulli meets the north," Redzepi
said.
Though most visitors won't have much
use for a butcher, Redzepi also
recommends swinging past his favorite,
the century-old Slagteren ved Kultorvet.
It's worth stopping by just for a look
on a recent visit, a set of four
butchered pigs wearing the shop's
trademark bowler hats were lying in the
front window.
On mornings when he's not working,
Redzepi likes to chill out with brunch
at Cafe Europa. "Brunch has been our
generation's version of [the
traditional] platter," he said. "Europa
is by far the most expensive one in
town, but it's the best."
Inside, or out on its sprawling
terrace, Europa is one of the most
popular places in town to watch the
world go by while eating some good grub.
Across town, far from noma, is the
Norrebro Bryghus, the main starting
point for Copenhagen's revitalized beer
scene. Ready to make the jump from a big
brewery to his own in late 2001, owner
and master brewer Anders Kissmeyer was
inspired in part by the microbrew
revolution in the United States.
Historically, breweries seemed to be
on every important corner of Denmark's
cities and larger towns; many were
attached to nearby eateries by
underground pipes that carried the beer.
Slowly, however, almost all of them died
out, leaving the Danes with two main
choices: Carlsberg and Tuborg.
In charge of Carlsberg's
international production between 1985
and 2001, Kissmeyer made sure the
brand's beer tasted the same all over
the world. Running his brewhouse,
however, seems to be the job he was made
for, and many other brewers are
following his example.
"There's an explosion going on with
small breweries popping up like
mushrooms," Kissmeyer said. "Five or six
years ago, we had one of the fewest
breweries per capita, and now it's
coming back."
The market was ready for it.
"People tend to favor things that are
local and are small," he said. They
"feel more safe when they buy things
from a small producer."
With drive and enthusiasm like
Kissmeyer's, it's easy to understand
why. He works with his chef to prepare
food and beer tastings, using both his
own brews and those from neighboring
Nordic countries. Screwing up his face,
he plunges his nose into every glass he
drinks to savor the aromas and make sure
his beer is as good as he wants it to
be.
"We are a beer nation and [drinking
beer] is deeply embedded in our culture,
more so than with wine and coffee," he
said. "It's like a return to the
traditional brewhouse."
For Kissmeyer, it's also more than
that. Running the brewery "is a
once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I gave
up a very solid and good career."
Then he grins. "The jump wasn't that
hard."
Contact Joe Ray, a food and travel writer based in Paris, via his website,
www.joe-ray.com.
