noma Kyoto

noma, the three-Michelin-star restaurant run by chef René Redzepi (previously here), has been doing pop-ups at locations around the globe for some time now and their latest adventure is in Kyoto, Japan. noma Kyoto is located at the Ace Hotel which describes the experience:

The noma residency will run four days a week — Wednesday through Saturday — from Wednesday March 15th through Saturday May 20th — a 10 week run. There will be two seatings available every day — one lunch seating, and one dinner seating.

The noma Kyoto menu will cost €475 EUR per person with accompanying beverage pairing of €300 EUR per person, choice of alcoholic or non-alcoholic pairing.

The Ace Hotel Kyoto room package is an accommodation package that comes with a minimum 2 night stay in a Deluxe King room, as well as access to book 2 seats at the noma residency. All seats booked via the Ace Hotel Kyoto room package will be seated at communal tables. The communal tables seat up to 12 guests.

The multi-course tasting menu will take inspiration from noma and Rene Redzepi’s extensive travel in the Kyoto region and its neighboring areas, as well as the restaurant’s decade-long relationship with Japanese cooking and cuisine, combined with the innovation and creativity so unique to noma.

The interiors were done by OEO Studio who worked with some of the best local artisans specializing in ceramics, tatami, textiles, bamboo, and wood to express a concept that blends the Scandinavian roots of noma with the craftsmanship and materials of the Kyoto area. The beautiful results include artistic bamboo ceiling installations, pendants made of compressed seaweed, and a recreation of an underwater kelp forest hanging above guests.

It seems as of this writing, there are a very few limited number of seats still available. Check the Ace Hotel noma site for more info.
https://acehotel.com/noma/
https://noma.dk/kyoto/
https://www.oeo.dk/

The New noma

The phenomenal Dutch restaurant noma (previously here and here) has reopened after moving to a new location. In 2003, head chef and founder René Redzepi opened noma in a dockside location in central Copenhagen and the restaurant went on to earn two Michelin stars as well as the coveted number one position on the "50 Best Restaurants In The World" list not once or twice but a staggering FOUR times. And after nearly fifteen years in that dockside location, noma moved about a mile away to a new location earlier this year.

Original to this new site is a long concrete building that was a sea mine depot (Søminedepotet) built at the start of the 20th century. Today, the structure, along with the Fortifications of Copenhagen, is a protected national landmark and noma was allowed to add only where there had been original structures that were demolished. So Bjarke Ingels Group, the architects for noma, renovated the long concrete building and created a collection of additional buildings based on the Nordic sæter, a farm or plot of land with a cluster of individual buildings with individual functions.

A total of 11 spaces are densely clustered around the kitchen in the old Søminedepotet, which oversees the guest areas, including the main and private dining rooms. These buildings are connected by glass walls which let in natural light, connecting diners to nature and the seasons, something integral to the dining experience at noma and Chef Redzepi's philosophy. And the beautiful, typically understated Nordic interiors were designed by Studio David Thulstrup.

Along with the new location, Chef Redzepi has adopted a thrilling seasonal menu. However, this is no ordinary seasonal menu. Instead of the traditional four seasons we usually identify, he and his team have identified THREE distinct Nordic seasons, which still supports the regional food idea...only more refined. Redzepi elaborates that the first season is Winter in January, February, March, and April when the ground is frozen. The kitchen will turn to the ocean to present a condensed menu of sea proteins supported by a generous winter larder and whatever hardy plants survive the frost.

Spring rolls in around May through a bit of September (with admitted micro-seasons) and the restaurant will feature a vegetarian menu, showcasing the glorious bounty of the earth. The menu will expand and although each course will be smaller, there will be much more of them.

And finally, Redzepi considers Autumn to span September through December and the source of food will be the Scandinavian forest with its riches of mushrooms, berries, nuts, and wild game. Again, the menu will condense and feature fewer but richer flavors.

What I find most exciting though, and this is the designer in me talking, is that Redzepi has said not only will the food change with each season, but the cutlery, plateware, and table settings will reflect the mood and sense of each season as well! What a gorgeous idea...one that I practice in my own life and design.

http://noma.dk/
https://big.dk/
https://studiodavidthulstrup.com/

noma Is Moving!

noma, the phenomenal Danish restaurant that captured the number one position on the coveted "50 Best Restaurants In The World" list not once or twice but a staggering FOUR times (previously here), has BIG plans for the coming year. Founder and head chef René Redzepi is going to be shuttering the old dockside location in central Copenhagen--the final service is New Year's Eve 2016--and will reopen noma in 2017 at a new location in the Christiania neighborhood. The plan is for a restaurant with an urban farm: a greenhouse is to go on top of the new space, and Redzepi has said that part of the farm will "float" on a nearby waterway.

But the true--and truly exciting--changes are coming with the concept of the menu itself. In the marvelously inspiring film seen below, Redzepi outlines a new approach for noma. The idea is to shift away from a static menu that features the ingredients of the region. Redzepi says he realizes that "distilling our landscape onto plates of food is a very complex task." His instinct all along has been to "sculpt cuisine," and true food imagination and creativity comes from that approach.

But with that in mind, noma is now adopting a thrilling seasonal menu. However, this is no ordinary seasonal menu. Instead of the traditional four seasons we usually identify, he and his team have identified THREE distinct Nordic seasons, which still supports the regional food idea...only more refined. Redzepi elaborates that the first season is Winter in January, February, March, and April when the ground is frozen. The kitchen will turn to the ocean to present a condensed menu of sea proteins supported by a generous winter larder and whatever hardy plants survive the frost.

Spring rolls in around May through a bit of September (with admitted micro-seasons) and the restaurant will feature a vegetarian menu, showcasing the glorious bounty of the earth. The menu will expand and although each course will be smaller, there will be much more of them.

And finally, Redzepi considers Autumn to span September through December and the source of food will be the Scandinavian forest with its riches of mushrooms, berries, nuts, and wild game. Again, the menu will condense and feature fewer but richer flavors.

What I find most exciting though, and this is the designer in me talking, is that Redzepi has said not only will the food change with each season, but the cutlery, plateware, and table settings will reflect the mood and sense of each season as well! What a gorgeous idea...one that I practice in my own life and design. Please watch the beautiful video below for sublime inspiration.

If you are in--or are going to be in--Copenhagen, try to snag a seating at noma for their last year in their original historic location. And if you can't get there in 2016, there will be a spectacular new noma in 2017! From Redzepi's description, I bet they are going to take first place once again on the 50 Best list!

http://noma.dk/

noma

The annual World's 50 Best Restaurants list was just released. Sponsored by S. Pellegrino and Aqua Panna and organized by Restaurant magazine, the restaurants are chosen by The World's 50 Best Restaurants Academy, comprised of 837 members who are culinary experts! According to their website, they divide the globe into twenty-seven areas. Each of these areas has a chairperson who picks a voting panel of thirty members.

And for the third year in a row, the top honor of The Best Restaurant In The World goes to René Redzepi's restaurant noma (yes, it begins with a lower case "n") in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Redzepi's approach and philosophy are beautifully summed up in noma's mission statement on their website:
"At noma, we wish to offer our personal rendition of Nordic gourmet cuisine with an innovative gastronomic take on traditional cooking methods, fine Nordic produce and the legacy of our shared food heritage. Moreover, we regard it as a personal challenge to help bring about a revival of Nordic cuisine and let its distinctive flavours and particular regional character brighten up the world.

noma is not about olive oil, foie gras, sun-dried tomatoes and black olives. On the contrary, we’ve been busy exploring the Nordic regions discovering outstanding foods and bringing them back to Denmark: Icelandic skyr curd, halibut, Greenland musk ox, berries and water. In much the same fashion, we continue to look out for new sources of inspiration in Denmark – and in the rest of the Nordic countries as well – to ensure reliable sources of top-quality produce. This goes for very costly ingredients but also for more disregarded, modest ingredients such as grains and pulses, which you’ll taste here in new and unexpected contexts.

Above all, we want to be thorough in all that we do. We pay careful attention to the qualities of our culinary heritage, but we also aim to create something brand new. We want to explore the potential of milk and cream in modern cuisine and develop new takes on well-known and less well known types of cereal grains. We comb the countryside for berries and herbs that others would not bother with and work with foods that aren’t part of any system of formalised cultivation and consequently cannot be obtained through ordinary channels of distribution."

Above: a dish of glazed reindeer tongue and topaz apple.

Above: dried scallops and grains mix with watercress and seaweed.

This interest in foraging for truly local ingredients makes for a fantastic, stunning meal full of unusual tastes. Currently, noma's website lists a sample 20-serving menu:

Appetizers

Celeriac and unripe sloe berry
Gooseberry and douglas-fir

Brown crab and coral
Egg yolk and herbs

Dried scallops and beech nuts
Biodynamic grains and watercress

Limfjords oyster and air onion
Unripe plums and buttermilk

Cauliflower and pine

Pike perch and cabbages
Verbena and dill

Pickled vegetables and bone marrow
Browned butter and parsley

Roasted turbot and bitter greens
Celeriac and mushroom

Pear tree!

Brown cheese and sloe berries

Sweet

http://www.noma.dk/
http://www.theworlds50best.com/