Noma, my take on the meal at the best restaurant in the world

Awarded the best restaurant in the world for 2010, Noma as a chef is not so much a restaurant to visit for a special event, but more a pilgrimage to worship at the temple of natural cuisine, at it's peak. And it's for this reason alone (and meeting Rene Redzepi last November) that I decided to do a stage there, here and now (January 2011). The stage itself will be subject to a separate post, a glimmer of this you will see over on www.thestaffcanteen.com shortly. This one is about a wonderful surprise I received from head chef Matt on the second day of my stage.

Working, it's much a normal day as I can gather from the one day I have been here previously, I was looking forward to the mornings prep, and more so to the promise I was given to work service on my section, instead of production upstairs, don't get me wrong, without production this eatery could not exist, but service is where it's at, the coal-face, the heat of battle (choose your own metaphor). After we had set up on section, we still had about a half an hour before our section would see any action, so I was sent upstairs for a short job, to await kick off, by this time, snacks was already taking off in a big way, one of the busiest sections in the kitchen by a mile. Anyway, 2 minutes into a lovely job of picking tarragon leaves, I felt a tap on my shoulder, looked around and Matt was gesturing me to one side, I thought this was my service call and called that my job would have to be taken over, once at the side, he asked as there was a table free would I like to make up a '2 top', now booking a table here is nigh on impossible, unless you have the day off on the 1st of the month, and the utmost patience on a telephone, and also can book 3 months in advance, with no real qualms about which service, which day, after all travel arrangements can be made afterwards, but here was a table handed to me on a plate (poor pun I know, I'm sorry) as I started writing this, I was still stuffed filled with amazing memories of one of the great meals of my life. The only regret is my dining companion couldn't be my beautiful wife. It was however one of the other stagier, Brian Skinner, who proved to be great enthusiastic company, and the taker of a majority of the photographs in this post, for which I thank you very much, great pictures chef.

Anyway, without further ado, the meal itself.

As mentioned before, snacks is where it begins. The menus are 7 course and 12 course. As we were probably not going to have the opportunity any time again soon, we both opted 12, again wouldn't want to walk away from the opportunity so rarely given.

Snacks came thick and fast

Branches

First was already on the table, malt crisps. Cheeky little number hidden amongst the branches of the table decoration, very light nice, just a little bit forgettable, not so the:-

Lichen

Crisp fried moss, cep powder. Wow, something so very simple, moss deep fried and dusted with a cep salt, one bite, bliss

Leathers

Next up came sea-buckthorn leather, pickled Rose petals great visually and a beautiful refreshing burst of acidity, cleaning the palate, leaving us wanting just one more, simplicity again, perfectly executed.

The snacks were building up on our table as we tried to keep up with the dish introductions, and taking pictures. But even in the face of this hardship, you will be glad to know we battled on.

Leeks

Next, perched on the edge of the table was 2 whole leeks, looking half cooked, I mean half! The root end was crisped up, the White looked blanched, and the top most definitely raw, this had been blanched, deep fried at the very root, and stuffed with a smoked garlic puree, a great bite, even if it was odd to see guests in a 2 Michelin star restaurant chow down on whole leek, very playful and perfectly executed.

Next came a battered old cake tin, I've better kept ones in my house with the kids forever in and out. Inside was 2 little purple discs, introduced as

Biscuits

Savoury biscuit, speck, pine shoot, blackcurrant, a wonderful light crisp biscuit, moist speck, dusted with an intense blackcurrant powder and topped with tiny pine shoots, crisp, fresh, sharp. Wonderful bite again.

Sandwich

Chicken skin, rye bread, smoked cheese, lumpfish roe.

A play on a smorrebrod, traditional Danish open sandwich. Served upside down, with the crisp chicken skin on the bottom.

Smoked quail egg

The softest, most perfectly cooked quail egg, looked like it was strongly smoked, but the flavour was very delicate, yet lingered on the palate for just the right amount of time. Just glad I was never asked to peel these during my working time there.

Radishes in a pot

Pretty much a signature dish now, loads of fun and felt like a kid pulling the vegetable out of the 'dirt' the aerated herb yogurt adding to the depth of flavour, the crisp fresh radish not too strong, simple. And the best soil I have ever tasted, we make a few different soils at work for this and that, but this felt in the mouth like when I came off my bicycle as a child, crunchy, dry, but obviously with a deep flavour of malt. Just great.

Herb toast

Extremely light undulating toast, dotted innumerable times with a deep smoked cods roe emulsion, filled to capacity with an array of crisp fresh herbs, topped with (amazingly) the skin from duck stock, a lovely savoury topping to the best snack served. They were all amazing but this stood that little bit higher.

AEbleskiver

Traditionally a sweet item, a light bun with apple and powdered sugar, this one was a savoury version, very light centred with pickled cucumber and studded with anchovy. Not to my taste, the bun was superbly executed, the cucumber a refreshing respite from the dough, but the fish. Not needed, they look funky but the taste, even for my outlandish palate, was an ingredient too far. Not that it impeded on my meal in any way, just not the best from an array of brilliance.

This, amazingly was the end of the amuses, generally the free little extras given by the chef to whet the appetite, and to also buy time for the kitchen to prepare the rest of the menu, we had been sitting a good hour and worked our way through 10 dishes already! Now our appetites well and truly rearing to go.

Bread service, goat butter, pork fat

Sourdough was amazing, served with a goats butter, and a rendered pork fat with crackling.

Appetiser:-

Leek and apple

A very playful beginning, the leeks and the apple prepared so you have to look closely to tell which is which. The leeks cooked nice and soft, the apple raw and crisp, interspersed with the two gels, and each spire topped with the smallest, strongest flavoured thing I have ever tasted, the kelp crisp, fantastic, easy to make, added wonders to this already great dish.

Dried scallop, grains, rocket, beech nuts, squid ink sauce

DON'T GET ME STARTED on beech nuts, you will have to wait a little for my stagier post to find out why, anyway back on point, dehydrated scallop, 4 biodynamic grains in a rocket emulsion, toasted beech nuts, squid ink sauce (beech nuts were lovely and stood out on the plate BTW)

Hugely intense flavours from the scallop, lightened by the accompaniments, harmony in 4 bites.

Chestnut, walnut, mustard cress, bleak-fish sauce

How do they do that, very in sliced raw chestnuts, standing on end (I know how, had to build a few, great effect for the guest, card building for the chefs), chopped walnuts, mini mustard cress is brought to the table, one of the chefs then sauces tableside, a rich beurre blanc with the roe of bleak fish, rich & fresh, outstanding dish. Brian, my dining companion, made a great comment that tackling this dish felt like kicking over sandcastles as children.

Langoustine, oyster emulsion, sol seasoning

next is delivered a huge, warm rock. The payfulness of the presentation here adds greatly to the theatre of it all. Perched on this is a single plump langostine, fried on one side and just shown the pan on the other. proper finger food as we dragged the perfectly cooked (partly due to the residual heat in the rock) langostine through a wonderful oyster and parsley emulsion, seasoned with a seaweed powder.

Oyster in a pot, beach herbs, tapioca, cream

As we lifted the lids, memories of clean beaches as children rushed back, the seawater and rocks, with a few interspersed shells heightening the sensation, in the main shell a lightly cooked oyster, the biggest I have ever seen, cut into 4 segments for ease of eating, coated with a variety of herbs, some tapioca and a hint of cream. Yet another success in a wonderful journey.

cauliflower, pine, horseradish

Quite simply the star of the show, having seen this prepared at the book launch, had been longing to try this one, and it most certainly didn't dissapoint, caramelized cauliflower with a pine salt, sauce of whey and pine oil. Amazing and the best yet.

Celery root, roast in goat butter, black truffle, sorrel

wedge of tiny celeriac bulb, confit then roasted in goats butter, with a hugely rich truffle emulsion, as it sounds this is one of few 'hearty dishes' the sorrell cutting through the richness of the rest of the plate nicely.

Pickled vegetables, bone marrow, roast pork sauce

This is the dish my wife is most envious of from the whole menu, and with good reason. again a play on tradition, where in Denmark would be normal to have roast pork with pickled vegetables, here the vegetables take centre stage. & vegetables in 7 different pickles, bone marrow and a pork sauce, my nly comment on this whilst it was very lovely, don't get me wrong. When eating the dish as a whole, it is nigh on impossible to distinguish the varying pickles. when rolling them (my job for the week) you can easily, however the guest perspective here, I couldn't. so prep for preps sake?

Reindeer Tongue, apple, lemon thyme

Slow cooked sous-vide for 12 or 24 hours, depending on the weight of the tongue, served with a rich reindeer stock, lemon theym, and every bit of the apple. wedges cooked in goat butter, pickled apples, powdered skin (cloying in the mouth) and the seeds, but not so. A malt pasta dough, cut into apple seed shapes and lightly fried to mimick crispy seeds, a real manly dish to finish off the savoury elements of our meal.

Dessert 1

Grilled pear, pine parfait, pear and thyme oil sauce

Sweet warm pear, grilled to order on the outside BBQ, paper thin slice of fresh pear to mask the presentation with a full coating of flowers and leaves, the sauce is an unctious syrup of pear, split with an intense thyme oil, and the showpiece on the plate the pear parfat, the smallest amount of parfait mix in a vacuum box, cold boiled in a chamber vacuum machine and frozen, intense fragrance and flavour of a walk in the forest, this dish works on every level.

Dessert 2

Bitters

Ok stop the press, knew this was going too well, and before I damn this dish I want to point out that its quite a good dish, just in the wrong place on the menu IMO, had this come before the pear I would understand the transition from savoury world to sweet world, but between the 2 true dessert dishes, no, not for me.

Milk ice cream nice and soft, sandwiched in a crisp frozen (liquid nitrogen?) whey ice, surrounded with a sorrel jus. technically excellent. before dessert fine. where I received it, sorry no.

Dessert 3

Ollenbrod, skyr ice cream, warm milk espuma.

wow, what an end, the perfect pudding wish the portion was 10 times bigger, because even though I was stuffed silly by this point, I could have kept eating this all week.

A rye porridge soaked in ale, served warm, under a milk foam with the chill of the icelandic yogurt ice cream, as I said "WOW"

petits fours

after 4 and a half hours, we moved to the lounge for coffee, we were presented with the petit fours

Smoked bone marrow caramel

a slow release toffee, the smokiness renewed on every movement in the mouth, a standout petit four

Chocolate coated meringues

As in his book, was only surprised at the size of them, massive, flavourful, a dessert in themselves

Choc and fennel coated chocolate chips

Potato chips, dipped in chocolate with fennel seeds, simple tasty and a good end to a great meal.

I struggled my way back to the apartment, thankful of being given the rest of the day off, amazed by what I had been given to eat, amazed at the seamlessness of the service, the attentiveness of not only the front of house but the chefs who would top up our water whilst walking past, one very well oiled machine.

The rest of my week can be glimpsed over on Staff Canteen and a fuller version will appear on here in a week or so.

Now the question, is it the best restaurant in the world, having seen both sides of the operation as stagier and guest my answer is, err.. dunno.

This is not because I feel it isn't, its because I do not know enough of the others on the list, but I can honestly say it does deserve that recognition, is an essential part of that list, and would be surprised to see it merely retain it's 2 star status in the michelin this March.

My thanks for this experience begin with Rene Redzepi, who whilst absent during my time on a well earned break, I beleive, runs a very tight ship and ensures all stagiers are welcomed into the fold and as guests are excellently welcomed by both the kitchen and Restaurant teams. My thanks to Matt Orlando (Head chef), and Sam Miller (sous chef) for ensuring my lunch service went as smoothly as the ones we worked, especially to Matt who made the available table mine. Also at this point, to the guests who were booked for my table and couldn't make it. my eternal gratitude.

To the whole team of chefs and stagier, for making the most mundane tasks fun due to great company.

For my club owner, for helping me go, by giving me the use of one of his apartments in Copenhagen, close to Noma, much needed was the short walk each day after work.

And finally to my wife Sally, for picking up the slack at home to allow me the time to get this out of my system, without your support I am nothing, I love you. please follow her on twitter @lallypo, not much to say, but when she has its great and will make you laugh.