NOMA - A Stagier view of the worlds best restaurant, part one

Having never spent more than a day away from my family in many years, saying good bye to my kids and my wife and mum to be of number 5 was a horrendous wrench, I had set this up in November not really thinking the ramifications through fully as to the impact of this trip on my family, but Sally is the strongest woman I know and the kids are inherently good natured, and under severe instructions to help mummy so hopefully the rest of the week will be manageable for them, as for myself, whilst the wrench is a horrible feeling, by tomorrow I will not have time to think of anything other that what I have been instructed to do.

I have seen a blog, and our own pastry chef, 'G' who has done a week already, have regaled me with the prep that can be given, pine needles (not too bad) veal threads or fibres (extremely bad) but truth is, the restaurant is a constantly evolving one, all I know is that a sizeable force of both paid and unpaid spends hour upon hour painstakingly preparing for each service, each job a mission for small teams of chefs to ensure the chefs in service have all the perfect prep they need, when they need it, how painstakingly I was yet to find out.




The walk each morning was brisk to say the least, running water frozen and the breeze cutting across Knippelsbro bridge froze me to my core, painful on day one, but the rest of the week was essential to ensuring I arrive to work awake. A swift left turn and through a small industrial area and Noma sat at the end, I walked around a while wondering where the heck to get in, finally see a door where a chef was working in the instantly distinguishable brown apron, with a few butterflies in my stomach approached the cook, who very politely broke away from his work to tell and guide me to where I would get changed. Whilst getting changed I met my chef de partie, Oliver who had been briefed on who I was and where I was from previously, he showed me to my first (an consequently my most worked on task for the week) the pickles prep.

After a short while of about 15 pickles, I was taken for a show round of the working areas by head chef Matt Orlando, the kitchen is spilt over 2 floors.



Downstairs, the main service kitchens, section 1, is the cold section, and where I spent my week. They do a considerable amount of cooking on the cold section, however a lot of what this section does is about assembly, and they have a (small) amount more space than the other areas, just adjacent is section 2, responsible for all the cooked items, from cauliflower to reindeer tongue. Behind these two sections is a door through to the potwash, where their 1(YES ONE) kitchen porter Alieu works, although he doesn't get in till 11am, so a large majority of what you need, you wash it yourself, but I digress. Alongside here is a corridor through to the pastry section and the walk in fridge, however the corridor contains probably the busiest sections, snacks, from here, chefs work shoulder to shoulder throwing out the 1st ten or eleven plates you receive, madness ensues from this section, but sets the tone for the meal, containing a large amount of Noma signatures, such as the radishes in a pot, complete with the perfect malt 'soil', perfectly cooked, impossibly peeled, delicately smoked quails egg. The chicken skin smorrebrod. Quite amazing, what is also amazing is how the hell to get through the corridor when snacks are in full swing.

Through from the snacks section in the pastry section, quite a decent size, but again as the appetiser is plated up here and a further 4 chefs are needed to keep the section running, it feels cramped as Rosie and her team buzz around all day long. At the end of the section is the main walk in coldroom for downstairs, which is used by all sections, hence my comment on trying to get through snacks every time you needed to get something from there, ie chestnuts, which I will explain a little later on.

This concludes downstairs, well not quite, outside through a door accessible only through snacks (again) there are a number of storage sheds, which contain veg (when it's not freezing, so not now) to cleaning utensils (different shed, so don't worry) to a small BBQ area, I mean small, like one of the small drum ones you see in a DIY store, where the pastry cook the grilled pear for the pear and pine dessert. Then we enter through the furthest door and travel on upstairs, to where I spent a majority of my time.





First thing you see upon climbing the stairway is a nicely carpeted area, with bookcases adorning the furthest wall, including a sizeable collection of great cookbooks. To the right is the 'staffroom' a private dining area for up to 15 guests, tastefully and minimally adorned, a very lovely room, to the left through 2 huge glass doors was the main production kitchen (pictured), through here also just off to one side is the AM kitchen, the AM shift starting at 6AM to start things going, from collecting provisions from the main store, to getting stocks and sauces on, they in turn for the ungodly start time, were out by 8pm when I was there, although this can run later during busy periods. In this kitchen was the only stove and ovens for upstairs, and the chef de parties job was to allocate time for the other chefs to be able to do their cooking, and art in itself, they were also responsible for staff feeding, something again I will come to later. Beyond the production kitchen is a massive beamed room, multi purpose as staff would eat here, meetings would take place and overflow preparation would occur here also, Victor the produce sous chef kept the veg and herbs in here as it was still too cold when I was there, Matt the head chef also had his desk in here, although I can't say it was used much as it's very much a hands on kitchen, all the time.

Ok filled up quite a lot of space with that, so am going to leave it here as my iPad software really isn't happy with me going on and on, and I hope this is not the case with you, so to make this a little more manageable will post another in a few days, a little more bite size shall we say.




Next I will run through some of the work and the structure of the day telling the ups and downs of the worlds best restaurant, thanks for reading, and if anyone wishes to comment, please do either here, or tweet me on www.twitter.com/esenses

Laters.

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.

A little more of the menu

Not a huge amount of time on my hands, kids birthdays to sort, life, packing for Noma next week. It's all go, and January was supposed to be quiet, ah well, never a dull day I guess.

Gareth has returned from his week at Noma, impressed by what he saw, but gobsmacked with how labour intensive running the 'best restaurant in the world' is, all the paid chefs, and some 20+ stagieres, he has retailed me with tales of pine needle prep, and his scariest job, veal threads!!! No I had no idea what he was on about either...

They were given the veal, an had to deconstruct it, thread by thread, each one no larger than a hairs breadth, hmmmm don't know whether I am looking forward to it as much now, jus' kidding. I will leave the rest of his telling to his post, which I am sure he will put up as soon as he has caught up on some sleep.

Anyway, a couple more dishes for you, got to go, need to find my travel plugs, now where are they?





Clockwise from top left
Fennel, Seville orange, almond
Olive roasted monkfish, spring onion, kale
Crisp oxtail, smoked eel, artichoke and cauliflower


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad wherever I may be at the time

DUCK!

Just wanted to share this, will be a few more along soon.





Duck confit, pommes sarladaise, endive, duck egg.

Simple, tasty, compact.

Bit like this post really.

Back soon

Location:Duck confit, new year dishes

New year, new dishes, new tech, new doodles

1st week back at work.............Done!

Now we are unpacked, stale culinary cobwebs dusted away, mojo found and put in a safe place, resolution to keep a better eye on it. Ideas scribbled on every available piece of paper, new menu written and mis en place begun.

As I was compiling thoughts for our new menu starting next week I thought it was time to get my little felt pens out and start the KP nightmare of colouring in plates as I started by seeing if the elements would fit into the dish.

Then I thought where my pens might be I stumbled across a great little app for the pad, a simple one allowing me to sketch dishes and doodles with a huge array of features for the princely sum of £1.79 (sketchbook pro), Almost the only complaint I have with it is it doesn't make me draw any better, a huge downside for a non pencil artistic person such as myself, but hey let's give it a go anyway, so ideas a plenty and learning as I go I came up with the following sketch which then translated into the dish below it.

I am very content with the fact that It can help me visualise dishes but labour wise, don't think it will see the death of the pen on plate, sorry to my KP's simply because if I am trying to get an idea of what a plate of food is going to look like on the train then the pad is the way forward, but usually it's in the kitchen, not enough time at my disposal, and a quick throw down just to see if it remotely works will do.

Either way, this is a huge amount of fun nonetheless.








Crisp lemon sole, herb tagliatelle, pickled vegetables, sauce soubise, onion glass

sloe gin - it's not always about food you know

In August, whilst on holiday in Cornwall, my family and I spent a damp miserable afternoon wandering the countryside harvesting some wonderful sloe berries. On our return I set to work with a little sugar and a bottle of gin.

The recipe I had asked for the sloes to be patiently pricked to release their juices during the soaking process, sorry this seems far too much like hard work for my liking so set to thinking of an alternative (lazy) way of achieving the same result, so I thought - freeze!! the water in the berry should expand and break the skin, so I set to lobbing a bag of berries in the freezer and doing nothing for a couple of days, when I took them out of the freezer I was amazed!!! Absolutely no damage to the berry at all, bother!

Still not having too much time on my hands, and even less inclination to spend the time pricking little holes in a never ending supply of sloes, I allowed them to defrost, the fruits felt very much softer and decided to gamble that it would be enough, I mixed my sugar and gin, put my sloes in an old sterilised martini bottle and poured the liquid on, 1st week in September religiously, weekly I shook the bottle, allowing myself the occasional peek (was a Rossi bottle so coloured anyway) and by mid November started to get concerned at the lack of colour.

About this time my wife developed pneumonia, and life got a little hectic, with 4 kids needing sorting, work that was getting busier week by week and Christmas preparations increasing, it felt, by the moment.

I had originally hoped for it as an aperitif for Xmas day itself, but since the aforementioned time, forgotten and neglected it has sat in my cupboard since, until today when I was rooting for something completely different, there it sat patiently waiting for some attention, I got it out, not without a small sense of trepidation, I might add. And thankfully upon pouring found the light Rose colour shown in the photo above. With great depth of flavour, lucky me.

I am sure that had I pricked them then the colour would have been richer, but hey, it's as lovely as i ever remember it and happy to see the new year in with a glass or 3. So my toast to you all again, Happy new year.

2010 last thoughts, looking forward by learning from our past

Starting now to wonder what the next year will bring, also thinking why do I only truly reflect at the turn of a year.

I tend to think about what has been achieved personally and professionally about this time each year and think ahead to what I hope to achieve again next year, but why now? After all it's only the changing of days, no real significance to the new year as a bookmark in my life or anything.

So I think next year will become the beginning of a era of constant strive and reflection, taking what I most recently learned and implementing the improvements there and then. We do this generally anyway, but more skin to the reflective thought process that is occurring now and not the quick absent thoughts it can receive the rest of the 362 ish days that the process normally gets.

I will begin, unsurprisingly, with looking closer to the land for inspiration, foraging more and getting the family involved (good excuse for a nice Sunday walk) trying to recall the names and uses for the many varieties of green that we absently pass each and every day, and taking this back into the kitchen and utilising natures bounty as and when the whim takes me.

The start of this education will of course begin at Noma at the end of January, but also hope to get some time in kent eventually with forager Miles Irving, who's company I hope to start working with in january.

I don't intend to leave the other ideas gathering dust, I will not be able to turn my workplace into a 23 course foraged heaven, my customers simply wouldn't understand, and I personally like great garnishing to accompany the meat and fish I very much love to cook. I hope to achieve a greater balance of dishes from all the avenues I have at my disposal.

And now with more portable, quicker technology at my disposal, aim to increase the post count exponentially without simply diluting the content, so that there will be greater reason to frequent.





Wishing all of you a very prosperous new year

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad from wherever I may be at the time

A little thought out to chefs at christmastime

Just thought I would use a quick opportunity to try my new Xmas gadget out and the downloaded apps I've extensively researched (at least 10 minutes) to help me with future food photography on the go with my iPad.

That's the idea anyway but the reality I guess will be a new learning curve and a good few co..... Sorry mean errors, but I know a lot of you are chefs who read this and completely understand, anyone else reading this, welcome to our world. It's a world that maybe should not be entered without trepidation, not that I wish to worry anyone, but any non-chef who has stumbled upon the chef website www.thestaffcanteen.com or has tried following the more hardcore chefs on twitter must have thought that the banter between us can appear somewhat intimidating to the non believer, not that I am going to bother explaining it here just thought I would make the difference clear.

Anyway as so many of my colleagues who work in hotels and venues that I have worked in, in the past are still toiling through this season, I sit here in the warm comfort of my lounge surrounded by family some chilling, some playing and at the moment some, not without too much excruciating pain, attempting our new family karaoke machine, ah well some gifts are destined to the 'regret I bought them' pile.

I have not worked a Christmas in 10 years, not a new year now in 2 years, and I count myself lucky for the job I hold. We closed on the 23rd and return open on the 4th of january, time in this industry where I our have never dreamed off such a holiday from my humble beginning in 1990.

I just want to acknowledge the chefs who's christmas, boxing and new years days are just another bloody day. Only difference is sod all is open but you. I have heard resounding echos of bah humbug from working chefs. Now whist they come across as complete grinches without an ounce of seasonal love in their bodies, whilst I'm tweeting of my xmas luck and joy, I just want you guys to know, I haven't forgotten the 'joy' of Xmas bloody turkey, smoked salmon plates galore, and trying not to cock up and curdle the brandy sauce, thinking of ya guys, hope you have a decent break sometime soon. Especially out to ex colleagues who I worked with at the following:





One Aldwych
Richmond arms at goodwood
Wentworth golf club
Berystede in ascot

Glad to now not be in the seasonal firing line, Glad to be working at the club I'm at now.




Here's to many more christmasses not at work next post (worth reading) will probably be from G when he returns from his stage at Noma. Looking forward to it myself, will have a little to scribble about when I go there at the end of the month.



Noma inspired: slow roast cauliflower with goat butter and spruce fir. Ridiculously simple, outrageously delicious

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Noma, book launch and a few canapes

About 2 weeks ago, quietly strolled into work after a couple of very nice, restful days off, put the coffee on and started to get my head in the game.

Shortly after, my GM walked in with a cheeky grin on his face, knowing this usually meant an oddball request from my Danish owner asked ‘what’s up?’, the answer I got I was not ready for.

He asked if I knew of the upcoming Rene Redzepi book launch at Freemasons hall, which I did, (I had decided not to go along due to usual work/family commitments, and due to the fact of me already owning his book, much cheaper on Amazon than ticket price, truth be told), he then asked if I would like to cater for it….

‘What???!!!”, there must be a good 600 tickets sold I thought, “are you mental”, I was told closer on 800, feeling a little faint now, thought a big fat ‘NO’, knowing the audience would be the cream of the crop of foodies/chefs in the UK, not that it bothers me cooking for any of these guys, but outside catering for that number, those people, if cocked up could keep my cooking well and truly ‘under the radar’ for the rest of my career.

“calm down, its only for 80-100 of them, guests invited by Visit Denmark”, a slight calm came over me, but still quite a daunting prospect as Rene was one of the invited guests. My mind was still saying ‘don’t do it’.

The brief was to canapé up, traditional Danish dishes, and as my club is home to the Danish Club of London, began to think about the flavours and combinations we could offer them, after all for a Welsh boy in London doing a VIP canapé party for the Danish ambassador, Rene and guests, still very daunting. I thought I would consult my Danish chef and see what her thoughts were, and what ideas we could garner between us.

When she arrived to work a short while later, I explained what had been asked and her quiet, calm answer was ‘I know.’ It was only then that I found out her husband was the director for Visit Denmark, and that this had been a home discussion between them for some time, bugger everyone is conspiring against me!!!

So I drew up the first menu draft:

Maple smoked quails eggs, sel rose

Traditional Gravadlax on rye bread

Pressed oxtail and potato terrine, style bikesmad (a traditional Danish fry-up or hash)

Plaice and remoulade, cubism with golden breadcrumbs

Roulade of ham, flavours of salad Russe

Boiled egg, mayonnaise and caviar

Kransekage – biscuit of almond paste

Chocolate dipped marshmallows

And off it went, I was told I still had to wait a couple of days for the go-ahead for the menu, so creatively was in limbo not knowing whether we would get the gig or not, foolishly I announced the opportunity on twitter to raptures of ‘good on ya chef’ and ‘excellent chef, great opportunity’ before it was even confirmed, and as it wasn’t confirmed felt I shouldn’t just order food in to test my ideas until the ok was given, not to mention I have a kitchen to run too, not sure if the guys would be so understanding of me doing canapé R & D for an event we may not do. Thankfully I only had to wait till that evening for the email saying they would love me to do it, so order sheet in hand and first squiggles on paper, set to develop my ideas that were only words on paper at this point.

Over the next few days I wrangled with a few ideas, the menu gradually falling apart with every test, amazing how nothing ever pans out on the plate as it does in your head, any way further down the line and a few more squiggles added to the list, I had dishes I was happy with and set to the process of logistics, we had a visit to the hall the week prior and started to flap as it is a gorgeous venue but a complete barn. We allocated our areas (kitchen & bar) and started to plan. I must point out at this juncture, that the small kitchen at the hall I have over to the bar (completely inadequate in size for neither man nor beast), and took the hundred foot hall to myself.

Prep continued and gradually I started to finalize each evolution of each canape.

On the day, the alarm went off at some horrifically early time; I stumbled out onto the train and wended my way in, nerves starting to increase.

First job on the day was to finish the Parma ham roulade, upon testing the carrot hadn’t come through enough, so decided to cut slightly thicker to add flavour and a little much needed crunch to the canapé, big mistake, upon trying to roll the previous days preparation, my first roll happily slid off the cling film and all over the bench and floor, please note I did NOT take a picture at this point. Legging it through the kitchen my staff being knocked in my wake, proceeded to strip all of the carrot off the prepared pea mousse and start again(unplannedjob,panicsetting in). Cracked this out quickly applied carrot and tried again, success!

I wish I had more tales of rescued cock-ups (now the day is over) but to be honest, whilst pushed the rest of the prep proceeded without a hitch, my sous chef Ricardo finished the last of the detailed garnish work, A friend Ben turned up mid morning and dove in with prep and slowly everything came together as planned. We loaded the car and moved to the site.

Upon arrival, we got into the room to find Phaidon staff, Rene and his team working through some details, this finished as we were off-loading and everyone dispersed. Rene had a pep-talk with his guys, and feeling a touch star-struck barely managed a nod as we discovered we had no tables to work on, on top of that the Noma guys also had nowhere to work and set their gear up on some chairs, hmmmm organisation… NOT. Took a wee while, but G managed to locate and shortly started wandering in with trestle tables we could work from.



So we set to work, 2 hours to go and 1000 canapés to plate on teeny royal Copenhagen china. Trying to take as many pics as possible as we went. Whilst finishing the garnish on the bikesmad I see a figure in the corner of my eye and it’s the man himself come over to introduce himself and his team, and happily and thankfully he is one of the most down to earth guys I have ever had the pleasure to meet, he took a little time for each of us and explained What he had been up to whilst in the UK, the guys with him were equally open and brought wondrous food at intervals such as pickled rose petals, amazing.

We plodded through the preparation and service began, thankfully all the canapés were well received and as Rene was busy catching up with life on his laptop, delivered him a few bites throughout. We spoke a little about doing a small Stage which he very quickly agreed and am very much looking forward to spending a week in his kitchen in January, which I guess should bring a many parted post in itself.

(Pictures:)

Classic gravadlax, mustard, lemon, fennel

soft boiled quails egg, caviar mayo, sel rose, shallot and rock chive

Smoked sea rout, jerusalem artichoke, apple and horseradish bubble, lemon balm
I will not write about the night itself, as this has been covered ad nauseum by far better wordsmiths than myself. One such article is HERE one perk of doing the party for Visit Denmark was the seats me and my team were allocated were front row next to the stage, the presentation itself was quite incredible Noma’s philosophy delivered clearly and concisely with insights into the thought process that drives the ‘best restaurant in the world’

Thank you for your time in reading this, I guess I probably wont be posting again this year as business (and family) will keep me far to busy, but I thank those of you who take the time to follow and read my blog, and all I will leave you with is that I have plans for the new year, including finally revealing the method and technique for the ‘anything fondant’

Take care, enjoy life, and eat well. And if I don’t get the chance to say again this year, a very merry Christmas to you all.

Alex.