Look and learn

Lifting the lid on Noma’s secrets, a new book celebrates the pioneering restaurant’s seasonal menus, and offers a deep dive behind the scenes

- JENI PORTER

When René Redzepi opened the second iteration of his Noma restaurant on the outskirts of Copenhagen in 2018, he switched the perception of what was being presented on the plate. The dishes on its three seasonal menus seemed simpler than those of the original Noma, which the Danish chef had opened in 2003, scaling the heights as the world's best restaurant. But the simplicity was an illusion. To present a dish such as the clear, intensely flavoured sea snail broth, the first course served under the nomenclature of Noma 2.0, required more hours of prep than they had ever done before, in order 'to come out looking as if very few things have happened,' as Redzepi said at the time.