like a garden in SUMMER

KARLA P. DELGADO shares a memorable afternoon at NOMA, highlighted by stories of earth and produce, and a nature-based future.

ARTICHOKES, MUSHROOMS, MARIGOLDS, AND LEEKS. Strung up and suspended artfully in the air. Clues into what awaits inside. Walk through this doorway of ingredients into a place like no other.

"Welcome to Noma!" The front of house team greets us at the threshold of the kitchen and the dining room of what has been voted the World's Best Restaurant five times. They are obviously from different ethnic backgrounds, stunning in their diversity, and all looking more or less like they are in their twenties and thirties. The age of my daughter Kai, who is turning 27, and whose birthday we are celebrating.

We are led to our table for two, next to sliding doors that open to the garden. With the freshness of a gentle breeze and a view of wild grass, blue sky, and wilderness. We meet Ming. She is from Sweden and will be one of our guides, explaining ingredients and pairings.

"This sake is made from barley because we don't grow rice here," she says. "And it is flavored with jasmine." A sip has us charmed.

Noma founder Rene Redzepi closed the first Noma and re-opened in a warehouse district of Copenhagen in 2018. In between the closing and opening, he traveled and brought his teams to Japan, Mexico, and Australia. As far away from their comfort zones as he could think of, so that they would reimagine everything they did.

The result is Noma 2.0 in this location. Still foraging, still valuing local and seasonal ingredients, but with new knife skills, brewing and fermentation techniques, and flavor inspirations from their travels.

This tasting menu and pairing is a reflection of that. Kai and I opt for a wine pairing (featuring classic wines, natural wines, and sake that we love) and a juice pairing that gives us tastes of tea and juice concoctions like chamomile and white currant that land so delicately on the palette.