The most influential restaurant of this generation, noma, has been named the best restaurant in the world five times, changing the global perception of Nordic cuisine. Since its opening in 2003, after more than 20 years, it announced it would cease public operations at its peak and transition to a new model, which is regrettable. As the seafood season approaches, I have been looking forward to this for a long time.
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noma 2.0 is located in the Christianshavn neighborhood of Copenhagen, Denmark, between two lakes. It is built on a preserved former military warehouse site, surrounded by water and greenery, providing a very tranquil, relaxing, and comfortable environment. Since noma moved here in 2018, significant investment has been put into it, and just seven years later, the announcement of its transition seems like a seven-year itch, possibly reflecting the restless soul of René Redzepi.
The restaurant’s open kitchen, glass-covered walkways, and multiple greenhouses allow one to feel the changes in seasons and weather at any time. During this visit to Copenhagen, I stayed for nearly two weeks with daily sunshine. Through its nature-embracing interior design, I deeply experienced the philosophy of seasonal cuisine, and the beauty of light and shadow made the experience even more impressive.
noma’s Ocean Season is renowned for its innovative cooking techniques and unique ingredient choices and is the most celebrated of noma’s three seasons (Ocean, Vegetable, and Game). Each time entering the kitchen, I was warmly welcomed by the noma team, feeling their energy and passion, unchanged year after year. I remember my first visit in 2016, the intense masculine energy was a bit overwhelming (laughs).
This year’s menu was no exception, offering a unique culinary feast. Starting unconventionally, the first course was whole-cooked langoustine, with claws dusted with saffron powder, served with mussel broth and bergamot. The langoustine was surrounded by a powder of seaweed and pine, bringing rich ocean flavors. Serving my favorite dish right at the start was perfect, allowing me to enjoy it first and then slowly savor other dishes.
Whole Cooked Langoustine with Mussel Broth and Bergamot
R & D Chef Mario Fu told me, “Every season’s opening at noma is very grand, so guests can immediately feel the current season as soon as they sit down.” For example, the Game season opens with pheasant and reindeer heart. Some refreshing dishes are interspersed to balance the palate, unlike traditional menus that sequentially present appetizers and main courses. noma’s menu is more like an exploration, creating unpretentious surprises, where you never know what the next dish will be.
Another impressive dish was the seaweed à la crème, made with various seaweeds in a rich sauce of sweet shrimp and barley koji, drizzled with seaweed oil and sprinkled with horseradish. Despite being “à la crème”, it contains no cream but is made from fermented shrimp paste, concentrated shrimp essence, and seaweed, giving it a sticky texture like lotus root starch or natto, likely very acceptable to Asians.
Lightly cooked blue mussels paired with roasted yellow beets, seasoned with mussel caramel, combine the natural sweetness of mussels and beets with caramel’s sweetness. The mussel organs were removed, clearly requiring significant labor. Another fresh dish of sea urchin in a clear tomato and fermented rice koji sauce, with sliced hazelnuts, hazelnut oil, and rose oil, provided a refreshing taste experience. The book “noma Fermentation,” published by noma, is now globally widespread, seen not only in restaurants but also used by many bartenders, representing another form of “open source.”
Blue mussel and golden beets
Next was raw squid sliced thin and placed on slightly toasted barley koji “cake,” showcasing the rich flavor of fermented koji and the fresh taste of squid, unexpectedly creating an illusion of cumin flavor. Although an unusual combination, the different textures of fresh and rich interweaving was delicious.
Confit cod roe placed on a waffle made from elderflower, Icelandic horseradish leaves, sansho berries, and spiced nuts, combined the umami of cod roe with the crunchy texture of the waffle, providing a unique taste experience. Freshly hand-dived scallops, with one side lightly seared, paired with sencha cream sauce, combining the fresh aroma of sencha with the tender scallops for a fresh and sweet taste. In Kyoto’s vegetable season, the noma team seemed increasingly familiar with incorporating tea into dishes. Returning to the cod feast, the cod head was cooked in various ways, showcasing the unique textures and flavors of different parts of the cod head, including gelatinous bone-in grilled fish tongue, confit cod eye with jasmine tea jelly, and the eye paired with ants and charcoal powder, alongside salmon roe, cod jowls with garlic sprouts, and cod jaw with smoked pumpkin. Each dish was outstanding, one of the highlights of the menu!
Eye Pie
Finally, the Petit Four – snobrød paired with clam gel, is a traditional Danish bread roasted over an open flame, has a distinct buttery and wheat aroma, with a fluffy texture. The clam and citrus gel in the clamshell provided a refreshing sweet and sour taste, perfectly balancing the end of the meal.
For me, noma represents a few keywords: surprising, energetic, joyful, free, creative, inspiring, and of course outstanding quality. It is a school and a great restaurant that creates new chefs. Of course, what tastes good to you might not be the same for me. However, when comparing the three seasons together, the seafood season is undoubtedly the favorite for Chinese tastes.
Although noma will return to the same location as last year—Ace Hotel Kyoto—do not expect to taste the same dishes. “Well, Kyoto in autumn will certainly offer a different experience; seasonality plays a crucial role with its 72 micro seasons,” Chef René said in an email. “Game meats become available, and it’s the high season for crab, bringing a completely different array of ingredients. We’re also hoping for wild mushrooms.”
During the Spring’s last pop-up in Kyoto, the noma team’s creativity flowed endlessly, with many outstanding dishes. Later, the dishes we tasted at noma’s vegetable season in Copenhagen also carried a strong Japanese influence.
René said that after returning to Copenhagen last year, one question lingered in their minds: “Is this just the beginning? We have established new friendships and connections with an incredible group of craftsmen, artists, farmers, and foragers, making us wonder: can we re-experience Kyoto in another special season, like the ‘autumn leaves season’ when the leaves change color and the entire city becomes a colorful canvas?” They almost immediately started planning the return trip.
The noma team wants to re-explore Kyoto’s mountains, forage for wild ingredients, deeply experience the crab harvest season, and explore all the new ingredients this autumn will offer. I wonder how noma will “dissect” crabs again, surely bringing unexpected surprises.
After the second pop-up in Kyoto, when René Redzepi and his team return to Copenhagen, they will not immediately close the doors of this legendary restaurant. noma 2.0 will continue operating in the first half of 2025, with the final months featuring a seafood menu. The exact closing date has not been disclosed yet. If following previous seasons, the time could likely fall in June next year. For such a beautiful legendary restaurant (and considering the massive investment behind it), ceasing public operations still evokes a sense of lament.
The phenomenon of generational turnover in the culinary world is like a relay race. The rise of the El Bulli era, once the world’s best restaurant, could continue to reign, driving the development of avant-garde cuisine in Spain (＊Ferran Adrià did not like the term molecular gastronomy). Similarly, noma’s multiple awards as the world’s best restaurant have drawn global attention. Its disciples are spread everywhere, not only in Copenhagen, throughout Denmark but also abroad. After training at noma, many chefs have opened excellent restaurants, with examples of noma’s influence even seen in other countries.
When noma announced it would cease public operations, René Redzepi mentioned in a media interview that he believes fine dining is unsustainable, relating to the industry’s highly labor-intensive nature and low margins (especially given noma’s high welfare policy, where employees only need to work four days a week, a benefit policy gradually affecting other Nordic restaurants, some of which also close for three days). This interview triggered much criticism from many in the dining industry, who wondered if even noma couldn’t sustain it, what about other fine dining restaurants? Perhaps René honestly revealed the “inconvenient truth” that fine dining is difficult to profit from.
noma’s atypical closure undoubtedly brings regret, but how to continue its legend is also a tough topic. Looking at all those legendary restaurants, which ones have faded from our memory? For example, Sweden’s Fäviken near the Arctic Circle closed a few years ago, or El Bulli ended before I had a chance to try it, but the timing was missed. Life always has some regrets. Now that the World’s 50 Best Restaurants rules prevent a restaurant from winning consecutively, will this affect the power of other cuisines to change the world? Building a reputation takes time, and we see that previous world number ones were last year’s number two, like Denmark’s Geranium, Peru’s Central, and Spain’s Disfrutar. This continuity seems less apparent now.
Disfrutar@Jocelyn華姐的TastyTrip
noma 1.0 closed in early 2017, and noma 2.0 reopened at the end of 2018. This nearly two-year hiatus indeed impacted tourism in Copenhagen and Denmark. During noma 1.0’s closure, although Copenhagen still had other top restaurants like Geranium and Alchemist attracting tourists, the overall dining industry was not as thriving. Some media reports noted that during this period, Copenhagen’s tourism and dining industry’s performance was below expectations, partly attributed to noma’s temporary closure (source: OECD iLibrary). International tourism organization data shows that global tourism grew by 7.0% in 2017, the highest increase since the 2009 global economic crisis. However, Copenhagen’s performance was relatively flat, indicating noma’s closure’s actual impact on local tourism.
Now Copenhagen’s dining and tourism industry is gradually recovering. Besides noma, other top restaurants like Geranium, Alchemist, and the new Michelin three-star Jordnær are attracting more and more food enthusiasts to Copenhagen. Coupled with noma’s widespread disciples, they have transformed the once culinary desert into an oasis, but without noma operating, it is indeed challenging for other restaurants to hold this ground during the transition period. In the 2024 Michelin Guide for the Nordic countries, Copenhagen has a total of 26 Michelin-recommended restaurants, including starred restaurants, Bib Gourmand restaurants, and Michelin-recommended restaurants. With three 3-star restaurants, a total of 15-starred restaurants, it can indeed be called a food capital for a city with a population of only 1.39 million.
Jordnær@Jocelyn華姐的TastyTirp
For a single cuisine, achieving the legendary status of past restaurants like El Bulli or noma, known even to the general public, seems unlikely in the future. Now is a warring states period with various factions (cuisines) competing, and with the internet’s push, information becomes chaotic and difficult to judge. The future revival of which cuisine is unknown, but at this point, Chinese cuisine holds a significant advantage. Previously underexplored Chinese cuisine now can truly let Western foodies experience authentic Chinese cooking through the expansion of top domestic restaurants overseas. This is an exciting direction, though it may just be my personal view.
In the near future, when the noma team travels again, perhaps we will meet again somewhere in the world.
Photo: Peray Hsiao/instagram@nomacph
