The culinary world was shocked earlier this month when chef René Redzepi’s announced his plans to close his legendary, Michelin-starred restaurant, Noma.
To cushion the blow, Redzepi created a short documentary, A Very Short Film About the Past, Present and Future of Noma, which impressively tells the story of Redzepi’s world-famous kitchen and most importantly, the short charts Redzepi’s plans for the future.
“I’d like to share the plan we’ve secretly been working on for the past three years: In short, we are moving. To a place where we can grow our own produce; rethink every part of what we do. To a place where we can create the best possible workplace for the team,” says Redzepi.
Over Redzepi ‘s decade as the head chef of Noma, he reinvented the Nordic kitchen – uncompromisingly cooking with only locally sourced, seasonal ingredients. And although he and his team stuck to this principle, the harsh climate and uncertain meaning of local borders (where does the Nordic region end?) have made them “pretty confused about, well, just about everything.”
Now, as Redzepi explains, the confusion has been replaced with plans for a new restaurant. The menu at the new iteration of Noma, still unnamed, will be tied to the seasons. In the cold months, the new Noma will dedicate itself to the ocean and devote their menu to seafood. During autumn, the menu will bow down to the forest serving plates of food that focus on mushrooms, nuts, berries, and wild game. And finally, in the spring and summer when everything is green, the kitchen will reorganise itself to take advantage of the plant kingdom.
The new Noma, set to open in 2017 in an undisclosed location, will be nestled in the restaurants own urban farm, where the kitchen will grow its own produce and house large food research facilities.
A Very Short Film About the Past, Present and Future of Noma takes the audience to a number of places, which are otherwise inaccessible: The Noma kitchen and Redzepi’s incredible mind.
