Entering the mold-eating cult of the world’s leading culinary demigod.
GROWING UP in bicycle-mad Copenhagen, the most famous chef in the world never, ever learned to drive a car. “I’ve never even tried,” René Redzepi is saying in his merry, emphatic, charmingly offhand way, as if cars weren’t something one needed to bother with in order to lead a productive, civilized life and, besides, who has the time for that kind of thing anyway? He’s wearing kitchen clogs and a camogreen zip-up on this bright summer’s afternoon, and we’re on a walk through his own little Faulknerian corner of Copenhagen. Our tour begins at the original location of his four-time “world’s greatest restaurant,” Noma; continues aboard the refurbished langoustine boat he co-owns with a gregarious gentleman named Nils; and concludes as he and Noma’s genial fermentation specialist, David Zilber, walk their bikes to the newly rebooted Noma 2.0, which Redzepi opened outside the city’s prominent hippie community, Christiania Freetown, in 2018.
As we bob along the canals, he and Zilber discourse on the perils of burnout (“Are we exhausted? Yes! Are we burnt out? No!”); the difficulty of planning the restaurant’s new high-wire vegetarian menu, which includes ingredients like crisped unborn bee larvae and several dishes laced like wheels of cheese with delicate scrims of freshly grown mold (“Can you imagine growing enough mold for 80 covers a night!”); and the vagaries of “The World’s 50 Best Restaurants” list, on which the new Noma will debut in a couple of days at No. 2. “If people say ‘I don’t give a shit’ about the ‘50 Best’ list,” Redzepi says, “they’re lying—of course I care. We all care.”
This story is from the July 8-21, 2019 edition of New York magazine.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the July 8-21, 2019 edition of New York magazine.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Unmasking Diddy
The rap mogul shook off decades of rumored bad behavior with wholesome PR revamps. Now the allegations against him are his legacy.
Staging Sufjan
How playwright Jackie Sibblies Drury turned a classic indie-rock album into a Justin Peck-choreographed dance piece that's now Broadway bound.
Justin Kuritzkes Serves an Ace
With his first movie script for the erotic tennis drama Challengers, he has gone from struggling playwright to in-demand screenwriter.
To Brooklyn, by Way of Paris and Rome
A whirlwind week with Dior creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri as she stages the brand's first New York runway show in a decade.
A Burlesque Family at Home
Showbiz couple Angie Pontani and Brian Newman’s high-spirited Marine Park house.
A Bistro With Shish Barak
Huda impressively balances its many influences.
THE 'DEBATE ME BRO
Mehdi Hasan's aggressive interviewing style landed him a Sunday show on MSNBC. Until he started talking about Palestine.
THE MAN WHO GOSSIPED TOO MUCH
For almost two decades, JOHN NELSON anonymously published blind items skewering the Hollywood elite on the blog CRAZY DAYS AND NIGHTS. Then his identity was revealed in the midst of a messy affair.
TODD BLANCHE IS A SURPRISINGLY COMPETENT LAWYER. AND HE'S ON TRACK TO KEEP HIS CLIENT OUT OF JAIL UNTIL THE ELECTION. IN DEFENSE OF TRUMP
TODD BLANCHE WAS looking for his man. Or it could be a woman, but probably not.
Self: Emma Alpern
In Outer Space Why do so many women believe their bodies are controlled by the moon?