Better With Age

Fermentation, perhaps the oldest biotech process, has been around for millennia, giving longer shelf life to fresh produce and preventing foods from spoiling. But it is only now that we are learning to appreciate the health benefits that come with fermented foods.

- Priyanka Elhence

KOKS from the Faroe Islands practises traditional techniques such as ræst, a form of wind-powered dry ageing that combines fermentation and ageing

Fermentation is the future of cooking, declares chef-patron René Redzepi of three-Michelin-starred Noma and four-time winner of The World's 50 Best Restaurants award in his cookbook The Noma Guide to Fermentation. Here, Redzepi and coauthor David Zilber (Noma's fermentation lab head) spotlight Noma-inspired ferments such as koji, misos and black fruits versus better-known ferments like sauerkraut. Redzepi has long been heralded for his foraging and fermenting techniques, and even has his own fermentation lab for the restaurant. He likens the process to Lego where the more ferments you have, the more flavours you can build, which makes cooking much easier.

An assortment of dishes from The Butcher's Wife

FERMENTED FOODS ARE HEALTHY

So when an award-winning chef like Redzepi believes in fermentation to the extent that it is the restaurant's main pillar (there isn't a single menu or dish at Noma that isn't fermented in some way), we can't help but want to deep-dive into it. We already know that our digestive tract is home to approximately 100 trillion bacteria and other microorganisms, which is why gut health is central to our overall well-being (see our feature on gut health in our Feb/ Mar 22 issue).