Are Chefs René Redzepi and Heston Blumenthal setting a new trend, by uprooting themselves, and setting up their restaurants at other ends of the world? That is what both chefs are doing with their The Fat Duck and Noma restaurants, respectively, for very different reasons. One may ask why two top (Noma is the number one restaurant in the world, the Fat Duck has been number one in the past) needed to make the temporary move, having achieved the ultimate in the past and currently.
Chef Heston’s move is because of a renovation of his restaurant in Bray in the UK, and he is setting up shop in Melbourne.
Chef Rene’s move from Copenhagen to Signature restaurant at the Mandarin Oriental, where he will set up a pop-up Noma from 9 January – 14 February. He has brought his full staff complement of 50 with him, to serve 44 patrons for a 20-course lunch and dinner daily, at a cost of $380 per head. Tokyo will be a more challenging city for foraging ingredients, Chef René being associated with foraging. He has brought his team to Tokyo to learn more about the Japanese
cuisine and culture of eating.
Chef René writes: ‘I’d dreamt of something like this for years, since I was a young cook without the money to travel, much less a restaurant of my own. As my career progressed and I managed to get my first taste of those mythical islands, the desire only deepened. I wanted to get as close as possible to the country’s mind-boggling culinary variety and the devotion to craft that fellow chefs from the West speak of in hushed and reverential tones. I wanted to go beyond being an occasional visitor and witness. I had to be a part of it and learn as much as possible.
I sat for my first kaiseki meals, multicourse dinners steeped in history and more balanced than the long tasting menus some of us chefs are used to eating and cooking. Dishware and the design of the restaurant are adjusted to reflect the season. Time of year dictates everything. This ritual taught me so much about meticulousness, lightness, and what seasonality really means. Now think of what we can take from the ingenuity of the Japanese. Think of the humble kernel of rye, the staple food in my part of the world. Generations of Scandinavians have survived on this grain, morphed into the form of breads and porridges. It more or less stops there. You move to the East, and look at what a grain of rice has become here. How much incredible invention has come from this simple ingredient? Our little scheme had us taking every single member of our staff along for the ride, but we were going to leave our pantry at home. We resolved to apply our sensibilities to an unfamiliar landscape of flavors. Time to test ourselves, to start again from scratch’.
Chef René asked himself why he should uproot himself and his team, working with many unknown ingredients, already challenging his team in Copenhagen on daily basis. ‘This trip, I think, is a way to shatter any groove that we may have established and truly humble ourselves. It’s a chance for my staff to meet a chef I know who sleeps in his restaurant several times a week so he can properly marinate a mackerel dish throughout the night. To deeply experience a culinary culture that makes our own look like an infant. It’s a chance to truly live the idea of omotenashi; the closest translation for this is “hospitality,” but it goes so far beyond what we are used to. It’s a type of altruistic service-style, a spirit of generosity that is a foundation of Japanese culture. It’s something you encounter everywhere here, whether in a service environment or a meeting of strangers on the street. And it’s one of the things I hope we’ll learn to practice at the restaurant in Tokyo and bring home to Copenhagen‘.
Chef René ends off on a philosophical note: ‘That, and because being here throws us off balance. Who knows what will happen. Getting out of your comfort zone is an important part of being a cook. Give it a try sometime. Not knowing what will happen next has always led us to good things. And it’s that uncertainty and adventure that we’re craving right now’.
Bravo Chef René and his Noma team! This experience alone will sharpen the restaurant offering, and it is sure to be named number one World’s 50 Best Restaurants again this year!
NOTE: This blogpost is reposted, as its original was lost when our website crashed earlier this week.
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