How Copenhagen's Noma became the world's best restaurant

The Danish restaurant Noma, in Copenhagen, has been crowned, for the second year running, Best Restaurant in the World, in the San Pelegrino World's 50 Best Restaurants awards thanks to its unique and innovative rendering of native produce. It's the pinnacle of haute Scandinavian fare and you now need to book three months in advance to get a table. This is largely due to one man — a certain René Redzepi, the Danish-Albanian chef at Noma, whose light, natural, fiercely regional cuisine at the two-Michelin-starred restaurant has catapulted the city to global culinary stardom.

The accolades come as no surprise to those who have enjoyed Noma's ingenious, indigenous dishes, such as Danish beef tartare with juniper powder and tarragon or langoustines cooked on hot stones with oyster sauce. Redzepi's cooking is based around a philosophy of giving the diner a sense of "time and place" or, in other words, it is seasonal and local. He eschews traditional luxury ingredients, celebrates local suppliers and intellectualises over the use of wild, foraged foods and terroir-focused ingredients. "This search for gastronomic truth should come from within us," muses the 34-year-old chef.

Step into history

There is certainly a buzz as you cross the threshold and realise that you are about to dine in a restaurant that has made culinary history. Yet, for all its cutting-edge qualities, it's a disarmingly low-key and friendly restaurant. The focus on the sense of place is the driving force for everything they do here, from the use of Nordic ingredients on the plate, to the stone, timber, fur and other materials used in the dining room which seats 40 guests. Even the old shipping warehouse location, right on the river in the now trendy Christianshavn district, conspires to make it all the more singular an adventure.

Once at the table, small dishes come out thick and fast, most of them eaten in one or two bites. An almost non-existent puff of Spanish moss, crisped and dusted with earthy porcini powder; whole leeks, the pale ends deep-fried; and a delectable tiny rye-bread sandwich of chicken skin and lumpfish roe are among the standouts. The superb play of textures between slivers of raw chestnut and löjrom, another type of fish roe; a little straw nest holding liquid-centred, smoked and pickled quail's eggs are memorable.

Culinary gems

So where do the delectable treasures used in the kitchen come from?

"Noma has a posse of foragers, who scour Denmark's hidden pockets of forest and coastline and sporadically deliver boxes of mushrooms, bulrush, ramsons and other exotic edibles to the kitchen," divulges chef with a smile. "They arrive without notice, at any time, even during service," he adds. That's a luxury not afforded to all suppliers, but these are no ordinary deliveries. They are bounties, proudly presented and respectfully handled. "The gatherers are serious people with a special skill, and they provide a major factor to Noma's success," the chef says. Every member of staff has contact with these wild wanderers, whether it's by packing away their haul, passing on receipts or weighing the goods. It feeds a desire to discover each person's wild side, something which Redzepi strongly encourages. "Chefs take time to collect herbs on their way to work," he explains.

This daring, but sensitive chef strongly believes that knowledge makes us more responsible. This knowledge, when used correctly, can also make us more creative, more socially engaged, with a fresh understanding and vision.

— Scott Adams is a Madrid-based freelance writer