Noma

Noma. Table of four. Casual perfection, defined.

While in Kyoto for a previous birthday, I happened to stay at the Ace Hotel Kyoto. I wistfully realized that I’d missed the residency by only a few weeks. After joking with the front desk, I made a silent vow – casually but firm – that I would visit Noma the following year.

I had no resistance to this thought. I just accepted it as a fact.

Getting a Reservation

The literal second reservations became available, I held my phone in my hand, refreshing Tock over and over and over for about an hour. Every time I would sigh and give up (more than once, I will admit) a strong intuitive voice inside me said “Don’t you dare. Keep going. Keep refreshing.”

“What if I never get a table? And I’m just wasting my hope on nothing?”

“What if you do?” was the inner response.

So, I kept at it.

All of a sudden a reservation opened up – for one on the exact date I wanted: the day after my birthday.

I was absolutely shocked. I remember tears filling my eyes as I confirmed my reservation. Happiness filled my being as I told my friends. I looked forward to savoring the experience and telling them about it.

When you desire something, you make time and will travel the world for it. I went to Edinburgh, Scotland to see Beyonce perform the Renaissance World Tour. It was only fitting that I was going to Denmark for dinner.

Welcome to Noma

On a seemingly normal day in June, I requested a Viggo ride from Villa Copenhagen to Noma.

I arrived, checked in with a staff member at the entrance and basked in her lovely compliment to my dress. I also stood, amused, as two guys with their bikes walked up and asked if they could get a table for dinner.

“This is a restaurant, right?”

“Yes, but we are fully committed for the evening”

“Oh… okay”

Considering I’d been fully committed to my seat for 4 months, I laughed. As they rode their bikes away, I asked, “Does that happen often?”

“Everyday”

I smiled to myself as I was led to the greenhouse for our introductory juice.

The grounds felt wild, lush and cultivated. Due to the light rain in the morning, the sky was a bright blue, dotted with puffy clouds.

As others arrived, the four of us single diners were told that we would be sitting together. I was pleased, but apprehensive a bit. Me, sitting at a table with three strangers?

As we were summoned for our dining hour, we made introductions and small talk on the way to the hallowed doors.

When we got to the doors, I remember someone said “Well, someone has to open them.”

So, I did.

When I opened the doors, I felt a sense of symbolism and profound place.

We were greeted and led to our table of four in the – living room is the best way to describe it. It was peak pinnacle of reserved Denmark aesthetic design.

We were each given towels to wash our hands. I changed my drink order from juice pairing to wine, with minor supplements of juices.

Right away, I asked to confirm if we would receive printed menus at the end of dining service. With a “yes”, I was able to relax into the experience.

Casual luxury and perfection.

That is the fundamental definition of Noma.

And in this, it absolutely excels.

With the phrase “Yes Chef” floating down the hallway from the kitchen, the courses of the evening began.

Vegetable Season 2024

One

Kohlrabi kebab
Fermented beans
Pinecone olives
Yucatán oregano sandwich

Two

Sorrel noodle soup

Three

Seaweed salad

Four

Koji wrapped in ramson

Five

Today’s crudité: Fresh fruit and vegetables

Six

Quail egg wrapped in sea lettuce

Seven

New potato soup
Butterfly waffle

Eight

Jellied mushroom

Nine

Frozen cheese and blackened yuzu

Ten

Grilled peas from the pod

Eleven

Artichoke heart and padrón pepper

Twelve

Salt-baked black oyster mushroom with Tomato salad

Thirteen

Magnolia popsicle

Fourteen

Berries, milk skin and grilled hip rose ice cream

Fifteen

Woodruff and flowers

To Drink

2018 Perlmutt – Jakob Tennstedt
Traben-Trarbach, Mosel, Germany

2019 Vitovska – Paolo Vodopivec
Colludrozza, Friuli-Venezia-Giulia, Italy

2021 Colère de Zeus – Julien Courtois & Heidi Kuka
Soings-en-Sologne, Loire, France

2014 Vin d’Montbled Sous Voile – Jérôme Guichard
Montbellet, Bourgogne, France

2017/2018 Lys-Gul – Franz Strohmeier
Sankt Stefan ob Stainz, Styria, Austria

1999 Biden – Tadatsugu Inoue
Kurume, Fukuoka, Japan

2022 Le Petit Rosé de Gimios – Anne-Marie & Pierre Lavaysse
Saint-Jean-de-Minervois, Roussillon, France

Recommendations for restaurants and experiences around the world flowed among us.

Gabrielle gave me a recommendation for SAGA New York, Clown Bar in Paris and Opinionated about Dining Guides. When I asked about restaurants in Amsterdam, Anuj recommended Sichuan Restaurant Amsterdam, which I later visited in Warmoesstraat. Also, Boom Chicago for comedy, Maza’j in Brussels. Sal told us about the previous seasons he’d enjoyed at Noma.

I asked our table host where she liked to go when she wasn’t a Noma. She admitted that she loved a good fried chicken sandwich at Poulette. I offered up recommendations for Single Thread, Per Se, French Laundry, Smyth, Mini Bar by Jose Avillez and Jont.

It was a vibrant table of personalities as we relished the beauty of the dishes in front of us. I even surprised myself as I ate the quail egg.

Dinner was perfect.

I think the lasting thoughts of my meal during Vegetable Season was the perfect expression of simplicity.

The flavors were masterful. It was the type of coursework that left you – as a diner – speechless with every bite. When the dessert chef came to our table and explained his incredible final custard dish, I simply was in awe of his creation and creativity.

I asked him how he developed his ideas. Did the end vision come first? Or, was he inspired by the season and flavors and followed them to the end?

His answer? The ingredients inspire the creations. He’d recently joined the team (this year) and said he was incredibly happy to have the breath of ingredients available to him. From that, he crafted his masterpiece.

So many front of house staff that we interacted with were from the United States. Each came to Noma with their own story, their own uniqueness. Everyone was warm, inviting and professional.

After our final course, our table host gave us business cards with QR codes linking to a customized Google map links to the staff’s favorite spots around Copenhagen.

Dining at Noma showcased the intricate nature and refined delicacy of fine dining: the very definition of finesse.

The Noma Kitchen Tour

The kitchen at Noma was magnificent. Focused perfection. I will say that it ranks higher than my kitchen tour of Per Se, solidifying itself as my favorite in the world.

Our tour host graciously answered all of our questions as he led us around the kitchen, the staff dining area and pointed out various accolades on the walls.

It was happenstance that my friend Jason and his partner Charlotte also dined at Noma mere days before I did, through the Noma x Amex Global Access Event. Luckily, he gave me a light overview of what to expect – without spoiling anything. So, I knew there would be a kitchen tour. I just didn’t expect to be so enraptured by viewing how every single person cultivates greatness.

The tour expressed how Noma is more than a restaurant. It is a living, breathing, exciting experience, cultivated every night.

We walked by the signed bricks, signifying either a famous person or someone who graduated and moved from Noma’s hallowed walls to another adventure.  Yes, it was good to see people I love – like Dave Chapelle. However, I was more interested in the quieter names. The individuals that worked at Noma and “graduated.”

Those masters of their craft that took their chef’s knifes, worked seasons with precision and pride and moved on? Those are the ones I loved to see, their signatures forever etched on the very brick of the restaurant they helped maintain. Those were the real legends in my eyes.

I asked what it took to work at Noma. Did someone have to cut their teeth at The French Laundry? Interestingly, our tour host said – simply – no. To work at Noma, they don’t focus on looking for someone with history and ego. Instead, they focus on your distinct character. Your personality. And your willingness to understand the system.

René Redzepi crafted Noma into a well calibrated machine.

Each person fits in the correct spot.

That’s why the machine works, year after year.

Sure, there will always be people with opinions. After all, that’s why you’re reading this. Some may say that Geranium or Alchemist are better. That doesn’t bother me in the slightest. To me, my experience at Noma was a five hour multi sensory orgasm of enjoying the pleasures of life.

The restaurant called Gabrielle and I a taxi, as we were both going to Villa Copenhagen. As we were led toward the greenhouse once more, I felt a satisfying closure to the evening. Our tour host led us around the plants and picked a Finger Lime fruit, also known as lime caviar – for us to try. He picked a little Peruvian sage and gave us a sample, before the taxi arrived and it was time to say goodbye.

Reflections

I truly thank my ancestors in spirit, mainly my mother, for this incredible birthday present. There is simply no other way that I would be able to secure a table at Noma, the actual day after my birthday, if not for a larger hand at work.

Thank you mommy.

I love you.


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Noma

Refshalevej 96
1432 København K, Denmark
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