Noma, the World's Greatest Restaurant? Or Hallucination?

This Copenhagen restaurant received its second Michelin star...and it has a rather comfortable, casual feel....almost like one of those ubiquitous seaside seafood restaurants we find all over the US- lots of bare wood, but with a Danish style, chairs draped with animal skins. Its in a non descript warehouse overlooking the water, but any comparison to anything we've ever experienced stops there.

Claus Meyer and Rene Redzepi have created an altar to Nordic cuisine...they've taken the oft used mantra to cook/source local and applied it in a brilliant way...Redzepi spent time with Thomas Keller at the French Laundry and with Ferran Adria at El Bulli.

Hallucinatory? Perhaps thats the best way to describe the experience. Gooseberries, cauliflower, milk skin, beach herbs, fish skin....doesn't sound like a plan leading to a great meal does it? Sounds almost like what you might expect to find at a Danish hippie commune out in the back woods somewhere. Trust me, these ingredients were elevated to unfathomable heights...as you sit and enjoy course after course you shake your head that without foie or truffles or traditional sauces or Kobe beef you are experiencing one of the greatest meals of your life. Many a chef can be creative...but to be creative and to do it with product ignored (and largely unavailable before the opening of Noma) by the local Nordic citizenry is an accomplishment so mind boggling that Redzepi deserves some sort of Nobel prize.

Here was the tasting menu the night we went:

Raw shrimps and green gooseberries
Fresh cream and dill

Shoots and malt
Potato puree

Skate wing and mussel liquor
Cauliflower in different textures

Warm lobster salad
Red currant wine and beach herbs

Kid Goat and dust of thyme
Hazelnuts and mushrooms

Raspberries and beet roots
Marinated rose hips

Blueberries and milkskin
Pickled pine tree shoots and sweet bread

After reading the menu, you probably think I have zero credibility when I say this has to be one of the greatest restaurants on earth. But for us, it easily surpassed French Laundry. Easily. You must experience it yourself to understand it.