Latest news with #ReneRedzepi
Malaysian Reserve
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Malaysian Reserve
Why there isn't a best chef in the world
Awards are one thing but the culinary universe has no real centre. For that you can thank 2 chefs IN VICTORY, top chefs are much like the classiest of professional tennis players: Self-deprecatory, admiring of their rivals, grateful to their teachers. Three weeks ago, just after his restaurant Maido was proclaimed No 1 among the 50 Best Restaurants in the World at a ceremony in Turin, Italy, Mitsuharu Tsumura told me: 'There is competition, but when you finish, you shake hands, you have a beer.' Unlike tennis and other sports, though, the world of haute cuisine doesn't really have a universally recognised ranking system like the Association of Tennis Professionals and the Women's Tennis Association. For those who point to the Michelin Guide, I will politely say the French tyre company provides ratings not rankings. The 50 Best franchise certainly provides a glitzy showcase for some of the finest eating establishments in the world, but it's incomplete. The list has lots of Latin American representation, like Maido in Peru, but sparse North American luminaries. (One of my favourites, Atomix in New York City, placed 12th this year, dropping six spots; the next US restaurant isn't even in the top 50: Single Thread in Healdsburg, California, at 80.) Once upon a time, the best chef in the world was whoever was at the top of the French culinary universe. Paul Bocuse — who died in 2018 and whose name is enshrined in the Bocuse D'Or cooking competition in his native Lyon — was perhaps the most infallible of these culinary arbiters of fine dining. However, for about a three-decade span — from the very end of the 20th century to the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic — there was wide consensus that two non-French cooks were the world's most influential chefs. For the first half of the period, it was Ferran Adria of El Bulli in Spain. For the second half, it was Rene Redzepi of Noma in Copenhagen. Their primacy is reflected in the history of the 50 Best: Adria has won the top spot five times; Redzepi has done it four times. In 2019, the organisation changed its rules, automatically promoting all past and future top-notchers into a 'Best of the Best' hall of fame. It was a way of getting new restaurants into the rankings while assuaging the older guard with apotheosis. The reform was a polite way to freshen up the list, but it unwittingly reflects a real change in the nature of the culinary world, one effected by the legacies of Adria and Redzepi. Let me summarise it by way of an anecdote. During a dinner, the Spanish chef, who is a friend, turned to me with one of the terrifying restaurant history questions he likes to hurl at friend and foe alike. Get the answer right and you are golden. Get it wrong and you'll get an hour-long lecture to set you right. 'What is the greatest lesson of El Bulli?' he asked me. Fortunately, a couple of months before, I had heard the answer — from Rene Redzepi. The Dane, whom I also consider a friend, had worked briefly in Adria's kitchen and has feted the Spaniard on his birthday at Noma. And so, I repeated what I'd learned: 'The most important rule of El Bulli is that there are no rules'. Adria smiled approvingly and I got no lecture. Adria dethroned the French as world champions with his genre-busting kitchen techniques; and Redzepi pushed the revolution further by turning Nordic notions into haute cuisine, further showing everyone that their local cuisines too could become global standard-bearers. You didn't have to be French — or Spanish or Danish. Today, I find it quite moving that among the James Beard Awards and nominations for best restaurants in the various US regions were establishments serving Filipino, Tamil, Thai, Korean, Mexican, Vietnamese and a host of other non-European cuisines. It's also inspiring that one of the chefs who got the most attention at the Turin ceremony was Pichaya Soontornyanakij and her restaurant Potong in Bangkok. Ikoyi, the highest-placed London restaurant at 15, has its roots in West African cooking. A quick round of interviews with top contenders for the 50 Best revealed a consensus for the cuisines with increasing global influence: Mexican, Chinese, Korean and Indian. It's going to be hard to figure on parameters that will allow you judge whether the wok hei technique of a Hong Kong chef is better than the bhuna caramelisation of a top restaurant in Mumbai. Even as all this decentralisation continues, the world of chefs seems to be settling into two semi-ideological camps. Or perhaps the word is egocentric. The 50 Best appears to be a favourite annual stop of Adria; his disciples have followed. Meanwhile, a more nebulous but just as influential group gathers around Redzepi, who not only has been taking Noma around the world (Kyoto last year; Los Angeles next) but also this year revived the MAD Symposium, which was legendary in the 2010s for allowing chefs to voice big and deep thoughts. Both men continue to project their authority and personality onto a cooking universe without a centre of gravity. But chefs still like prizes — especially those with the label 'best'. I started this column with tennis players. If you believe that they are as gracious in private as their victorious personas on the podium, well, you haven't been watching enough matches with the athletes grunting, growling and scowling. Chefs share the same passions and instincts. This year at the 50 Best, a popular expectation was that the No 1 spot would go to Bittor Arginzoniz's Asador Etxebarri in Spain's Basque country. Maido, with its celebration of Peru's Japanese immigrant Nikkei cuisine, has been working its way up the list for years, but Etxebarri, with its innovative grilling, has been one of the most influential restaurants in the world for a long time. Its chef is also famously fiery and competitive. So, despite his smiling demeanour in Turin, he was probably unhappy that the restaurant came in at No 2. One foodie friend — who asked not to be named because he knows too many sensitive chefs — quipped that 'Bittor is probably so mad at the snub that he's only going to make Etxebarri better than ever, just to show everyone up. Better book a table now.' — Bloomberg This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners. This article first appeared in The Malaysian Reserve weekly print edition
Miami Herald
08-07-2025
- Business
- Miami Herald
World-famous restaurant opening new US location
When we think about the things in life that make us happy, many of us imagine eating a really good meal. There's something about great food that feeds our souls as well as our bellies. And it's for this reason that so many of us are willing to shell out a small fortune to dine at restaurants. Related: Costco finishes rolling out massive food court menu change It's hardly a secret that cooking at home is a far more economical option than dining out. Restaurants have to charge decent markups on the products they serve to cover their overhead costs. At a time when many people are being forced to spend their money more carefully to cope with higher living costs, it's not always easy to justify the added expense of a restaurant meal. Don't miss the move: Subscribe to TheStreet's free daily newsletter But for many of us, it's worth stretching our budgets from time to time for a fine dining experience - the kind you keep talking about weeks or even months after you've finished your last bite. The past couple of years have been tough ones for food lovers, due largely to the fact that a good number of popular restaurants have closed their doors for good. Those closures have run the gamut from national chains in bankruptcy, like TGI Fridays, to local favorites across a range of big cities. Related: Celebrity chef closes restaurant with deep history Restaurants were operating with very tight margins before inflation started driving prices up a few years ago. Those that have managed to not only survive, but thrive over the past few years clearly have a special formula to thank. Part of what spells the difference between a restaurant doing well versus shuttering is reputation. Simply put, restaurants that get a lot of press and are known for a fabulous dining experience can withstand declining demand - because if customers are going to pay up for a nice meal, it's going to be at an acclaimed establishment. On a global level, there's perhaps no more famous a restaurant than Noma. Founded in Copenhagen, Noma has been the recipient of too many awards and accolades to count. It has the proud distinction of earning three Michelin stars and has made it to the "World's 50 Best" list on more than one occasion. Related: Historic Chinese restaurant closing unexpectedly after 42 years Known for its eclectic tasting menu, Noma is a foodie's dream. And now, that dream is coming to Los Angeles. The restaurant has announced that it will offer its unique Nordic tasting menu to Los Angeles diners starting in 2026. "We've been working on L.A. for a while," famed Chef Rene Redzepi told the Los Angeles Times. "In fact, we've been working on America for a while, never really finding that perfect location." Redzepi opened Noma in 2003 and later moved it to a different Copenhagen location in 2018. It's known as one of the most difficult restaurants to get a reservation at, and for good reason. In 2023, Redzepi said he was toying with the idea of closing the restaurant but ultimately never made that move. His foray into the LA dining scene is appropriate, given that the city is home to many fine dining establishments and consumers with larger wallets. More Fast Food & Restaurant News: Starbucks makes shocking pricing move customers will loveBankrupt restaurant chain offers new deal, stiff drinkNew Taco Bell menu items combines multiple classics Speaking of which, the Noma experience is not cheap. Diners can expect to pay upward of $400 to indulge in its world-famous menu. Details of the LA location are still emerging. But it's fair to assume that despite the very high price tag, diners will be clamoring to get a table once reservations open. Related: Legendary local restaurant closing saddens fans The Arena Media Brands, LLC THESTREET is a registered trademark of TheStreet, Inc.
Mint
05-07-2025
- Business
- Mint
Why There Isn't a Best Chef in the World
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- In victory, top chefs are much like the classiest of professional tennis players: self-deprecatory, admiring of their rivals, grateful to their teachers. Two weeks ago, just after his restaurant Maido was proclaimed No. 1 among the 50 Best Restaurants in the World at a ceremony in Turin, Italy, Mitsuharu Tsumura told me, 'There is competition, but when you finish, you shake hands, you have a beer.' Unlike tennis and other sports, though, the world of haute cuisine doesn't really have a universally recognized ranking system like the Association of Tennis Professionals and the Women's Tennis Association. For those who point to the Michelin Guide, I will politely say the French tire company provides ratings not rankings. The 50 Best franchise certainly provides a glitzy showcase for some of the finest eating establishments in the world, but it's incomprehensive. The list has lots of Latin American representation, like Maido in Peru, but sparse North American luminaries. (One of my favorites, Atomix in New York City, placed 12th this year, dropping six spots; the next US restaurant isn't even in the top 50: Single Thread in Healdsburg, California, at 80.) Once upon a time, the best chef in the world was whoever was at the top of the French culinary universe. Paul Bocuse — who died in 2018 and whose name is enshrined in the Bocuse D'Or cooking competition in his native Lyon — was perhaps the most infallible of these culinary arbiters of fine dining. However, for about a three-decade span — from the very end of the 20th century to the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic — there was wide consensus that two non-French cooks were the world's most influential chefs. For the first half of the period, it was Ferran Adria of El Bulli in Spain. For the second half, it was Rene Redzepi of Noma in Copenhagen. Their primacy is reflected in the history of the 50 Best: Adria has won the top spot five times; Redzepi has done it four times. In 2019, the organization changed its rules, automatically promoting all past and future top-notchers into a 'Best of the Best' hall of fame. It was a way of getting new restaurants into the rankings while assuaging the older guard with apotheosis. The reform was a polite way to freshen up the list, but it unwittingly reflects a real change in the nature of the culinary world, one effected by the legacies of Adria and Redzepi. Let me summarize it by way of an anecdote. During a dinner, the Spanish chef, who is a friend, turned to me with one of the terrifying restaurant history questions he likes to hurl at friend and foe alike. Get the answer right and you are golden. Get it wrong and you'll get an hourlong lecture to set you right. 'What is the greatest lesson of El Bulli?' he asked me. Fortunately, a couple of months before, I had heard the answer — from Rene Redzepi. The Dane, whom I also consider a friend, had worked briefly in Adria's kitchen and has feted the Spaniard on his birthday at Noma. And so, I repeated what I'd learned: 'The most important rule of El Bulli is that there are no rules.' Adria smiled approvingly and I got no lecture. Adria dethroned the French as world champions with his genre-busting kitchen techniques; and Redzepi pushed the revolution further by turning Nordic notions into haute cuisine, further showing everyone that their local cuisines too could become global standard-bearers. You didn't have to be French — or Spanish or Danish. Today, I find it quite moving that among the James Beard Awards and nominations for best restaurants in the various US regions were establishments serving Filipino, Tamil, Thai, Korean, Mexican, Vietnamese and a host of other non-European cuisines. It's also inspiring that one of the chefs who got the most attention at the Turin ceremony was Pichaya Soontornyanakij and her restaurant Potong in Bangkok. Ikoyi, the highest-placed London restaurant at 15, has its roots in West African cooking. A quick round of interviews with top contenders for the 50 Best revealed a consensus for the cuisines with increasing global influence: Mexican, Chinese, Korean and Indian. It's going to be hard to figure on parameters that will allow you judge whether the wok hei technique of a Hong Kong chef is better than the bhuna caramelization of a top restaurant in Mumbai. Even as all this decentralization continues, the world of chefs seems to be settling into two semi-ideological camps. Or perhaps the word is egocentric. The 50 Best appears to be a favorite annual stop of Adria; his disciples have followed. Meanwhile, a more nebulous but just as influential group gathers around Redzepi, who not only has been taking Noma around the world (Kyoto last year; Los Angeles next) but also this year revived the MAD Symposium, which was legendary in the 2010s for allowing chefs to voice big and deep thoughts. Both men continue to project their authority and personality onto a cooking universe without a center of gravity. But chefs still like prizes — especially those with the label 'best.' I started this column with tennis players. If you believe that they are as gracious in private as their victorious personas on the podium, well, you haven't been watching enough matches with the athletes grunting, growling and scowling. Chefs share the same passions and instincts. This year at the 50 Best, a popular expectation was that the No. 1 spot would go to Bittor Arginzoniz's Asador Etxebarri in Spain's Basque country. Maido, with its celebration of Peru's Japanese immigrant Nikkei cuisine, has been working its way up the list for years, but Etxebarri, with its innovative grilling, has been one of the most influential restaurants in the world for a long time. Its chef is also famously fiery and competitive. So, despite his smiling demeanor in Turin, he was probably unhappy that the restaurant came in at No. 2. One foodie friend — who asked not to be named because he knows too many sensitive chefs — quipped that 'Bittor is probably so mad at the snub that he's only going to make Etxebarri better than ever, just to show everyone up. Better book a table now.' More From Bloomberg Opinion: This column reflects the personal views of the author and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners. Howard Chua-Eoan is a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion covering culture and business. He previously served as Bloomberg Opinion's international editor and is a former news director at Time magazine. More stories like this are available on
Los Angeles Times
01-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
‘I truly fell in love with Los Angeles': Why Rene Redzepi chose L.A. for Noma's next pop-up
Noma's Rene Redzepi and his international team of chefs, servers, foragers, fermentation geeks, programmers and more are coming to Los Angeles next year for a months-long residency — the restaurant's first in the U.S. 'We were supposed to be in L.A. this coming fall,' Redzepi said during a brief interview inside one of the greenhouses next to his Copenhagen restaurant not long before the official announcement. 'But with the fires, we thought it was all canceled. Then it wasn't canceled and we moved it to March.' Like a troupe of culinary troubadours, Redzepi's team has packed up their knives and garums several times since the restaurant first opened in 2004 and was named the World's Best Restaurant five times. In 2016, they traveled to Sydney; in 2017, they were on Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula; in 2018, Noma was in Tokyo; and they've been to Kyoto twice, in 2023 and 2024. But Los Angeles has long been on Redzepi's radar. 'We've been working on L.A. for a while,' he said. 'In fact, we've been working on America for a while, never really finding that perfect location. I wasn't really knowing America well enough to properly make a decision. People would say, 'Oh, you should be in New York.' Only when I went with my whole family to L.A. some years back, that's when we fell in love with Los Angeles. Yeah, I truly fell in love with Los Angeles.' The other times he'd come to Los Angeles had been for work. 'It was sporadic, very hectic,' he said. 'In and out.' This extended trip was different for Redzepi, his children and wife Nadine Levy Redzepi, author of the cookbook 'Downtime: Deliciousness at Home.' 'We stayed in Manhattan Beach,' he said. 'We had days of just strolling around, meeting people, going to all the farmers markets and realizing how many people I know in Los Angeles. It was great having them take us to their favorite places — with Roy Choi in Koreatown and the guys from Night + Market [Kris and Sarah Yenbamroong] taking us around eating Thai food.' At the recently revived Mad Symposium, a gathering of chefs, farmers and other food professionals, as well as artists and thinkers, one of the speakers was Los Angeles chef Justin Pichetrungsi of Anajak Thai. His talk: 'How to Take Over Your Parent's Restaurant in Five Easy Steps.' 'He's an extraordinary guy. I really, really like Justin,' Redzepi said. 'To tell the truth, when I went [to his Thai Taco Tuesday] for the first time, that's when I felt, okay, this has to be the place, Los Angeles. 'Because I was like, this can only happen in Los Angeles. There's something going on — that sort of daringness where you just do things. There's a creative energy I find in Los Angeles that is based on sort of this grassroots experience, not on money that made you be creative. 'It's actually more rare than you think in food these days, because most food, you know, it's big budgets, it's big projects.' 'Another thing I love about L.A.?' he said. 'Tacos. Not just tacos. Noodles. Sushi. Ahhh! ... You can find every single ingredient in Los Angeles, and they all taste extraordinary. 'When you come from Denmark, a homogeneous place, it's exciting to arrive in L.A. It's like the world came to live in one place.' Redzepi, of course, is known for staffing his restaurant with chefs and servers from all over the world. 'Our team is from everywhere,' he said. 'Mexicans, Chinese, Italians, which is lovely.' His current head chef is Pablo Soto, who is from Mexico City. 'The only thing that can stop us,' Redzepi acknowledges, 'is if we don't get visas. I just got my visa a few days ago.' Redzepi is hoping that even with the fraught political environment, his team can contribute something good to the city. 'We're gonna come to L.A. wearing the biggest positivity hat you can imagine. We're just gonna give it all we have, and we're gonna cook, and we're going to be with people, and we're going to hike in the mountains, and we're going to have coffee shops. We're going to have pop-ups with other people. It will be five or six months of energy and trying to meet all the creative people of Los Angeles, and learn from them and be inspired by them.' Members of thNoma team have already made three trips to L.A. for research without Redzepi. 'We were worried that if I went on these trips people would sniff out the project and the news would get out. But he plans to arrive for the long term in late fall. 'If everything goes well, I'll be there in November. I can't wait.'
Yahoo
26-03-2025
- Yahoo
7 wild herbs you can forage in the UK
This article was produced by National Geographic Traveller (UK). Wild greens and herbs have been part of our diet since the dawn of time, and it was only at the beginning of the 20th century, when food and farming became heavily industrialised, that their popularity dropped off. In the 2010s, however, they saw a resurgence, with high-end chefs like Rene Redzepi in Copenhagen, Michel Bras in Laguiole, France, and Dan Barber in New York incorporating hyperlocal, foraged ingredients into their menus. You don't need to be a chef to take advantage of the many edible treasures in Britain's fields, hedgerows, woodlands and gardens, however — just a sense of adventure and, unless you have the requisite know-how, a guide. A few tips: avoid anywhere near polluted water or heavy traffic, or popular with dogs. If you have doubts about identifying something — especially plants in the wild carrot family, which can vary from delicious to deadly poisonous — choose a safer option, such as nettles or dandelions. Here are Britain's herby highlights. A native herb with fine, feathery leaves and a froth of tiny white flowers in summer, yarrow grows in meadows and hedgerows. James Wood, who runs Totally Wild foraging courses across the UK, adds the young leaves to potato salad, and after flowers appear he uses the leaves in stuffings and stews, replacing thyme or rosemary. At The Small Holding restaurant in Kent — which holds a Green Michelin star — you might find sprigs of yarrow dotted on top of ricotta and tomatoes. Not suitable for people with aspirin allergy. Many people think of chickweed as an annoying invader, but its dainty leaves are delicious, with a flavour like spinach crossed with sweetcorn — so if it rampages through your garden, eat it up. There's a long tradition of doing so, with burnt chickweed seeds found at Neolithic sites. However, it has a nasty lookalike, petty spurge, but it's easy to tell them apart: chickweed has a single line of hairs on each stem. Even more obvious, if you pull the stem until it snaps, you'll see a thin strand or core inside it, while spurge has milky sap. Also known as horse parsley, Alexanders arrived with the Romans, and it bullies our native bluebells, so harvesting it is no bad thing, especially in places like Norfolk, where it's abundant. Although the whole plant is edible, with a concentrated celery flavour, the seeds are the most exciting part, says James: 'They're quite similar to sichuan pepper — it's like having masses of wild peppercorns growing unnoticed on our doorsteps.' Originally found on European mountainsides, sweet cicely can be used in place of fennel. Jekka McVicar, a herb expert and founder of Jekka's, a herb farm in Bristol, likes to cook it with rhubarb, as the herb's sweetness cuts the amount of sugar needed. Sweet cicely could be confused with poisonous hemlock, but the former's aniseed scent sets it apart. Not be confused with actual ivy, ground ivy is a native, low-growing wild herb related to mint and dead nettles, with purple, funnel-shaped flowers and small, slightly hairy leaves, which are very fragrant when crushed or chopped. It's invasive and one of the UK's most common weeds, so light foraging can be helpful to the ecosystem. Use the leaves where you might use mint, especially in tzatziki or to garnish a gin and tonic. Once you identify sweet woodruff's star-shaped whorl of narrow oval leaves and tiny four-petalled white flowers, you'll spot it everywhere. Jekka uses the almond-scented leaves in salads, but you can dry them for a more intensely vanilla-like flavour and infuse them into drinks. They must be dried fast and thoroughly, though, and kept in an airtight container, or they can develop a dangerous toxin. Found in damp lowlands all over the UK, meadowsweet has a long history of medicinal use, and some people find the leaves smell medicinal, too. One of the most sacred herbs of the ancient druids, its name comes from mead, which the flowers were used to flavour. Using them in place of elderflower in elderflower 'champagne' brings out notes of hay, almond and vanilla. This is another herb not suitable for those with an aspirin allergy, though. Fat Hen: The Wild Cookery School, CornwallTake a foraging 'stomp' along a coastal path before heading to The Gurnard's Head pub near Penzance for lunch and a lesson in turning the likes of alexanders and three-cornered leek into kimchi. Healing Weeds, BristolRun by trainee herbalist Maria Fernandez Garcia, Healing Weeds offers foraging walks in Bristol's country parks and farms (finds include yarrow, meadowsweet or chickweed) as well as workshops on using flowers and herbs as remedies. The Sharpham Trust, DevonWilderness psychotherapist Brigit-Anna McNeil hosts hosts wild herb foraging days in spring, summer and autumn, focused on their use as food and medicine. Expect to gather the likes of mugwort, wood avens and dandelions. Published in Issue 27 (spring 2025) of Food by National Geographic Traveller (UK).To subscribe to National Geographic Traveller (UK) magazine click here. (Available in select countries only).
