The Shadow of Noma Ghost: Is Fine Dining Going to its Death Valley?

Opening in 2003, Noma, a restaurant in Copenhagen, Denmark, has grown in its reputation. In 2021, it reached the zenith of three Michelin stars as well as having been crowned the top of The World's 50 Best Restaurants five times (from 2010 to 2014, and 2021). Its chef/owner, René Redzepi has been challenging and re-defining the experience of “fine-dining” by introducing “New Nordic” cuisine to the world’s gourmets. Claiming not to repeat a single dish, Noma is known for its creativity in foraging/outsourcing local products, integrating its fermentation experiment into dishes, and showcasing its unconventional food plating. By utilizing and celebrating the Nordic seasonal ingredients, Redzepi has repeatedly overwhelmed the culinary world with his team.

Since 2004, René Redzepi, and a group of Nordic chefs had expressed their Nordic Kitchen Manifesto; its ten statements summarized their hope to bring greater public awareness to the health, ethical production and sustainability of the food supply industry.

https://www.norden.org/en/information/new-nordic-food-manifesto Please refer to the info here, addressed by the Nordic Council of Ministers.

Early in 2023, René Redzepi announced that Noma will close at the end of 2024. This shocking news quickly spread throughout the food industry and prompted many to reflect on whether other highly creative, labor-intensive, and luxury-priced models of fine dining will be changed or “have to change.”

According to the New York Times, many leading restaurants as well as Noma, are now confronting a great scrutiny of employee treatment. Many workers have been confronting issues such as not receiving fair salary or enduring excessively-long working hours.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/09/dining/noma-closing-rene-redzepi.html

The morality of this unhealthy fact in the food industry has finally shed veil to the public.

It’s been twenty-one years since the manifesto was brought to the eyes of the public, and there were traces that followed many of the listed statements in Noma Kyoto in Japan. The creative menu definitely expressed the freshness of local ingredients; its diversity in cookery techniques and complexity in flavor-mapping were a fusion of Noma’s modern culinary perspective and Japanese traditional cuisine.

As this time, chef Redzepi led over one hundred staff from Copenhagen to Kyoto; for the intensive labor consumption, abundant efforts of experiments and extremely delicate food presentations, the cost to dine is 500 Euro alone with a 300 Euro alcohol/non-alcohol pairing.

To pay respect to Japanese culture, Noma Kyoto integrated the concept of Kaiseki style cuisine into their creation.

To explain Kaiseki in the simplest way; it is a traditional Japanese multi-course cuisine, which is usually served with many little portions of food made from seasonal ingredients. The Kanji words for Kaiseki are (懷石), which literally mean “breast pocket stone.” Legends say that this refers to how monks would hold warm stones on their stomachs when fasting so that they would not feel hungry during Zen practices.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaiseki

Hassun, a traditional second opening course in Japanese Kaiseki, was presented as the first course. Noma did not follow the exact order of Kaiseki but re-constructed their interpretation of the set meal; yet this course stuck to the original motif of using seasonal ingredients.

There were five little dishes on this Hassun plate: Yuba and ramson, Koji cake with ginger, Tomato flower, Cherry leaf, and Pollen gel.

Yuba and ramson

Yuba, the thin layer of tofu skin, was in the middle of this dish. Ramson was the charred Japanese garlic leaf, while the plate was a collection of seasonal greens from the local farms. The Noma team chose to present the textures of each ingredient by using various cooking techniques such as grilled or boiled, or even served raw; to showcase the team’s interpretation of each ingredient. All these vegetables had different tastes; sweetness, bitterness, sourness, etc. Each had a different degree of “grassiness,” making the textures in the mouth significantly diverse.

The sweet pea provided a caviar taste that was soft, sweet and bursting in the month. The ramson tasted like a very mild leek with a hint of garlic smell. The rest of the vegetable leaves contained different botanical smells, which made this side dish extremely fresh.

Tomato Flower

This “Tomato Flower '' was assembled with a few layers of dried tomatoes to shape the pistil, then it was decorated with the petals of nasturtium flowers. It was both beautiful in presentation as well as rich in its concentrated tomato umami flavor; it well demonstrated the craftsmanship of the Noma team.

But what was the accumulation of the efforts to create this single dish? A small team might be working for days just to complete the assembly of this tomato flower. When chef Redzepi told the New York Times that Noma is in need to change to be sustainable, could we be bald to question if this excessive labor-consumption be limited?

Photo: Hassun: Koji cake with ginger @Frankie Fang

Photo: Hassun: “Pollen gel” @Frankie Fang

Seaweed shabu-shabu

Our second course was ’Shabu shabu,’ it referred to the sound when the ingredients were cooked and swirled around a hot pot of liquid, usually a kind of dashi. Noma’s broth in this dish was made of lightly-smoked wakame stem (mekabu) and dashi. The dipping sauce was an aromatic seaweed ponzu. The raw ingredients that were served on the side for us to cook in the hot pot were a combination of young kombu, ogonori, fudaraku, tosaka nori, along with a piece of citrus known as konatsu.

The hotpot broth became bubbling hot with the use of heated stones.

Photo: Seaweed shabu-shabu @Frankie Fang

Although we had not been given any utensils for the broth, I still desired to taste it. Hence, I used my chopstick stand, which was shaped like a nut shell holder to do so; it was delicious. The broth was a mixture of smoked nori that brought a strong oceanic smell, and the dashi was full of umami but did not interfere with that of the nori. After doing research on the traditional Japanese shabu shabu dish (as well as their Raman), I understand that the broth and/or the soup are not to be consumed but are simply for the purpose of cooking the ingredients or adding flavors to the noodles. Yet, I strongly wish I could have a bit more of this precious broth. Surely while it was not ideal for me to use a chopstick stand to taste the broth, and I felt like hiding as I did it.

LINE_ALBUM_2023511 Noma Kyoto_230523_90.jpg

The ponzu sauce for the seaweed was made from sea buckthorn, lemongrass, marigold and some of Noma’s own fermented ingredients. It added a hint of citrus flavor to these cooked seaweeds. But these seaweeds were already very tasty. They had various flavors that brought the salty ocean scents to our nostrils, along with their different textures such as crunchy, slippery, soft, and silky. I did not find that the sauce added that much of a surprising note to the already very diverse tastes of these algae. In fact, since the surface of these seaweeds could not hold that much of the ponzu sauce, much broth and dipping sauce were left.

When my plate was taken away, I asked the service team how they dealt with this leftover broth, and was told that the broth would simply be disposed of, and I believe the sauce as well.

When I think of how the Noma team had worked hard to present this incredible dining experience, I could not help but feel that the amount of broth and sauce could be adjusted so that there was not so much waste. Was the pot used in this plate solely only for the purpose of a visual effect entertainment? Since the Nordic Kitchen Manifesto had advocated greater public awareness of health, ethical production and sustainability, where to draw the line between aesthetics and food waste?"

Bamboo shoots in squid broth

The third course was “Bamboo Shoots in Squid Broth.” During this Kyoto pop-up, bamboo shoots were in season; and since presenting the freshest ingredients is the motif that the Kaiseki aims for, they were ideal. The bamboo shoots were nicely cooked to a tender sweetness. The squid broth was full of umami, and surprisingly enhanced with a touch of jasmine flower. The Noma team had brought their own stainless-steel utensils for the guests to use, but their metal spoons made a rough sound while I was having the broth as the metal tip scratched the bottom of the clay bowl. To elaborate, the utensils used could have provided a warmer feeling, in the same way that a nacre spoon helps augment the taste of caviar.

Photo: The Utensils for the Bamboo shoots in squid broth @Frankie Fang

Swordfish belly

When I first tasted the fourth dish, “Swordfish Belly,” I must admit that I felt uncertain about the combination of this already fatty fish with an incredibly rich butter sauce. The fish belly had been cut into 3 rectangle pieces in the traditional Japanese Sashimi style; when I slowly and gently chewed the fish by itself, the meat of the fish belly released its perfumed oil which was extremely profound. The butter sauce added the taste of salty toffee candy to the dish. If anyone is dubious about this combination of the tastes, imagine chewing salmon sashimi alone with a spoon of toffee syrup and a pinch of sea salt.

In an article published by Copenhagenfoodie, “Noma: The Best of Two Worlds,” one of the statements actually points out the love/hate relationship that traditional Japanese diners have for this dish. Some love it because of the creativity by which Noma paired the sauce with the belly meat, while others have doubt because of the unconventional and conflicting way that this fattiness and richness were combined.

Tofu and Wild Almonds

The tofu in the center was so light that it tasted almost like cottage cheese with two different soy milk contents. The green portion had a rather grassy and earthy taste; while white portion was creamy like tofu. This combination was light in texture yet rich in its bean taste. Some almond snowflakes were served on the side. There were also tiny almond bits mixed in the underlying mushroom broth. On top of the sauce were drips of parsley oil and condensed cucumber water. This dish was garnished with nasturtium flowers decorated with different tasty gels. This was a dish in which all ingredients were given a chance to display their original flavors in perfect balance.

Kinki Fish

When the sixth course, “Kinki Fish,” was brought, I touched the serving bowl and its garnish rocks; they were cold. In my culinary learning, I had been educated to place a cold dish on a cold plate, and a hot dish on a hot plate. A hot dish should always be served at the best temperature for the diner. This fish had been first cured with elderflower miso, steamed, and brushed with a layer of egg yolk/sakura blossom sauce, yet when I tasted the fish, it was lukewarm… Again, I questioned: “Why were such cold stones used to decorate the food?” Was this Noma’s interpretation of using stones as a simulation of Kaiseki (懷石) for the garnish purpose? Was the fish supposed to be served lukewarm so we could better experience the taste of this fish?

“… Foods taste differently at different temperatures because our taste buds for sweet, bitter and umami work best within a specific temperature range: from 15-35C.”

https://www.sonndacatto.co.uk/blog/how-temperature-affects-taste

Lotus root steak

The seventh course was the “Lotus Root Steak.” The root had been slowly sauteed in truffle garum to create a meat-like texture, which was something that this Noma team encountered and experimented with for the first time. It was intensely flavored and the surface was charred to perfection with black pepper. The taste of the umami was executed to its most potent expression.

This lotus root was served in 4 slices, alongside a bowl of egg yolk/butter sauce, topped with an abundance of pepper. I only added a little of this sauce as shown in the picture.

The root was just perfect as presented; I did not find the need to use all the sauce even though the service team did provide us with a spoon. At the end, as the guests finished their dish, there was still a lot of sauce left.

Again, I question, where would the sauces go after they were taken away?

Sansai

The eighth course was “Sansai,” it was a course with various of local mountain vegetables freshly hand-picked every morning. Each plant had its own unique taste and was done in the Noma kitchen with different cooking methods. It no doubt demonstrated the effort that the Noma team had made in researching the finest local ingredients. The pairing sauce underneath the sansai was made from the upcoming main course, “Ise Ebi’s” (Japanese spiny lobster) head.

I felt that this sansai collection was a delicacy.

But then, I pondered; how much is too much? In the beginning of my own culinary journey, adding multiple layers of tastes to enhance the dish was my goal. A few years later, as I started my Japanese culinary learning, I was given a different suggestion, namely to elaborate the originality of the ingredients. I remember a conversation with a Japanese chef, when he told me: “I only focus on presenting three ingredients in one dish, anything more is redundant. It takes away the original flavor of the dish. Be true to what you are using, be true to the ingredients.”

What Noma brings to the culinary world has been cutting age; chef René Redzepi and his team have no doubt discovered an unconventional manner of choreographing the dance of the local/seasonal/exquisite ingredients of the various countries where they perform.

Photo: Green rice with roses @Frankie Fang

Photo: Dried strawberry and mochi @Frankie Fang

When Chef Redzepi conveyed the closing of Noma by the end of 2024, it raised many interpretations and even suspicions from various media platforms.

During an interview in Kyoto, René Redzepi indicated that, “there is a big change coming!” As he continued to talk about the future of the “fine dining” industry, he noted that “there are fewer and fewer cooks, and their employment is going to be extremely challenging if the operation of the F&B business remains the same.” Most importantly, Noma is not going to close down forever. “If we do open again, it will be because we have a financial platform that allows us to be open, not as a 12 month operation . . . (we will) open when we have new ideas ready . . . (when) we have the ideas, the creativity, the team will be ready for something special.”

For many years, many interns had come from different parts of the world to work for free, as well as paid for their own expenses in Copenhagen to be able to enter this legendary, culinary temple of Noma.

What do we tend to expect from so-called, “haute cuisine” restaurants to bring to the table? Is the urge of witnessing dishes that are sugar-coated with excessive labor work what we truly desire?

As I asked about this internship condition in Noma’s Kyoto pop-up this time in Japan, chef Redzepi responded straightforwardly: “No, it is illegal in Denmark now, it is prohibited.”

Maybe we can finally see the changes in fine-dining industry.

Afterall, how many hours did the “Tomato Flower “require for a group of cooks to pick the petals of nasturtium flowers one by one, and to assemble each part to form this beautiful, delicate flower with intensive care? Indeed, it was a dish for any chef to learn its techniques from, I wonder its feasibility to procreate this exact same concept but in a more accessible manner? How do we go beyond the beauty of food craft in the food industry, while improving the acute amount of labor work?

Noma Kyoto surely showcased another brilliant work of art in its resourcing of local ingredients, its food presentation, and its immersive experience. No doubt the craftsmanship of delicate, culinary techniques was manifest. Yet, to continue on the journey of culinary sustainability, and to avoid excessive waste and/or labor work, such as the broth from the Shabu Shabu dish, remains an area to explore more in depth.

How are we to actively change, challenge, and improve fundamentally our current status of service in the food industry? I invite you to question, to think, to walk in the direction of conscious eating; as it is no longer taking advantage of the environment and its bio(eco)logical resources. Haute cuisine, in a sense, is facing a different frontier on a changing planet. Consumer behaviors will be altered if diners are fully aware of the true fairness which is in need to bring upon; to the animals, the food industry, and the planet.

Maybe the Death Valley of fine dining will be blooming again.

The Shadow of Noma Ghost: Is Fine Dining Going to its Death Valley?

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