Noma’s Rene Redzepi and his worldwide group of cooks, servers, foragers, fermentation geeks, programmers and extra are coming to Los Angeles subsequent yr for a months-long residency — the restaurant’s first within the U.S.
“We were supposed to be in L.A. this coming fall,” Redzepi stated throughout a quick interview inside one of many greenhouses subsequent to his Copenhagen restaurant not lengthy earlier than 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 group has packed up their knives and garums a number of instances for the reason that restaurant first opened in 2004 and was named the World’s Greatest Restaurant 5 instances. In 2016, they traveled to Sydney; in 2017, they have been on Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula; in 2018, Noma was in Tokyo; and so they’ve been to Kyoto twice, in 2023 and 2024. However Los Angeles has lengthy been on Redzepi’s radar.
“We’ve been working on L.A. for a while,” he stated. “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 opposite instances he’d come to Los Angeles had been for work. “It was sporadic, very hectic,” he stated. “In and out.”
This prolonged journey was completely different for Redzepi, his youngsters and spouse Nadine Levy Redzepi, creator of the cookbook “Downtime: Deliciousness at Home.”
“We stayed in Manhattan Beach,” he stated. “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.”
Chef René Redzepi at his Copenhagen restaurant Noma in a scene from the documentary sequence “Omnivore” on Apple TV+.
(Per Arnesen/Courtesy of Apple TV+)
On the not too long ago revived Mad Symposium, a gathering of cooks, farmers and different meals professionals, in addition to artists and thinkers, one of many audio system was Los Angeles chef Justin Pichetrungsi of Anajak Thai. His speak: “How to Take Over Your Parent’s Restaurant in Five Easy Steps.”
“He’s an extraordinary guy. I really, really like Justin,” Redzepi stated. “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 stated. “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, after all, is understood for staffing his restaurant with cooks and servers from all around the world.
“Our team is from everywhere,” he stated. “Mexicans, Chinese, Italians, which is lovely.” His present head chef is Pablo Soto, who’s from Mexico Metropolis.
“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 surroundings, his group can contribute one thing good to the town.
“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.”
“If everything goes well, I’ll be there in November. I can’t wait.”
