Saint Redzepi

Check out my new article, Being René Redzepi in the Fool Magazine, here I have made a different portrait interview with the chef: the monk and how it is for souschef Torsten Vildgaard to live inside him. And with my own reflections on Nordic cuisine. Illustrated by Per-Anders Jörgensen. Magazine is released just now, see fool.se

The journey from Copenhagen’s centre to Noma, situated in the historic shipyards where Danes once prepared for battle against Swedes, feels like a pilgrimage. The midday light pours onto the quayside, reflecting off the restaurant’s dark windows. It is said that the dishes served up inside are portals to the mythical North, to landscapes overflowing with sensuality. The majority of Noma’s clients, like those of the now semi-defunct El Bulli, are readers, not eaters. Newspaper columns, trying to forget the financial crisis, all promote appetising escapism with the same story: in hip Scandinavia the superstar of the gastronomic forager movement poses alone on the beach, gathering herbs. I find him on the first floor of his restaurant (…)

To order the magazine, www.fool.se.

(i DK kan de indtil videre købes hos restaurant Manfreds/Relæ i Jægersborggade, Kbh)

Explorring the miso – Noma’s road to contiuned glory

Some days before the insanity in London …

I dropped past the restaurant to see what this winters fermentations had led to: René grasbs a box: A miso made of yellow peas (gule ærter in Danish), (instead of barley and soy), “this we call Pea-so!”.

The mashed yellow peas taste sour and perfumed. They are sticky and tastes totally of umami.

But this miso has been developed at Nordic Food LAB (which is externally sponsored). Lars Williams reveals the process:

This mixture consists of about equal parts of yellow peas and water containing 2% salt and a little barley, which can start a natural fermentation. The mass of the fermented yellow peas are then blended with plenty of water and clarified.

A new dish:

… with hay and shavings of juniper, tender plant shoots at the top, and the guest press his spoon into the hay, so the soup penetrates upwards: The soup is a burning hot broth of wild garlic and the miso … voilà!

Miso is something every Japanese grandmother knows of, gule ærter is something my grandmother knows of. What a fine fusion.

In Scandinavia yellow peas have traditionally been used in soups with bacon: names are ärtsoppa in Swedish; hernekeitto in Finish; ertesuppe in Norwegian and the gule ærter in Danish

Restaurant Maaemo Norway – Mother Earth in Norwegian

Last year I had a (nice informal) dinner at the Restaurant Maaemo in Oslo It was a great experience, everything tasted excellent!

The Danish born (Norwegian married) chef Esben Holmboe Bang told me to come back again later when he had more time to refine his cuisine. Well, Esben and his kitchen has certainly already found the hearts of the Michelin Guide reviewers when the restaurant with a Michelin Guide 2012 went from zero to two stars: “intricate, visually stimulating dishes”.

Artichokes – in France associated with poor man’s food – here South Norwegian terroir!

 

Sea buckthorn, dried birch leaves, foaming blue cheese with wine on birch juice (from Grythyttan). Exciting!

Hveite & Hvede – wheat beer, “Hvede”  from Herslev (Danish Microbrewery) and wheat bun served on stone.

Restaurant Maaemo opened last winter. The kitchen is focusing on vegetables, the style is international. A Norwegian terroir-cuisine. I was there in February when the season for the plants was at its most fierce.

Clearly provocative cuisine, e.g. a dish made of bread served on a stone and a wheat beer too. The Norwegian tabloid VG was completely out in the woods: “Much money for a meal entirely uten sjøkreps, lobster, lamb or duck.” This quote reveals the food critic’s implicit criterion: animal proteins is a prerequisite for good food. I would say it is great to finally taste Norwegian vegetables which is not so easy to find in Norway, where the food industry is dominated by monopolies.

Please, could I just ask for a seat again!

Maaemo.no / +919948051- the blog is not updated – And the name: Maaemo meaning Mother Earth in Finnish – due, I think, to to the Finnish restaurant manager. Esben was at Feinschmecker (under Lars Erik, he lost his Michelinstar) and in Denmark at Hurtigkarl and Schackenborg Slotskro.

Le Chateaubriand 2012

January visit to the chic, Parisian restaurant Le Chateaubriand

World lacks real restaurants like this! Tasty exotic and experimental dishes, informal, non-hipster attitude. Le Chateaubriand. The basque background of chef Iñaki Aizpitarte can be tasted in the food. After the meal I  catch him in the kitchen …

Outside in the street (the anonymous Avenue Parmentier) people without reservations are waiting. Inside just 50-60 seats. I instantly love the place when I see the prices: 55 euros menu, the double with wines.

A delightful dry white Greek in the glass (Pyrgos 2006, Grece H. Hatzidakis from the volcanic Santorini and on the local grape Assyrtiko). The wine goes with the following ‘amuses bouches’. The best is …

A spring roll covered with some distinctive dust of raspberry and stuffed with sardines, herbs and garlic – surprisingly good and creative combination of sheer, distinctive taste.

Then: Duck with tarragon and various seeds.

The next wine is from her Sicilian OCCHIPINTI (Grotte di Alte 2006), powerful, a little violent. But fine for next dish…

Blood sausage, blue potato, bitter herbs and chips. French tastes: blood sausage in Nordic style. The classical way to serve it is with apples, Boudin au pommes. 

“We have only natural wines,” says the sommelier. I ask him to choose a bottle at max price of 40 euros, and he comes up with a somewhat too ‘closed’ wine. Damn.

Next: Various bitterness surrounding a piece of trout: endive, radiccio and grapefruit -. The unique flavor is truffle, which is torn out of court as sawdust. Super!

Red upon red: Beetroot in pimento and red meat – the chefs have certainly amused themselves, but I remember the dish well

A reinterpretation of a classic Andalusian egg TOCINO del Cielo - before ….

And after …

Recommended!

Just down the street I visited sister restaurant Le Dauphin.
Over lunch, I went on Au Passage

Le Chateaubriand has no website, speaks like English when you call: 0033 1 4357 4595th Available: Paris, 129 Avenue Parmentier, by Metro Parmentier.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Le-Chateaubriand/22894946084

Appetite for Gaza – VIDEO

In the isolated Gaza Strip the food culture is spicy and its population find great pleasure in kebab with chilli and liver.

Follow Culinary Traveller Anders Holst Markussen as he visits Gaza City and Khan Younis. Summer 2011.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKNtT7_P-8E

Lystfuld hjemmevideo fra ’verdens største fængsel’. En kulinarisk fortælling fra Gaza Striben, som jeg entrerede denne sommer. Glem alt om konflikter. Der er liv i bazaren, chili af komposten. Områdets politiske fremtid afgøres netop nu i FN. Se video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKNtT7_P-8E

The restaurant review – an abstract in English

The restaurant review – genre, argument and development

Anders Holst Markussen, University of Copenhagen, Faculty of Humanities, Department of Nordic Studies and Linguistics. June 2007

The present thesis concerns the restaurant review. It is based on current Danish restaurant reviews, but also covers reviews in the biggest international newspapers. How should the restauarant review be considered as a genre? How can a restaurant review be more qualifying?

Since no research has been carried out on this subject (to my knowledge) the perspective covers both new research in related fields and an insight into the changes that have occurred since the first reviews appeared in the seventies.

I have studied all major Danish newspapers over a year, May 2005 – May 2006, 235 restaurant reviews, which I have described as a genre. The genre has showed to have close relations between its contents, form and functions.

Quantitative analyses of reasoning in the current restaurant review show that arguments are seldom supported and that i.e. refutations are never proven. The obligatory photo of restaurant or dishes doesn’t reflect if there has been given a good or bad mark in the review. But metaphoric descriptions largely make the character and value of the meal comprehensible. The objective is to treat features that can strengthen the integrity of the restaurant review.

My observations on how the meal in the restaurant review is described shows that aromas are never referred to and wines are generally neglected. Brief looks into the history of literature confirm that aromas, and all other sensory qualities, are absent whenever the meal is represented.

Therefore I also promote an alternative restaurant review that draws on natural science and narrative elements – that is sensory science and literary journalism (new journalism). I advocate the concept of free association that is my own designation of aromatic, metaphorical closeness. These ideas are summed up in my own review of three restaurants.

International restaurant reviews including The New York Times are marked by a lack of sensory description. In return this newspaper qualifies itself with an extended use of literary elements compared with Danish reviews. This thesis is pointing to an international food criticism.

Corresponding author: Anders Holst Markussen, tel.: +45-2741-3571. Mail: anhoma@gmail.com