Nordic cuisine has gone global and the expansion has certainly hit New York with restaurants like Acme, Luksus, Aamanns and Aska growing in number. The growth in popularity and prominence is often attributed to Copenhagen’s Noma and it’s chef René Redzepi — the restaurant has received a slew of accolades including years on top of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list.
But while Noma can’t come to New York, Redzepi certainly can, and last week we got to sit down with the chef at Manhattan’s Il Buco to discuss his newest book, A Work in Progress. It’s a book divided into three books: a journal that Redzepi kept throughout 2011, a cookbook filled with Noma’s recipes, and a smaller book of snapshots that give an inside look to the events chronicled in the journal.
Redzepi noted that it was unnerving at first to keep such a personal journal: “At first when I started doing this, I was embarrassed about it. How do you go into the kitchen (and it’s 20 minutes before everyone’s about to leave and we are finishing up) and how do you tell the bunch of tattooed boys and girls ‘I’m leaving I have to go finish my journal.’ It doesn’t fit into that kind of environment, or I thought it didn’t at least.”
Watch the video above for our full interview with Redzepi. To delve further into Nordic cuisine, you can pick up A Work in Progress now or read Edible Brooklyn‘s recent piece on Luksus.
Featured photo credit: Facebook/Noma
