In 2008, before becoming as famous as nowadays, René Redzepi deserved the lomejordelagastronomia.com International Award, an honor that has been bestowed on Ducasse, Robuchon, Guérard and Adrià. At 32 years old he finds himself, to leave no doubt as to his historic transcendence, among the top chefs in the world of all times. Apart from Ferran Adrià, we don’t know anyone who is as gifted to create and to set trends as him. Considering his age and the constant evolution he demonstrated in 2010, it seems like the best of his oeuvre is nearby, definitely. The San Pellegrino list drawn up by The Restaurant magazine chose him as number one of the world ranking since 2010.
René is the Scandinavian Michel Bras of the third millennium; the likening is worthy. In the current panorama, what makes this chef unique is the identity of the message, differentiating itself in a substantial way from everything else out there. He practices green, organic cuisine, rawness in its perfect quantity, dedicated to the landscape, in search of local herbs, seaweed and vegetables, generally unheard of, that explode onto the dish in a natural, essential, but not minimal, way. “Vegetarian” gastronomy with the assiduous presence of exceptional seafood, since the product he uses, be it modest or fancy, is always of the highest quality. A cuisine that reduces fat to its minimum expression. When he employs dairy products, which is very often, they are always of the “skim” variety. A cuisine that is truly miserly when it comes time to add the sugar: “low in calories”. Futuristic cuisine, dedicated to nature and the values of the new generations: lightness, aesthetics, health… but it is capable of creating new sensations within this profiled message. A personal, different philosophy, charged with character, brimming with talent. We stand before a genius who recreates nature and naturality.
A GENIUS who does not stop incorporating astonishing and exuberantly virtuosic creations in his menus. The guest has to sit at this table as if he/she were about to have his/her first sexual relations. Completely virgin. Without knowing anything about what expects him/her. Frustration or ecstasy will depend on both him/her and the chef. This is a couple relationship. If you don’t copulate with René, it means that you are not open to gastronomic fantasy nor to this clairvoyant culinary paradise that is brimming with luxuriance. If you don’t fancy having an orgasm into the wood, don’t worry: there are other places, other styles and other ways.
First up, rose petals and pickled seaberry sheets. To go on with the show, caramelized milk cream with cod liver and crunchy sea lettuce. Other delicacy: salted biscuits with speck and blackcurrant. The mussel cooked onto an infinite file of –edible!– the mollusk’s shells was really mind-blowing. The radical, consummate salad: baby radish with guacamole, capers and toasted malt. The fritters stuffed with cucumber balls, inlaid with muikko (little smoked and pickled fish from Finland), are charming and rustic, let us say exquisitely rustic and extremely technical. Outstanding in staging and flavor: toast with smoked turbot roe, herbs and flowers, covered by a very delicate and tasty slice of duck consommé; a real demonstration of futurist art. More purity and more color is found in the beets, proposed in two versions: thin slices that look like boiled raviolis on sorrel and green apple juice; and the contrast of an empty and crunchy malt pastry. More country and wood: grilled white asparagus, consistent, bitter and earthy –unbeatable–, served with pine sprigs, oil, pine vinegar and green asparagus juice with juniper. Delicacy in all its glory: two slices of chicken skin and rye-bread filled with smoked cheese and lumpfish roe. Modest, but utterly inventive and excessively exquisite: here are the boiled potato balls crowned with chips, milk skin or cream, celery purée, herbs juice; sublime. Impeccable, oceanic, wild … This is how we qualify the slightly cooked shrimps, served with sea urchins, seaweeds, fir juice, cream and flowers. The crab salad with seaweed and cockle jellies is a real wave of unbeatable delight: 10/10. Another 10/10 dish: mahogany clams with winkles, whey sauce, leek stalks, seaweeds and herbs. And a third 10/10 proposal: razor clams in parsley jelly, hot radish and mussel juice. The giant Norway lobster over oceanic stone with seaweed cream and violet seaweed powder is really majestic. The deep sea sensations go on with the delicious oysters cooked with seaweed steam: oysters and seaweeds, seaweeds and oysters, competing and enhancing each other. The green barley risotto with original local walnuts, sauce of squid ink and extremely thin crunchy shavings of smoked scallops. Who gives more than this? And so the magic constructions continued to flow out of the kitchen… Pikeperch wrapped into cabbage leaf with verbena; sweetbread with peas, grilled spring garlic, nasturtium, ... until you have no choice but to say “enough”. One of the best meals of our lives.
As one can see, René Redzepi’s proposals are always, and absolutely, militant, conforming to a way of being, with a manner of thinking and acting that doesn’t prioritize its connection with people. This is not easy gastronomy. Controversy will abound, but the cuisine will triumph. Like it or not, no one can argue its global blooming.
Even the restaurant itself, located near a river in an old salt warehouse, is simple and charming, as is the service, executed by the cooks. The tablecloths drape in an utterly natural way… the personality is involving. And a wide range of juices is offered to accompany some dishes instead of wine: sorrel and apple, celery, yellow pine, apple and pineapple, elder flower, etc.
