Rene Redzepi
Rene Redzepi
René Redzepiis a Danish chef and co-owner of the two-Michelin star restaurant Noma in the Christianshavn neighborhood of Copenhagen, Denmark. His restaurant was voted the best restaurant in the world in 2010 San Pellegrino Awards, 2011, 2012 and 2014. Redzepi is noted for his work for the reinvention and refinement of a new Nordic cuisine and food that is characterized by inventiveness and clean flavours...
NationalityDanish
ProfessionChef
Date of Birth16 December 1977
CountryDenmark
In my home I tend to eat a very simple version of what we cook at the restaurant, which is vegetable-oriented, with a little bit of fish and very little meat. For instance, a dish in my home could be steamed spinach with spruce, where I take a spruce branch and put it in the pot and that infuses into the spinach.
I started my cooking 'career' aged 15, almost 20 years ago. At the time it was quite a shock suddenly working 75 to 80 hours a week, without time to play football or other sports.
Fifteen years ago, France was the promised land of cooking. So I looked at a map, found five restaurants and faxed them to ask for a job. Within five minutes, I got a reply from the then three- star Le Jardin des Sens in Montpellier.
Appetite as it relates to the human being, the person. How do you find appetite for what you do? How do you relate to appetite? How do you get appetite, not only for a meal but also to do the work you do?
I can tell you one of the most surprising ingredients I've ever found. Perhaps five years ago on a beach I saw this herb that looked exactly like chives. I put it in my mouth and started chewing and, surprise, it tasted exactly like coriander.
When I turned 15, I left school having failed to make the minimum grade. With little direction I enlisted at the local culinary school. Here the academic demands were less rigorous.
I'm a bit of a glutton - I eat too much of all that is good to eat.
I would love to eat a really great burger, but it doesn't exist in our part of the world.
I only have the restaurant. If I do other things, it's only to do with the restaurant.
A gastronomical supermeal didn't necessarily have to involve the things I had brought from other top kitchens.
Scandinavian-Danish cuisine was something quite rustic, mostly known for pastries and smorgasbord cuisine, which in itself has become a joke.
Take a trip to the forest and experience the greatness of getting on your knees and picking your own food and going home... and eating it.
The restaurant industry is brutal.
When people are grownups they're grown ups. They make their own decisions you know.