René Redzepi de Noma and his international chefs team, servers, collectors, fermentation geeks, programmers and more will arrive in Los Angeles next year for a residence of months, the first in the United States in the United States
“We were supposed to be in Los Angeles next fall,” said Redzepi during a brief interview within one of the greenhouses next to his Copenhagen restaurant not long before the official announcement. “But with the fires, we thought everything was canceled.” Noma now points to a debut in spring of Los Angeles.
Like a company of culinary troubadours, the Redzepi team has packed its knives and Garums several times since the restaurant opened for the first time in 2004 and was appointed the best restaurant in the world five times. In 2016, they traveled to Sydney; In 2017, they were in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico; In 2018, Noma was in Tokyo; And they have been in Kyoto twice, in 2023 and 2024. But Los Angeles has been at the Redzepi radar for a long time.
“We have been working in Los Angeles for a while,” he said. “In fact, we have been working in the United States for a while, never really finding that perfect location. I really didn't know that the United States well enough to make a decision. People would say: 'Oh, you should be in New York.' Only when I went with my whole family to Los Angeles a few years ago, it was when we fell in love with angels.
The other times that had come to Los Angeles had been for work. “It was sporadic, very agitated,” he said. “Entrance”.
This extended trip was different for Redzepi, his children and his wife Nadine Levy Redzepi, author of the kitchen book “Inactivity time: delicious at home”.
“We stayed in Manhattan Beach,” he said. “We had days of walking, meeting people, going to all farmers' markets and realizing how many people I know in Los Angeles. It was great to take us to their favorite places, with Roy Choi in Koreatown and Night + Market's boys [Kris and Sarah Yenbamroong] Taking us eating Thai food. “
Chef René Redzepi at its Copenhagen Noma restaurant in a scene of the documentary series “Omnivore” in Apple TV+.
(According to Arnesen / Apple TV+)
In the recently revived Mad Symposium, a meeting of chefs, farmers and other food professionals, as well as artists and thinkers, one of the speakers was the chef of Los Angeles Justin Pichetrungsi of Anajak Thai. His talk: “How to take charge of their parents' restaurant in five simple steps.”
“It's an extraordinary guy. I really like Justin,” said Redzepi. “To tell the truth, when I went [to his Thai Taco Tuesday] For the first time, it was when I felt, ok, this has to be the place, Los Angeles.
“Because I thought, this can only happen in Los Angeles. There is something that is happening, that kind of daring in which you only do things. There is a creative energy that I find in Los Angeles that is based on this basic experience, not on the money that made you creative.
“It is actually more rare than you think of food these days, because most food, you know, are great budgets, are great projects.”
“Another thing I love about angels?” said. “Tacos. Not only tacos. Noodles. Sushi. Ahhh! … you can find all the ingredients in Los Angeles, and everyone knows extraordinary.
“When you come from Denmark, a homogeneous place, it is exciting to reach Los Angeles, it is as if the world came to live in one place.”
Redzepi, of course, is known to attend to his restaurant with chefs and servers around the world.
“Our team is from everywhere,” he said. “Mexicans, Chinese, Italians, which is charming.” His current kitchen chief is Pablo Soto, who is from Mexico City.
“The only thing that can stop us,” says Redzepi, “is if we don't get visas. I just received my visa a few days ago.”
Redzepi hopes that even with the tense political environment, his team can contribute something good to the city.
“We are going to get to Los Angeles using the biggest positivity hat that you can imagine. We are only going to give everything we have, and we are going to cook, and we will be with the people, and we are going to walk through the mountains, and we will have coffee shops. We will have emerging windows with other people. It will be five or six months of energy and we will try to meet all the creative people of Los Angeles, and learn from them and be inspired by them.”
Noma team members have already made three trips to Los Angeles for research without Redzepi. “We worried that if I was going to make these trips, people would sniff the project and the news would come out.” But it plans to reach long term at the end of autumn.
“If everything goes well, I will be there in November. I can't wait.”
