Noma 2.0

A Barnes & Noble Best Cookbook of 2022
A Barnes & Noble Best Gift Book of 2022

There’s a reason Noma sits atop the list of the world’s best restaurants. Every bite, every dish, every course surprises, delights, challenges, and deeply satisfies in a way that’s unique in the world of dining. As the New York Times’s Pete Wells wrote recently in praising Noma’s flavors, “sauces are administered so subtly that you don’t notice anything weird going on; you just think you’ve never tasted anything so extraordinary in your life.” In Noma 2.0, René Redzepi digs deep into the restaurant’s magic through the creation of nearly 200 dishes, each photographed in spectacular beauty and detail.
 
Noma 2.0—the title is a reference to the reinvention of Noma after it closed in 2018 to move to its new compound across the water—is about true seasonality, from wild game in the fall to just-picked peas in the summer. It is about using only local ingredients, to build a cuisine that is profoundly situated in its place and culture. It is about transforming the ordinary—a mushroom, a chicken wing, often through fermentation—to develop haunting, memorable flavors. It is about composing a plate that delights the eye as much as the palate, whether through the trompe l’oeil of a “flowerpot” chocolate cake or a dazzling mandala of flowers and berries. It is about pushing the boundaries of what we think we want to eat—a baby pinecone, a pudding made of reindeer brain—to open our palates with a startling confidence. And it is about how to stay creative and challenge yourself over the course of a career.
 
For foodies, for chefs, for artists and art lovers, for thought-leaders and makers, and for the kind of reader who is compelled by the idea that sometimes one person can change everything, Noma 2.0 is the gift book of the season.

• “Lifting the lid on Noma’s secrets, [Noma 2.0] celebrates the pioneering restaurant’s season menus, and offers a deep dive behind the scenes. . . . Redzepi reflects on what will be 20 years of Noma in 2023, and his relentless drive for creativity, a cross between intense awareness of feelings and instinct and sheer bloody-minded discipline.

  Wallpaper

• “An unconventional cookbook that eschews step-by-step instructions for narrative descriptions and stunning photography. Dishes are organized seasonally, but not traditionally so; there is vegetable (May through August), forest (September through December), and ocean (January through April). Noma’s acclaimed inventiveness is evident throughout. . . . This is the essence of culinary creativity, and chefs looking to venture out of their comfort zones will find inspiration to do so here.”

  Publishers Weekly