Hi everyone, welcome to Pot Luck Food Talks. Today we're recording in good old Copenhagen.
And this will be our Noma after dinner review. We were in Noma last night. This is our hangover
breakfast. And we're going to go dish by dish. You can also check out this content on YouTube
to see the pictures of each dish we're going to talk about.
How do you feel? Really nice. I think I don't have to think much to just say it was the best
culinary and hospitality experience I've ever had. Like there's really nothing near it. Really
like on a complete different level from everything I've seen before. I don't know how you feel about
it. Yeah, very similar. Very, very similar. And apart from that, I also don't feel, you know,
like physically like bad. I feel like okay, because often when there's a menu with so many
like fermented components, it was really interesting because for me it was like you often compare,
you know, like Noma and Elbui in a way, you know, after this like whole influence of Noma,
lots of other restaurants around the world started implementing the same techniques and getting
really fascinated by what they were doing. And this rise of like, especially in beverages,
it's like fermented beverages and house fermented sort of like components of dishes started
becoming more and more sort of presence. And there's been more than a few meals where there
were a lot of these sorts of elements that I then walked out of feeling like I was fermenting cider
barrel, you know, I mean, like that's interesting because we haven't talked about it. Like, of
course, there has always been fermentation, fermentation predates humans, but in restaurants,
besides sauerkraut, you wouldn't find much homemade ferments in restaurants, or at least
it wasn't that common. It was something you would find once in a while in a restaurant somewhere,
but Noma really like professionalized and developed methodologies or product to the restaurant
environment so that everybody started fermenting all over the world in avant-garde restaurants.
And I think that's one of the main contributions of Noma and the New Nordic as a movement.
And absolutely. Yeah.
Oh, did the night begin? We left here with a cab.
We left here with a cab with time to spare, just because we wanted to come on time and also because
you know, the entrance to Noma is so beautiful. You know, it's like, it's kind of cool because
like we were saying with Xander yesterday, he was like, oh, I didn't realize that Noma was inside of
the city. But still, it doesn't feel like it's very inside of the city because you do drive out a
little bit to the other part of town. It's kind of a little bit more industrial and it feels very
set away. And like for me, like the excitement really started kicking in once we were in the
cab and Xander was like, oh, it's over there. Or like, no, you said it, you're like, oh, it's over there.
And then I started getting really giddy. I was like, oh, we're here. You know, like a child going to
Disneyland or something like that. And it was a really good idea to arrive half an hour earlier
because we had like this waiting room that was already also part of the experience.
We saw other parties that arrived directly to the table and they would be conducted directly to
their table. Well, we had this waiting time and this, what was it like an inside garden,
something like that. A greenhouse. A greenhouse. Exactly. They had like this kind of habaneres,
but these weren't no habaneres. What was the name? Lady Lisette. Yeah. Like a specific chili that
looked really dangerous. That they cross-bred. It's their own variety as far as I understood.
They also gave us like this tea. What was it exactly? It was jasmine with elderberry or
something like that. Yeah. Jasmine and some other things that I missed. Just like a very light,
sparkling, refreshing tea. And like what I liked also is kind of like you arrived there
because they obviously they stagger, you know, important note for restaurateurs out there,
stagger your reservations. Also, you saw a friend walking in, which is what I said,
it was this party and you were like, Hey, what's going on? Yeah. I mean, it's kind of cool. It's
kind of like I sort of half expected it. I saw a few people that I recognized that at the last days
of this restaurant, you know, it's literally, what was yesterday? Wednesday. Yeah. They have
two more services. That's it. You know, we had a third last service for them in this sort of way.
And of course, there's got to be a few people that want to be there from, you know, the industry
that, yeah, I think I think he stashed it over for like a short time at some point. So yeah, but you
know, everybody knows everybody, you know, it's just like with us. Yeah. So the other parties that
we saw, it was also interesting because you saw like this group of Germans, this group of Asians,
I don't know where they were from. Dude, you can really feel that everybody's there for like,
for a really important day. You know, it's not just like a casual going out thing. No, no,
100%. Yeah. I think everybody that was there was aware that we're here to fully, fully immerse
ourselves in this experience, just to be part of the last few dancers here. Because also they
have this like thing where the kitchen greets everybody, you know, and et cetera. So if people
just come whenever, you know, it's complete chaos. So it's very controlled. But also what I thought
was really nice was that they immediately knew who we were. It's exactly those sorts of like cliche
things. Like when you see it in movies or in the bear, for example, where they like overdo it with
like the hand signals and like the little notes that they pass and stuff like that. I really felt
that was going on around. 100%. Yeah. 100%. And it's honestly, I've never seen a service this smooth,
also like with like the way that they were communicating and how they were all up to date
with what was going on. But let's wait before we go into that because we haven't entered the
restaurant yet. Yeah. No, no, no. Sure. But I'm just saying that like immediately as we arrived,
they made it so effortless because we sat down, we had microphones on very small microphones,
but you know, regardless. And the guy sort of like very casually while he was bringing us tea, so
oh, the microphones for the podcast. You know, and it's just like these small things that make you
feel welcome and like in good hands straight away. Yeah. I've heard that from people that have been,
for example, at the Fat Dog, that they had just a conversation on the phone. And then during the
dinner, they bring that out like, ah, and how was your holidays in Istanbul? Or these kind of things.
Yeah. Like they use the information they have about you to have a conversation during the meal.
Like the CIA. The Curie-Know Institute of America? No. No, but almost. Yeah. As you were saying,
the setting is really nice for you because you feel on the countryside, but at the same time,
you have this industrial building just in front of you like this. What is it? Is it like a trash
processor or something like that here in Copenhagen? And it's an iconic building and also like an
architectural icon, you know? Then we walked to the restaurant, which is like a long walk. How much?
Like maybe 50, 100 meters or something like that. Like would you walk at the side to the restaurant?
So you see, because this is like a really long building. And that's also like, I would say,
the key moment of the experience. You have like on both sides, this herbal garden and you're
walking in. It's just a way that only conducts to the main entrance of the restaurant. And
we were fucking around with stuff. What was it that I had? Brought some ham for the team?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course. Like, hey, if you go to a restaurant of this caliber, it's nice to
bring a present for the kitchen, you know? I mean, very traditionally, it's like a case of beer.
But obviously, it's kind of difficult for Noma because it's like 40 chefs. It's like the guy
was saying, it's like we're 85 members of staff. You know, like how many presents are you going to
bring? But so Eric very kindly brought some ham from Spain for them to eat. We were joking that
they'd be really pissed at the present. You fucking moron. This is vegetable season.
You know, it's cheese season. Why are you bringing ham? We're vegan. I'm sorry. Shut the fuck up.
Here's your fucking table. Then it's when it really started because we arrived at the door and we were
really not expecting what was going to happen next because you have to open the door yourself.
And when you open it, just one second later, things start to happen one after the other.
Because it was like, boom, you open and they say, welcome. Then you listen to the background.
There's a kitchen and there's like this instructions like, and the whole team. Yes.
Yes. Yes. And then they conduct you inside. And I was like, oh, we were like, you know,
it was kind of awkward or intimidating. And we were with the ham like, oh, I have a present.
And then the whole kitchen staff comes out and they align in front of you. And they start to look
at you smiling. Welcome. Each one of them welcomes you. And I was like, what should I do with this?
You can give it to this guy. So I gave the ham to one of the chefs and then we were conducted to the
to the table. It was already prepared. I understand why you can't just walk in one by one because
there's this ritual of walking into the restaurant. So we sit down and there were already some
producers that they were going to present us like to explain us that these are things that are going
to happen during the menu. But they came like bam. Yeah. You know, like you walk in like the
intensity of like all the like chefs greeting you and you could like, you know that they need to get
back to work also, but they're standing there and you could really see like they're briefed on this
that they're sort of like, when you stand there, like I can just picture it when you stand and you
greet the guests, like don't just fucking stand there and be like, like, look at them, look them
in the eyes. And when they walk past you say hello, welcome, you know, exactly. And it was like that
with every single person, like every single chef. I said like, hi, like to I think like five, six
people, I'm like, hello. Yeah. Hello. Hello. Hello. Very, very intense in a good way, like especially
when you get what's happening behind the scenes. And then like, as you say, we sit down, you take
in the dining room, which by the way, is beautiful, you know, beautiful in the most simple way. Yeah.
And so unique and expressive of like their style. Very element driven, like wood, herbs, plants,
yeah. Really, really beautiful. And then so you sit down and it's like, you can just tell that
they're ready to go. They're like ready to go to give you the brief. But yet again, when she was
explaining the ingredients to us, it didn't feel like a script. It didn't feel rushed. Like it felt
very, very effortless. That's also something that was during the whole meal, like the pace of
everything, especially when people are talking to you, like they're talking on a specific pace.
They're not rushing. They're not passing. They're just being normal. Yeah. Yeah. But even like a few
times when I thought like, oh, like he or she would kind of like rip off the conversation,
and she just kind of casually said something else. And it felt kind of nice, you know, because like,
I wouldn't have been upset if she would have been like, yeah, yeah, exactly. You know, like pick up
something that you say, be like, yeah, yeah, you're right. That's really funny. Haha. And then continue.
But no, she like actually then went on more and it gave you this feeling of there's no temperature.
Like they're in control. Everything's fine. And it's a amazing level of service, honestly.
As I said, we sat down and they have all of these produce some vegetables. The most interesting one
was this peach tree resin. Yeah, resin. Yeah. It's basically like the look like dinosaur eggs or
something like that. The thing that you see on Jurassic Park, like this orange stones. Yeah.
What else did they have? Green rice, green rice, black oyster mushroom, black oyster mushroom that
they brought from the block as a like a whole thing to see how it's growing to present basically
the exactly they were homegrown mushrooms. Yeah. What she was explaining, there was like an ant
walking. Oh, look, that's an ant, but that's part of nature. And then it started climbing on my
on my plate. And she was like, okay, but I noticed that like also because they were like wasps
flying through the restaurant a little bit, you know, especially in the evening when like the
the windows because in the beginning, the windows are open and you're sitting there with this
beautiful wildflower field, which again is very beautifully curated. I noticed this because
especially because I have a passion for horticulture. And as you know, I spent some
time like actually studying horticulture and stuff. And these type of like arrangements that look like
a very wild wildflower bed, but I actually curated different plants that are like set at different
levels. Super beautiful. Yeah, but it really looked wild. But you can tell that was like a
bouquet. Yeah, exactly. It's like different levels, different textures, different colors,
absolutely stunning. And I really like the fact that it's like there's an ant walking around the
table. And it's not like in other restaurants, it would be like, oh my god, it's an ant, you know,
but there it's kind of like, man, we're in the garden with nature, you know, like there's an
fucking ant, you know, it's because there's a fucking nasturtium flower right here that we're
showing you. And of course, there's an ant in there. They always hide in the nasturtium flowers,
you know, it's notorious. So then we were asked about the drink pairing. And we went for the
because we didn't want it to get like super drunk. So they offered us we could have wine pairing,
sake pairing, or non alcoholic pairing, and or a mixture. So we went for the mixed pairing,
we allowed them to choose how to build it. But a hybrid as Xander called it, hybrid pairing. Yeah,
perfect, perfect choice. Yeah, that was a perfect choice. Yeah, because non alcoholic were so
interesting, probably even more interesting than the wines and sake we had. I mean, like the wines
and sake were of course, excellent wines and sake. But I would say the most memorable ones were the
some of the non alcoholic drinks 100% 100%. I mean, just from the creativity point of view,
you know, which parody you think worked the best for you? I don't know if the pairing but the drink
that I remember the most it was this pollen, honey kombucha with saffron. That was incredible.
That was crazy. That was so nice. For the main course we had sake. Yeah, that worked. That was
for that wise it worked. There was also like a wine, the oxidated wine. That was also like a
super one. That's true. That fit really, really well. So then first course arrives. And then
that's also something that I got really impressed, like how the service performed. Because these were
all the time like invisible hands putting things and taking things away from your table. But the
moment they would set the plates, it was perfectly choreographical. There were two standings, one on
one side, one would put like the thing they put under the plate and the other one would come
just one second later. Not never more than one second. It would be like a ballet, you know,
like, boom, boom. Then you had all the dishes and then everything arrived. Same thing when dishes
would arrive, it would never be that, you know, like, I would have a plate, you're waiting and
then the other one comes, it would be like the three things at the same level of timing. And
first course was the kohlrabi shawarma. Yes, which is a smaller version of an old vegetable main course
that used to do the celeriac shawarma. Basically, layers of kohlrabi, as they explained, some dried,
some fermented, some fresh, stacked, cut, skewered and grilled and glazed. As we later found out,
there was the peach tree resin in between the layers of the kohlrabi. This kohlrabi, it came
with some fresh white currants on the side, some nasturtium flower and glazed in the truffle sauce.
And on the side, you had pickled pine cones like olives and these preserved beans and little
sandwiches of oregano leaves. Yeah, these were like meaty, thick oregano leaves, like, almost like
succulent plants. And this was filled with a kind of like a salsa of herbs, like of wild herbs.
Yeah, so you had this sandwich of leaf, herb paste and another leaf. And they told us to
mix it all together, have fun. Which was really fun. It was really fun. Yeah. And it was really
cool because it was so layered and because you would have a bite with, you know, some of the
olives, you'd have a bite with a little bit more of the currants that gave you this like acidity kick.
And that's kind of like the first dish really kicked off the tone. It wasn't like a small
kind of bite. It was already like a very nice, warm welcome. And it immediately set the tone
for the flavor profiles that we were going to encounter. Did you mention the truffle sauce?
Yes. It was like a very buttery truffle sauce around the kohlrabi shawarma. And yeah, the fun
thing about it was, as you say, like a little bit of this, a little bit of that, you mix it all
together. You take just one, just two, you know, like different combinations of the same components.
Yeah. Yeah. It sounds like very in your face truffle and this and that, but all flavors are
very mellow and very elegant and very, very harmonious. And that's something we said the
whole meal through. Exactly. It was not like this here truffle, bam, like wow. You know,
fermented pine cones like bam in your face. No, no, no, no, no, no. Exactly. Like the subtleness
of everything. I would say even the first tea that we had on the waiting, it was already setting the
tone of this subtleness that you will find all over the menu starting from there. Yes, absolutely.
Yeah. So next dish, what was it? Ah, sorrel noodle soup. And yes, both are very interesting,
very beautiful presentation. Yeah. Like you had like, so first of all, the plate was a cube of
ice, a block of ice with a oval hole in it where you have like this soup and three clover leaf
shaped noodles. Yes. And yeah, this was very refreshing, very citrusy, lemony,
granisman, apple, like those kind of notes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The noodles are made kind of like a
mochi made out of kuzu and fermented honey. Then you had this tiny dollop of like fresh
cheese underneath each noodle, very beautifully plated, like very round. I was kind of like,
how did I get it to stay so round? You know? And the soup, as you were saying, like made of
sorrel and for sure green apple. And because it was plated in the ice, you were eating it like a
soup out of this ice bowl. It was very, very refreshing. Noodles had a really pleasant,
chewy texture. The fresh cheese wasn't salty or sweet or anything. It just had a very comforting
fattiness to it that really went well with the like really refreshing soup. Yeah. All in all,
you also had a little bit of clover and like flowers on the side that you were meant to kind
of eat off the stem as you were eating the soup, which also was really, really nice. And I love
that there are these like hand eating elements where you like pick and make your own dish,
which is very interactive and always makes it very fun. Yeah. What I liked the most or what impressed
me the most was the chewiness of those noodles. It was really like, I don't know, like a soft
gummy bears kind of thing, like a soft udon something, you know, like udon texture kind of
like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Really, really nice. That was more of a textural dish. It was very
light and refreshing. Very, very refreshing. Yeah, absolutely. Next dish, we had the seaweed salad.
The seaweed wraps. Yeah. That was crazy. Like this, this like so far, like the other things were
kind of like familiar flavor spectrums, but this one was the first one that went into like a
complete unknown realm, you know, right? Because of the sauce, I think the sauce was really,
really trippy in a way, like it kind of tasted very mildly like truffle. They said it was made of
seaweed. It was a seaweed and truffle sauce, but like it had a layer of fat on top of it, like an
oil, very thick and kind of splitting as you were kind of stirring it. So it had this like really
weird lava lamp texture. Again, this like overlying theme of sort of like fattiness without being
heavy. Deep umami with hints of acidity. And I could have sworn there was some sort of elder
flower, like vinegar or something in there because it had this like, and then this like floralness
that sometimes comes through, through rose or through jasmine or through this or through
whatever, through geranium or I don't know, you know. Yeah, I remember it also felt like I thought
of mustard oil because of the oiliness of the sauce. It was like a kind of like a thick
vinegarette thing. And that combination of seaweed with flowers and mustard,
yeah, it was something I've never experienced and it was quite nice. I think that was the most
interesting thing, having that feeling of what is this? You know, you can't put the frame it into any
tradition of any kind. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And then there were little wraps made with kelp seaweed,
oyster leaf, a horseradish cream and beech mustard flowers, which had a great texture and were very
refreshing in their temperature and their texture and in their like very fresh taste. The horseradish
and the mustard, they came through not as like potently spicy, but just as in like spicy,
refreshing and together with this like velvety sauce, which again is like a texture that I found
a few times. It's like velvety sauce. It was very fun to eat. It was very refreshing and light.
Yeah, and I have here peach flowers in my notes. Beech mustard. Beech mustard. Beech mustard.
Okay. It's like this like mustard thing that grows on the beach and you can eat the flowers.
They're like nice and pungent. Yeah, and it really had like this kind of like game where you don't
know what you're going to find in each scene that you're trying. Then, oh, this is something else.
Yeah, yeah. Also, it's what Kevin was telling us. He was like, we don't tell you all the stuff that's
in the elaborations because otherwise it would just be like in this Koji and that Koji and this
Tamari and this reduction and this vinegar. Exactly. And you don't want to hear that.
Yeah. Next. Ramzan. Yeah. Koji wrapped in Ramzan. Yeah. So basically, barley Koji cake, as they
called it. They brought out the whole Koji thing wrapped in a piece of Ramzan, wild garlic, grilled.
And then next to that you had some orepine, which is a crispy leaf. Also with like a little rose
petal or something and like some herbs inside. I feel like they were like, I don't know, like
something lemony. You had a fried Ramzan flour and you had a little bit of daikon or rashi
grated daikon radish on the side. What did you think of this one? Incredible. Like first of all,
the Ramzan tasted, it was kind of like, it tasted like meat, but like this Germanic or Nordic kind
of sausages. It had this kind of funk to it. Yeah. Like this maybe I would say over-smoked
that you find in central Europe. Yeah. So it really reminds me of the smoked sausages with
the Koji inside. So super strong umami. What else we had? The horseradish. Yeah. It was kind of like
a vegetable hot dog. Like from the inspiration point of view. You know, like it's interesting.
Yeah. Very good. Very good. Yeah. Like the taste of grilled sausage was really cool. I think it was
like, and again, it had this like fattiness, umami-ness. It had this like flavor. I don't know
where it came from. And with these like punches of acidity, you know, again. Yeah. And like every
now and again, and super, super interesting. Really, really. It had this like almost like,
when I say funk, I mean like, you know, like how a really nicely, um, sweat has a funk, you know,
this like Edel-Schimmel kind of situation. Yeah. Also interesting on this dish is the cutlery that
they brought. What's this? This prison shank. This prison shank that really looked like a homemade
weapon in jail. A super primitive and sharp knife to cut the ransom. And it really added to the
experience of enjoying the dish. Honestly, everything added to it. Like cutlery and plate-wise,
um, everything added to it. Beautiful plates. I think every time we got a new plate, because we
were into ceramics and cutlery and all that sort of stuff, every time they brought something new,
it invited you to pick it up, to look at it, to enjoy the texture, you know. Um, even the, um,
the charges, you know, the charges are the plates that you put the plate on, right? So it stays on
your table, which we had quite a long time. And like they were just really, really beautiful.
So, and again, we had like this succulent leaf that it was again, like a leaf sandwich. And what
was the flower in the middle? I don't remember. Fried ramsen flower. Yeah. And a fried flower.
That, yeah, that reminds me of, you know, zucchini, fried zucchini flowers over these kind of things.
Next dish. Wow. This was one of the highlights. This was one of the highlights.
And I like how they put it in the menu. Today's crudite. That's it.
That's it. Wow. What, what can we say about this? One of my favorite dishes. Yeah, for sure. And
so we have here, I don't know, at least I couldn't say how many, because if you can't like the little
leaves, it'd be 20 different, uh, vegetables and fruits and leaves and flowers, probably even more.
And on the bottom, there was this smoked umami-rich kind of soup and it had something else,
right? It had chili oil, it had smoked tomato, but the sauce on the bottom, it had like chili oil,
I think on top and the sauce on the bottom. I don't know if it was the tomato, but I feel like
it had some sort of like, I don't, in the beginning I was like, is this buttermilk? And then I was kind
of thinking maybe it's just green tomato smoked and then emulsified with something to get the
creaminess, you know? But, um, what was amazing about this dish is like the quality of the
ingredients and they like left a supernatural, but it was so nice because you had such a huge variety
and you had strawberries inside there also and then you had like whole basil leaves and basil flowers
and whole little like, um, tips of fennel flowers. And so as you were eating this dish,
you know, you had such an oyster leaves and stuff, you always had like a different punch.
You had this like really beautiful vegetable texture, crunchiness and different levels
and herb punches that as you were chewing, they were like coming through and punching through
and then bound together by this super delicious warming umami sauce slash soup.
The sauce made the dish for sure. Yeah, absolutely. For me, this completely brings me to
Michel Bras Gagriou or Mugari Gagriou. And then Mugari would do it like with this strong
emmental sauce under this herb salad that you had many different herbs and a strong
emmental umami rich. And in this case, it was like smoked tomato umami. But I like that.
It's more organized that many of the vegetables are repeated. It's not like you have, you know,
just once zucchini and then you have 45 different vegetables. In this case, it was repeated. So you
would have written while you eat that you would have like the same thing once in a while, the same
of it again. Everything so carefully sliced. I have a picture of like a micro zucchini that was just
sliced like an abanico, you know, like really crazy. Yeah, she was saying that it takes them
20 minutes to assemble these dishes. Yeah, that they have a competition of who plates it faster
like inside the kitchen. Yeah, one of the highlights for sure. And here I also have,
did we already have like the like the red soft drink here? It was a sumac,
Suna kombucha with gooseberry. What else did it have? Rose. Rose. Incredible. This one,
also one of the highlights of the drinks. Yeah, for sure. For the Venezuelan audience,
it reminds Sandra and me to frescolita, but like in a very organic way. But yeah, it was kind of
that. No, my first goal is that not organic frescolita. She's huge. All right, next dish,
the nasturtium dumpling with quail egg. Wow. And I was really impressed by what the guy told us when
we were leaving that that dish has 57 ingredients. Insane. Like what the fuck. So basically, it's like
a little almost like a soup dumpling, but the outside is made of nasturtium leaves that are
somehow, I don't know, like layered and like stuck together and compressed somehow. And then inside
you have a soft boiled quail egg. And outside on the flat side of this dumpling, which gets
brought in this like beautiful sort of like flower pots with leaves, it's kind of standing in the
middle. It's a couple of aromats, pine needle, Sancho pepper, and some other things. And inside
of this like dumpling must have been a couple of ferments. Also, it was almost like you had to eat
it in one go because the egg was like underneath was a little bit of like egg yolk sauce, but I'm
not sure whether that was just to stick it on or whatever. And it was this vegetable hamon. Yeah,
it was a vegetable ham, which if somebody told me I'm gonna make a vegetable ham, I'm gonna put
pepper and asparagus, I'd be like, man, shut the fuck up, you know. Yeah, it's true. It's like,
it's like a BCC student. It's like, okay, listen, I'm gonna make a vegetable ham. I'm gonna put this.
And then the fats don't be asparagus and be like, man, get the fuck out of here, you know.
But I mean, if they would leave the white asparagus out and use the pepper and forget the
mimetic play of it, for me would have worked maybe even better, you know. You think so? I mean,
I'm just speculating. I mean, honestly, they didn't even, I thought it was kind of cool. Like,
I looked at it and I was like, because it wasn't like in your face either. It's not like, oh,
this is our vegetable ham. They just said, you have like red pepper and white asparagus,
plonk. You look at it and you're like, it kind of looks like ham. You have to figure it out yourself.
And that was kind of smart because like if they would have told us, it would have become gimmicky,
but no. And yeah, the pepper, it tasted like it had a texture like fruit leather,
like almost like fruit leather and ham had a baby, you know. And it was smoky, it was sweet,
it had a miso flavor because it was cured, you know. It's yeah, and it had like pepper on it,
which then again afterwards came through. And I mean, it did fulfill the same functions basically
as like a slice of like cured meat would, but it was very fun to eat and very delicious.
Yeah, it was very peppery, like normal red pepper. Also with some hints of kind of
piquillo pepper, it reminds me. And yeah, and this leathery, chewy texture to it. Super nice.
Yeah. So what's next? What's next? The potato soup and the butterfly flatbread.
Ah, okay. Also one of the highlights. Yeah. You were expecting the potato
soup. You were like, probably the potato soup is next. And that's exactly what it was.
Yeah. I mean, it's so iconic. I mean, like the, I think he used to call it the Nordic coconut.
He used to have this like whole kohlrabi with the leaves and like the same sort of straw.
You get like, but now it's a potato, which I think is even cooler. Yeah, because it's so weird.
It's like, get a potato in dirt. How many chefs can do that? Like elevate potato to that level
and serving like, you know, this big Dutch potatoes in the middle of a three-star restaurant with a
straw. You know, it's really audacious to do something like that. And it's also the association
because raw kohlrabi is fine. Raw potato is not fine. You know? So which I also thought was pretty
interesting. The potato soup, again, I thought it was going to be like clever. I thought it would
be like a cold potato soup of like, you know, there was elderflower in it and stuff, but it was
a warm potato soup. It was a little chunky also. Was yours chunky? No. No, mine was a little bit
chunky. Seasoned with elderflower. Yeah. And this is something I couldn't expect to find like in any
classic, for example, German restaurant. Yeah. That kind of potato soup in that regard. It was
not impressive, but for me it was impressive that it was plated on a raw potato and it didn't have
like starchy potato, starchy flavors or raw potato flavors anywhere. It was perfectly clean. I don't
know how they did that. How they plated in a raw potato without tasting like raw potato, you know?
No. Yeah. I think it's just like the, that it's so ala minute. They fill it in, they serve it
straight away. It's not enough time for the potato flavor to come out. I think. I have no idea. And
I also don't know how they make that plate, like how they hold it like a coconut so it's empty
and they insert probably like some kind of special tool or way to take them. I think so. You have
these like little grinders, you know, they can go like, they can have like holes in wood and stuff.
With a pavisian or something like that. Yeah. I mean, that's what I thought in the beginning,
but that would take forever. No, like I've done that before with stuff and it's like,
you do that with apples and it's like, Jesus Christ, you know, you do it with a whole potato,
let alone 85 or like 90 a day. Nah. To make a crab pie with apples. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah.
Basically the same approach. I wonder where Rene got his idea from. Hey, hold on. Wait a second.
And next to the potato soup was one of the best dishes, I think. Also this butterfly, again,
leaf sandwich. Yeah. You had like this cracker on the outside and inside the, I opened it like a
little bit and there was like a lot of things going on inside there. There were like completely
different components. Again, like radish-y, mustard-y leaves. There was green strawberry inside. Green
strawberry. I have it here. Yeah. I'm pretty sure there was some sort of tarragon oil also going on,
like a green oil and a very particular kind of flavor. And really fun. I mean, really beautiful.
It looks like a butterfly in flight and it gets brought to you in like a sunflower and you're
meant to pick it up and push it together and then just eat the thing. And just super tasty. Really,
really tasty. Again, with like hidden notes of acidity, fattiness, mustard-y flavors. And by this
point, it was really interesting that they had already a couple of times repeated components,
flavor profiles, like this horseradish. We already had it before in the garlic leaf with koji.
At this point, we were already saying that you could really feel like concept cohesiveness
across the menu. That it felt like, let's say, a movie where there's this recurrent idea that
you see over and over again. Or a music album, like a really good music album that you feel that
the whole thing is one concept here. You could feel the same thing. That many dishes were kind
of like in the same spectrum of flavors or ingredients, but there was always like a different
angle, a different curve, a different approach each time you had like the same thing, but
different like in many courses. Especially with this leaf sandwiches or this herbal pastes and
these kind of things. Absolutely, absolutely. It's kind of what I teased earlier. This like
velvety fattiness that was very comforting without being heavy or fatty, like fatty in
a negative way. Just really kind of coating your tongue with this deep umami, floral sweetnesses,
savorinesses from the ferments and from smokiness, etc. With acidity and floral notes, but everything
so elegant, so harmonious. I really expect this, like you're saying, it's kind of like, okay,
like bam, nasturtium here and bam, horseradish there and like pine needle acidity here, bam.
But everything was just so smooth, so elegant. Really, really nice. I feel like I would like to
believe that, like we were talking about, it's like a very Japanese flavor profile.
I was going to say the same thing, that very high-end Japanese is very subtle. You see it also with
the tea, that you don't have this, ah, here you have this, or infused tea that you feel the umami
on your throat, you know, like it's just like very smooth, elegant teas. Yeah, yeah. Then next is,
this was also very interesting talking about Japanese. This felt very Japanese to me. It was
a king mushroom in this kind of like gelatin with a little marjoram foam, one of the favorite
ingredients of the show, marjoram. Yeah, marjoram in the half an hour show, I thought you meant the
yesterday show. But again, marjoram and oregano, a flavor that appeared many times, many, many times.
Like horseradish appeared many times throughout the meal. And I thought that was crazy because
usually that's a no-no in high-level kitchens, repeating an ingredient.
Yeah, even in... You can't use tarragon here. You use tarragon in the starter already. You can't use
it for the fish, you know. You already have tomato here, and I work the same way, you know. Like I'm
sort of like, oh, we already have a tomato reduction here. I can't have a marinated tomato here,
you know. Yeah, but I think this actually enhances the experience. And I feel the same, and I had the
same thought until yesterday. I was like, okay, wow, they repeated ingredients, and that just
added to the experience. It didn't take away from it, you know. Yeah, yeah, because you see it.
Because it also makes sense because it's like regional ingredients. It's like what's available
to them, you know. Of course, they've got to use it in different ways, you know. Like why wouldn't
you? You can use horseradish in a refresher way. You can use it in a spicy pungent way, you know.
Like you can use it fresh. You can use it as an oil. Like why not? It makes complete sense. And I
think that's really cool. But I remember when we worked with Hoffmaner, who was also like a very
vegetable driven chef, he had the same idea. Like, yeah, I have no problem with repeating
ingredients across the menu. And this is a vegetable restaurant, and we can use vegetables
in different ways. I remember him talking about that. Yeah, yeah, nice. Yeah, so this
mushroom dish, it was the stem of the king oyster mushroom that we would then eat as a main course.
And it was sliced in this very Chinese way where you take tofu, and you put chopsticks, and you
slice very carefully, very straight down the tofu, all the way. And you turn it, you repeat the same
process. And if you've done it correctly, and you put this tofu in soup, it will open up all these
like strands like a lotus flower. Like a chrysanthemum, sorry. Yeah, like a brush. Like a very gentle
brush. Which is a very, very difficult Asian technique that I've tried a few times. It's very
hard to do. You can do it with different things. You can do it with radish also. The Japanese do
it with radish, actually. There's a type of pickle where they slice radish in this sort of way, and
then they pickle it, and it softens, and it opens up like this chrysanthemum flower. So that's the
stem kind of poached or whatever. Then covered in a mushroom gel, which we luckily figured out how to
make between the three of us. Chander was eating with us, and he asked, how do you make a gelatin
of pure mushroom? No, because it was like in plie. There's this mushroom, like this gelatin made out
of mushroom. And I'm like, what do you mean made out of mushroom? Exactly. Silvery kindly explained,
you add gelatin to mushroom.
I should have asked. You know, by illusion.
And yeah, marjoram foam. Marjoram oil and horseradish cream. Yeah. The little white thing was horseradish.
It was horseradish, and the oil was marjoram. It was very marjoram-y. It was very marjoram-y, yeah.
But I also think that on the horseradish cream it had marjoram flowers. Yeah. Because it had
these pink flowers. Yeah, because it was really like a popper. It was really pungent. Yeah, absolutely.
Very good. It was very comforting, homie. The wine went really well with it. It was like a sherry, like
oxidated wine from Jura. It worked really well with mushrooms. Yeah. But I mean, very tasty,
but not one of the highlights of the meal for me. Yeah. Next dish was one of the highlights,
for sure. Next dish was an absolute highlight. Yeah. I mean, this dish and the crudités were
really the ones that made me stop while I was eating and be like, oh, fuck yeah. Yeah. Like,
so next dish, we had like this. It was plated on leaves. So kind of like a bowl of leaves was like
the plate. And you had like this snowball, I would describe it, like a snow cotton somehow that you
had to eat really quick because it would like go away. It was basically like, it has this taste,
they explained to us the name of the cheese. It was like a traditional Danish cheese that it resembles
comte. To me, it also had like some hints of a very light kind of parmesan. Yeah, for sure. But
yeah, and this with yuzu. So I feel like the cheese flavor was on the bottom and on the top was the
yuzu. And on top of it, it was like black yuzu. Like when you ferment black lemons, they explained
to us that they do it there with, they leave it at 60 degrees for two weeks. Was that correct? Or
40 degrees? 60 degrees. Okay. Because these are the ones that you can also do on the sun, just leaving
them outside to the sun until they're black. And there were just some little shapes of that on top.
And the interesting thing about this is that it was strong cheese and refreshing at the same time.
Super interesting dish. Absolutely. An amazing dish because also it had this texture that would
just disappear in your mouth. And cheese had this like, you know, when you think of parmesan, you
think of salty umami, which it had, but in a very light, milky and refreshing way, you know, and the
yuzu, although being black and fermented, a very strong, fragrant, pure yuzu flavor. Also on top
was some like dried and I think smoked pumpkin, they said, like grated on top as well. I couldn't
pinpoint that out for me. The yuzu and the cheese were there, but it was like such a refreshing
thing. You ate it and it was pretty much gone in your mouth, but you were left with these flavors
and it was a very, very refreshing experience with a very sophisticatedly light, ethereal flavor
profile. And it's also interesting that they explain us that the chef that developed this dish
is Alvaro, if I'm not wrong. And that he worked tickets because this dish was very Albert Adriaich,
you know, like this foam wine component. By the way, like next time we do this, we should do this
at the Enigma. I think that this would be like a good place to go, eat and have like a full review
of the restaurant. Because those are like thought provoking dishes for sure. Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah. One of the highlights for sure. Yeah, for sure. And again, so simple, three ingredients. I
mean, like main ingredients, obviously there's more ingredients to make this. But you know, I mean, mainly
the cheese, the black yuzu and the pumpkin. So smart and so emotion, like emotionally evocative.
Very, very crazy. Very cool. Next is I would say very Japanese, very simple, very minimalistic. It was
a marigold tempura. The whole flower pot, you would have like the whole flower completely fried. And
next to it like cured egg yolk. And they told us what it had. It had tamari, mushroom tamari, and
koji, I think, koji oil. Yeah, this reminds me of this kind of Yoshihiro Murata egg yolk sauce
marinated in soy sauce. But very light, very, very light, you know, no like crazy saltiness,
no egg flavor. It had like a very nice sweetness to sauce. And it had these like, because when I
was tasting it, it had obviously it was cured and had these notes of like fermented barley and stuff
like that, which you usually get in these like very high quality super light soy sauces that normally
you don't see outside of Japan at all. Ogaashi, I think it's called. It's like, like I used to use
the super light soy sauce and you could drink it like a tea almost, you know, like a spoon. Seafood
like a tea, you know, like light brown, a little bit salty, but like nutty and really, really nice.
For seasoning soups and stuff amazing, right? It has nothing to do with like the Kikkoman soy
sauces that I like. They serve their function as well, but it's kind of like you add a little bit
too much into a soup. It's fucked, right? And yeah, it was like, again, so, so elegant and
marigold tempura. Marigold has a very, there's different types of marigold. Some are intensely
flavorsome, like biting into tangerine skin, like very overly floral. But this one just had a very
lovely floralness to it. It was sprinkled with saffron and coriander seeds, which also are like
very in your face ingredients, but the nutty, sweet floralness of the saffron and the coriander
just kind of blended into the whole thing. Very delicious. Exactly. The sauce was so good. It was
a dipping sauce. It was kind of like a very light mayonnaise that we drank it like a shot. Because
that's the sort of people we are. Yeah, they like it. There's no shame here. They like it. By the way,
this we didn't pick up his name, but this Greek guy from service, he was so cool. So kind. Andrea,
I think Andrea. Yeah. Yeah. Shout out to Andrea, the Greek guy from Noma. He did a, he did a
fabulous job. He liked seeing us drinking the sauce. Yeah. I think, I mean, not to toot our own
home, but I think we were fun guests. Yeah. Maybe a little bit too loud at times, but we were just
laughing our ass off. No, we were not alone on that. Next one. This was a very fun dish.
Grilled peas from the pot. Simplicity perfected. Peas opened surgically with the peas still attached
to the pot. Grilled almost like you would grill langoustines in the shell or oysters. Yeah. With
a sauce made from pine needles and horseradish again. Yeah. Yeah. A very sweet umami heavy sauce
with hints of smokiness and the sweet peas that you would have to kind of take in the shell and
like scrape the peas off with your mouth, eating it with the thing and then throwing the shells
into the middle. Like if you had a crap boil or something like that. Yeah. Amazing. Super nice.
Super straightforward. Also, I like what you said. It's fun to have dishes where you have to throw
the shells to the middle. Like this act of eating and throwing the shells is it's also something
like really, I don't know, that evokes something in your memory that reminds you of whatever,
eating prawns at the beach or something like that. And you're in touch with the produce. Like you
appreciate it more than if you just take it with like a knife and fork and like it's a different
kind of experience. It's more involved, right? Obviously. But you take the shell and you put it
to your mouth, et cetera. I mean, you know, people who take that to an extreme, I'm a Garret, you know,
when they say, okay, yeah, I want you to snog the salad of this like ice face, right? And you're
involved with it. Or more innovation when they say you have to take this used condom and put it in
your mouth. Yeah, yeah. Fakka. It's like Fakka, that bull. Next dish. Artichoke heart and Padron pepper.
Both grilled. This felt very Italian to me. Like you were saying that, yeah. Yeah. Like it reminds me
of Italian flavor profiles because it had this foam. Again, like there was no cheese in it,
but with the umami and floral notes, it evokes somehow again, this parmesan thing. Yeah. With
artichokes and peppers. Come on. Like that's as Italian as it gets. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's just
like such a cool dish. Like the Padron pepper and the artichoke heart, both grilled. Jasmine, butter
sauce, formed up. The Padron pepper was covered in basil flowers and then there were nasturtium
petals kind of scattered around the plate. And like you say, like the fact that the
vegetables were grilled, it gave them such a umami boost. The sauce was floral, salty, like tasty,
fatty. And then the flowers not just gave the flavor, because obviously basil flowers are very
strong. Nasturtium flowers have a sort of spiciness, but it also gave this like crunchy texture to
the whole thing. That's also something I wanted to mention that I mentioned yesterday that it was
really interesting that many, if not all of the dishes had flowers, or most of them. And you could
really taste the flowers, which is something that like this crappy flowers that you buy on restaurant
suppliers just to make a decoration. They don't taste like anything. They're just to add a visual
to the dish and they taste like grabbing flowers from an urban garden and putting it in your mouth.
These flowers were highly aromatic and some of them they would squeeze micro dots of sauces
inside the flowers. Come on, like how? Oh yeah, that had me tripping actually. Like you bite into
the flower and you're like what the fuck, that's not just a flower, there's something inside of
here. But they didn't tell you? We haven't talked about the environment that the kitchen expressed
to the dining room. Wow, yeah intense, huh? Yeah, because I said yesterday, remind me of this army
of mercenaries in Game of Thrones. You remember the ones that had like spears and were like
true. Oh yeah, those guys. I know the Unsullied. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.
It reminded me, have you ever seen the last samurai with Tom Cruise? Yeah. You know the scene in the
beginning where he's there in the very beginning with the like army he's supposed to train and they
meet the samurais for the first time and they come, you see them break through the fog on
there with their fucking demon helmets and masks and they're like...
So first of all, you would not for a single second find a chef looking nowhere. Everybody was
looking down to whatever they were doing with absolute focus and just like whatever they were
doing like plating or taking. What was that? I think it was like rosemary flowers out of
rosemary one by one with very delicacy and you could feel the pressure if you started to hear
more and louder yes because it was... As it gets higher you would say oh okay something happened.
Somebody's angry. Yeah, you could tell that the two the two head chefs they were
like electric in the beginning. I mean in a way that was almost a little bit too much, you know.
I mean I get it's like the whole thing but it was sort of like afterwards he came to the table
again it was kind of like how was everything you could tell he was more relaxed but in the beginning
you know he brought a dish and he was like yeah so this is uh yeah is everything okay yeah cool
yeah all right and just like fucked off again which like is part of the experience and like
wasn't uncomfortable or anything but it was just funny it's just noteworthy. I mean yeah it's like
a football match you know they're playing their match and things happen sometimes
you're about to get a scored a goal or something so you have to push back and you could feel it.
Yeah at the top of the game it is what it is you know like they have to fucking deliver
every fucking day every night is finals you know yeah I get it we've been there.
Yeah absolutely. Game on. Yeah like that regarding the kitchen and then the service as I said
like they would I think the pace the way they would talk the way they would take time to explain
it felt really really nice for some reason they didn't know we spoke Spanish because
if they knew probably some of them would have spoken Spanish to us but they spoke in German,
they spoke in English, they spoke in different languages. Yeah yeah you could tell they sent
one of the chefs to us because which is also a cool thing to do because like they knew we were
coming from Berlin it's a little thing and yeah it was really cool. Next dish was the
salt baked black oyster mushroom and tomato salad. This was the main course. Yeah yes so I mean great
dish a very beautiful umami mushroom flavor the salt baked mushroom baked whole then sliced as it
seemed mushroom had a very nice crunchy toothsome texture as mushrooms sometimes have the green
rice inside was very nice yeah and the sauce again very fatty with a dashi reduction mixed into it
which gave it this really beautiful ham umami mushroom flavors um very comforting. Yeah and
actually it was this tomato salad with mirabelles herbs again fried flower buds fried with buckwheat
some of the flowers with like a buckwheat paste super nice and yeah again this I think that was
like the binding element of the whole experience it was like this freshness of herbs and fruits
and acidity with strong umami profiles and that mixture of both things that was kind of like the
opera thing that came back and forth through the whole dance. Yes and I mean he had a he paired a
sake with it which was oh yeah which was perfect because he told us it was like quite intense um
intense sake um and he said just take a few sips first it was quite alcoholic as well and it had
that deepness that mushrooms have you know just like deep flavor in the beginning like it was a
dish that like grew on me not that I didn't like it in the beginning but it grew on me more and
more the more I was eating it and the more I was eating the sauce and the rice that soaked up the
sauce and very very small grains of rice very interesting and the mushroom and it wasn't like
in your face crazy this that blah but just very comforting very deep flavor um very complex without
being over the top I think that's actually a good you know it was all very complex without being
like in your face over the top yeah and then the dessert started yeah magnolia popsicle
magnolia popsicle yeah also very as a very beautiful um my least favorite of the three desserts
a very beautiful presentation came on like a branch uh like a magnolia bud you had the like
magnolia petals and inside was an ice cream made with gamaldansk and milk crumble if I don't if I
remember correctly yeah and I remember there was something we never asked but there was something
crunchy with which was a milk crumble but there was also something very aromatic very like a spice
or something that I never know what it was yeah absolutely it had like very light milky flavors
of tonka and rose exactly exactly that's absolutely and yeah kind of like vanilla caramel
notes from the crumble I felt like in general very fun to eat of the branch very milky very soft
the least favorite for me too yeah maybe maybe from the overall menu I would say maybe maybe yeah
yeah we're just we're just not to say much because it was still great yeah and I mean
um same as in like in a movie or an opera you need to you can't have just tens sometimes you need to
have like a seven to like a stronger impact on the next one so next course we had like grilled roses
with a mixture of different berries and in the middle it was again like a like a rose cream
cream a grilled rose ice cream and on top was like a yuba a milk skin exactly yeah yeah what
did you think of it I really like this one like uh you're very light very pure yeah the low sugar
as well like you would enjoy the the natural sweetness of the fruits I would say that happened
with the with the three main desserts not the extra one that we got what I thought here also
like I like desserts that are not too sweet that was with like ice creams and stuff I like it when
it's not too sweet it's nothing worse than just like berries with sugar and like the yuba it had
like a two-some texture for people who don't know yuba it's like um traditionally made with soy milk
you boil salt milk a sheet forms on top you carefully lift it off with a stick and you dry
it it's a very traditional japanese ingredient yuba they do the same thing for many years now
with milk they started doing that in noma I believe milk milk skin take a a toothpick or
whatever like a long skewer at one end pick it out and hole as a hole and hang it up to dry and rose
ice cream again very subtle the mixture of berries I remember like it was cool because Xander was
saying stuff like I think there's basil inside and then I was kind of eating it there was like
one berry which is like a mulberry that in combination has like a very floral sweetness
in combination with the rose I was like oh yeah you're right it does taste like like fresh basil
flower or whatever really really nice but very understated very very Scandinavian in a way like
a berry bowl with like milky stuff you know like cold skull yeah yeah yeah kind of that sort of
vibe very good and then the last dessert was was definitely my favorite dessert I mean the
presentation the act and but then also the flavor combination I don't have pictures of this one no
it was bee pole and saffron and sea buckthorn I know why you don't have a picture of this one
because you uh you had a whole whole dessert panic I had a whole dessert yes because you took
the whole dessert and you started shaking it so uh no no no no no no don't do it like that
so what came was like a little almost like a jewelry box made from beeswax and the top had
a handle that was a poppy flower a dried poppy flower with the poppy seeds inside and so what
you were meant to do is pick up this flower lift off the lid to reveal underneath a very beautifully
plated dessert of a woodroof cream with a paste of hazelnuts and dried berries and you and bee
pollen and you were meant to take the flower and shake it on top of the dessert to basically like
a salt shaker shake the poppy seeds over the dessert and then you were going to eat it
eric misunderstood the instructions you know you also helped me miss it what was my fault
no I think I said like turn the whole thing over and yeah whatever like go ahead
and the way the company picks it picks up the whole thing and shakes it like a f***ing maraca
no no no don't do that and the waiter was always like no no no no no that's not the way you do it
that's not the way you do it but um yeah very delicious like one bite simple simple in a way
lots of things going on in the woodroof very beautiful tonka vanilla flavors then the paste
a certain salty fattiness from the hazelnuts and a certain sweet acidity from the dried beans
the bee pollen on top again sweetness in the flowers and then two distinct bites for me
because you got these like beautiful little horn spoons to eat it with I think I had the dessert
like five spoons in total two of those spoons had a very strong punch of fresh acidity
and I don't think we're gonna say we asked the our waiter what it was he was reluctant to tell us
because it was a secret he did tell us in the end but I think we'll abstain of that information
if he well he didn't want to tell us he told us in confidence I don't know if we should publish it
yeah yeah it was it's an ingredient I don't know what was famous for they used to use it a lot
and with the poppy seeds also adding a little bit of crunch tonka vanilla cinnamon flavors
very very very flowery again very delicious also like there was this component that was also all
over the menu also in the drinks like honey pollen like of course these are again flowers you know
like yeah is that like a flowery component yeah absolutely and then we got a bonus dessert again
honey yeah a bonus dessert which was one of my favorites I think yeah yeah so it arrived and
it looked like a slice of beeswax with the honeycomb shape they had the same color also
and it was a cake made with white chocolate and it was filled with sea buckthorn and whiskey vinegar
the whiskey vinegar was insane yeah so you would crack into this into this beeswax looking thing
this honeycomb looking thing and inside would be almost like a mousse which I guess is like
white chocolatey mousse maybe and then like a liquid center of sea buckthorn and whiskey vinegar
and again like the mixture of combinations the mixture of flavors they married in such a way that
if you wouldn't have told me what was in it I wouldn't have been able to pick it out
I would have said I would have been sure that it had passion fruit passion fruit yeah yeah yeah
it was this whiskey vinegar for sure this acidity but also when you transform liquor into vinegar
some aromatic notes come out that weren't there before that develop and maybe there was something
that resembles passion fruit for me yeah incredible like really really incredible yeah it was one of
my favorite desserts also yeah for sure yeah I think it was my favorite dessert for sure the
the one before that the woodroof cream very tasty but that's just because of also the the novelty
aspect of like how many times do you eat something and you're like this is a flavor I've never had
before because we've eaten in so many restaurants we've cooked in so many restaurants this happened
many times across the menu yes yes it was so unique it had so much of its own character yeah
I did not expect it to be I did expect it to have a lot of its own character but I did not expect it
to be so individually expressive while being so subtle and elegant and understated yeah
incredible high class cooking and that is not even talking about the aesthetics
which are insane right yeah aesthetically it's stunning yeah like I wasn't able to find like
a single flaw like something like ah this dish I didn't like or and I didn't like the plating
or I didn't like the way they served or they did a mistake here there I couldn't find
nothing anywhere yeah yeah where exactly they gave me sparkling water instead of still water
I told him in the beginning still water and then the first class was still water
and then somebody gave me sparkling water and what else then we had like we were invited to take a
walk in the garden with a cocktail I had like it was like a Norwegian gin with fennel exactly
and you had like a grass kombucha we had like a grass kombucha with chateau green chateau
super nice both delicious yeah absolutely delicious and served perfect function again
interesting again elements from the garden made sense you know digestive oh we didn't you know
we didn't talk about the koji coffee that was with the with the last dessert right yes with the with
the woodruff cream yeah so they like after like own they roast their own coffee so they have this
like cold brew that they mix with sparkling water and on top of that they add a foam of
lacto fermented rose water super beautiful coffee with like really beautiful berry notes and floral
notes the rose water foam again you hear rose and you think wow so I'm not going to be too strong but
it's just so light and floral that it just really ties in with these like floral coffee flavors
it was it actually complemented the woodruff dessert perfectly I think yeah so then we had
a walk in the garden we could take a look at the test kitchen and then we had like a tour through
the kitchen through the grill place the different kitchens of the different workplaces we had like
a little bag with a souvenir with this wild rose what is it is a vinegar the menu also to have like
the whole menu because it was very hard to keep track of like a small kitchen tour which was also
lovely yeah really really lovely got shown a little bit the areas explain how the whole
restaurant is designed and every room has like a different material the main dining room is oak
uh then another one is like danish pine and like area for the waiters is concrete other areas brick
and it's uh you know very cool um very cool space yeah very very cool space um 85 members of stuff
front of house back of house uh kitchen porters etc yeah half of the team is in Kyoto right now
with our friend Kevin doing the same shit there like um setting up this whole very unique operation
crazy undertaking absolutely amazing experience
that's it for this week's episode of potluck food talks if you like what we're doing
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