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Hi everyone, welcome to Pot Luck Food Talks. Today we're recording in good old Copenhagen.

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And this will be our Noma after dinner review. We were in Noma last night. This is our hangover

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breakfast. And we're going to go dish by dish. You can also check out this content on YouTube

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to see the pictures of each dish we're going to talk about.

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How do you feel? Really nice. I think I don't have to think much to just say it was the best

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culinary and hospitality experience I've ever had. Like there's really nothing near it. Really

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like on a complete different level from everything I've seen before. I don't know how you feel about

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it. Yeah, very similar. Very, very similar. And apart from that, I also don't feel, you know,

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like physically like bad. I feel like okay, because often when there's a menu with so many

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like fermented components, it was really interesting because for me it was like you often compare,

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you know, like Noma and Elbui in a way, you know, after this like whole influence of Noma,

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lots of other restaurants around the world started implementing the same techniques and getting

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really fascinated by what they were doing. And this rise of like, especially in beverages,

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it's like fermented beverages and house fermented sort of like components of dishes started

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becoming more and more sort of presence. And there's been more than a few meals where there

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were a lot of these sorts of elements that I then walked out of feeling like I was fermenting cider

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barrel, you know, I mean, like that's interesting because we haven't talked about it. Like, of

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course, there has always been fermentation, fermentation predates humans, but in restaurants,

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besides sauerkraut, you wouldn't find much homemade ferments in restaurants, or at least

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it wasn't that common. It was something you would find once in a while in a restaurant somewhere,

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but Noma really like professionalized and developed methodologies or product to the restaurant

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environment so that everybody started fermenting all over the world in avant-garde restaurants.

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And I think that's one of the main contributions of Noma and the New Nordic as a movement.

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And absolutely. Yeah.

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Oh, did the night begin? We left here with a cab.

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We left here with a cab with time to spare, just because we wanted to come on time and also because

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you know, the entrance to Noma is so beautiful. You know, it's like, it's kind of cool because

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like we were saying with Xander yesterday, he was like, oh, I didn't realize that Noma was inside of

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the city. But still, it doesn't feel like it's very inside of the city because you do drive out a

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little bit to the other part of town. It's kind of a little bit more industrial and it feels very

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set away. And like for me, like the excitement really started kicking in once we were in the

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cab and Xander was like, oh, it's over there. Or like, no, you said it, you're like, oh, it's over there.

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And then I started getting really giddy. I was like, oh, we're here. You know, like a child going to

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Disneyland or something like that. And it was a really good idea to arrive half an hour earlier

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because we had like this waiting room that was already also part of the experience.

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We saw other parties that arrived directly to the table and they would be conducted directly to

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their table. Well, we had this waiting time and this, what was it like an inside garden,

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something like that. A greenhouse. A greenhouse. Exactly. They had like this kind of habaneres,

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but these weren't no habaneres. What was the name? Lady Lisette. Yeah. Like a specific chili that

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looked really dangerous. That they cross-bred. It's their own variety as far as I understood.

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They also gave us like this tea. What was it exactly? It was jasmine with elderberry or

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something like that. Yeah. Jasmine and some other things that I missed. Just like a very light,

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sparkling, refreshing tea. And like what I liked also is kind of like you arrived there

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because they obviously they stagger, you know, important note for restaurateurs out there,

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stagger your reservations. Also, you saw a friend walking in, which is what I said,

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it was this party and you were like, Hey, what's going on? Yeah. I mean, it's kind of cool. It's

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kind of like I sort of half expected it. I saw a few people that I recognized that at the last days

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of this restaurant, you know, it's literally, what was yesterday? Wednesday. Yeah. They have

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two more services. That's it. You know, we had a third last service for them in this sort of way.

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And of course, there's got to be a few people that want to be there from, you know, the industry

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that, yeah, I think I think he stashed it over for like a short time at some point. So yeah, but you

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know, everybody knows everybody, you know, it's just like with us. Yeah. So the other parties that

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we saw, it was also interesting because you saw like this group of Germans, this group of Asians,

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I don't know where they were from. Dude, you can really feel that everybody's there for like,

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for a really important day. You know, it's not just like a casual going out thing. No, no,

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100%. Yeah. I think everybody that was there was aware that we're here to fully, fully immerse

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ourselves in this experience, just to be part of the last few dancers here. Because also they

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have this like thing where the kitchen greets everybody, you know, and et cetera. So if people

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just come whenever, you know, it's complete chaos. So it's very controlled. But also what I thought

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was really nice was that they immediately knew who we were. It's exactly those sorts of like cliche

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things. Like when you see it in movies or in the bear, for example, where they like overdo it with

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like the hand signals and like the little notes that they pass and stuff like that. I really felt

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that was going on around. 100%. Yeah. 100%. And it's honestly, I've never seen a service this smooth,

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also like with like the way that they were communicating and how they were all up to date

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with what was going on. But let's wait before we go into that because we haven't entered the

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restaurant yet. Yeah. No, no, no. Sure. But I'm just saying that like immediately as we arrived,

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they made it so effortless because we sat down, we had microphones on very small microphones,

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but you know, regardless. And the guy sort of like very casually while he was bringing us tea, so

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oh, the microphones for the podcast. You know, and it's just like these small things that make you

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feel welcome and like in good hands straight away. Yeah. I've heard that from people that have been,

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for example, at the Fat Dog, that they had just a conversation on the phone. And then during the

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dinner, they bring that out like, ah, and how was your holidays in Istanbul? Or these kind of things.

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Yeah. Like they use the information they have about you to have a conversation during the meal.

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Like the CIA. The Curie-Know Institute of America? No. No, but almost. Yeah. As you were saying,

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the setting is really nice for you because you feel on the countryside, but at the same time,

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you have this industrial building just in front of you like this. What is it? Is it like a trash

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processor or something like that here in Copenhagen? And it's an iconic building and also like an

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architectural icon, you know? Then we walked to the restaurant, which is like a long walk. How much?

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Like maybe 50, 100 meters or something like that. Like would you walk at the side to the restaurant?

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So you see, because this is like a really long building. And that's also like, I would say,

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the key moment of the experience. You have like on both sides, this herbal garden and you're

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walking in. It's just a way that only conducts to the main entrance of the restaurant. And

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we were fucking around with stuff. What was it that I had? Brought some ham for the team?

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Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course. Like, hey, if you go to a restaurant of this caliber, it's nice to

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bring a present for the kitchen, you know? I mean, very traditionally, it's like a case of beer.

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But obviously, it's kind of difficult for Noma because it's like 40 chefs. It's like the guy

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was saying, it's like we're 85 members of staff. You know, like how many presents are you going to

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bring? But so Eric very kindly brought some ham from Spain for them to eat. We were joking that

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they'd be really pissed at the present. You fucking moron. This is vegetable season.

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You know, it's cheese season. Why are you bringing ham? We're vegan. I'm sorry. Shut the fuck up.

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Here's your fucking table. Then it's when it really started because we arrived at the door and we were

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really not expecting what was going to happen next because you have to open the door yourself.

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And when you open it, just one second later, things start to happen one after the other.

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Because it was like, boom, you open and they say, welcome. Then you listen to the background.

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There's a kitchen and there's like this instructions like, and the whole team. Yes.

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Yes. Yes. And then they conduct you inside. And I was like, oh, we were like, you know,

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it was kind of awkward or intimidating. And we were with the ham like, oh, I have a present.

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And then the whole kitchen staff comes out and they align in front of you. And they start to look

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at you smiling. Welcome. Each one of them welcomes you. And I was like, what should I do with this?

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You can give it to this guy. So I gave the ham to one of the chefs and then we were conducted to the

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to the table. It was already prepared. I understand why you can't just walk in one by one because

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there's this ritual of walking into the restaurant. So we sit down and there were already some

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producers that they were going to present us like to explain us that these are things that are going

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to happen during the menu. But they came like bam. Yeah. You know, like you walk in like the

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intensity of like all the like chefs greeting you and you could like, you know that they need to get

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back to work also, but they're standing there and you could really see like they're briefed on this

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that they're sort of like, when you stand there, like I can just picture it when you stand and you

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greet the guests, like don't just fucking stand there and be like, like, look at them, look them

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in the eyes. And when they walk past you say hello, welcome, you know, exactly. And it was like that

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with every single person, like every single chef. I said like, hi, like to I think like five, six

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people, I'm like, hello. Yeah. Hello. Hello. Hello. Very, very intense in a good way, like especially

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when you get what's happening behind the scenes. And then like, as you say, we sit down, you take

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in the dining room, which by the way, is beautiful, you know, beautiful in the most simple way. Yeah.

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And so unique and expressive of like their style. Very element driven, like wood, herbs, plants,

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yeah. Really, really beautiful. And then so you sit down and it's like, you can just tell that

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they're ready to go. They're like ready to go to give you the brief. But yet again, when she was

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explaining the ingredients to us, it didn't feel like a script. It didn't feel rushed. Like it felt

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very, very effortless. That's also something that was during the whole meal, like the pace of

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everything, especially when people are talking to you, like they're talking on a specific pace.

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They're not rushing. They're not passing. They're just being normal. Yeah. Yeah. But even like a few

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times when I thought like, oh, like he or she would kind of like rip off the conversation,

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and she just kind of casually said something else. And it felt kind of nice, you know, because like,

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I wouldn't have been upset if she would have been like, yeah, yeah, exactly. You know, like pick up

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something that you say, be like, yeah, yeah, you're right. That's really funny. Haha. And then continue.

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But no, she like actually then went on more and it gave you this feeling of there's no temperature.

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Like they're in control. Everything's fine. And it's a amazing level of service, honestly.

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As I said, we sat down and they have all of these produce some vegetables. The most interesting one

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was this peach tree resin. Yeah, resin. Yeah. It's basically like the look like dinosaur eggs or

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something like that. The thing that you see on Jurassic Park, like this orange stones. Yeah.

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What else did they have? Green rice, green rice, black oyster mushroom, black oyster mushroom that

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they brought from the block as a like a whole thing to see how it's growing to present basically

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the exactly they were homegrown mushrooms. Yeah. What she was explaining, there was like an ant

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walking. Oh, look, that's an ant, but that's part of nature. And then it started climbing on my

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on my plate. And she was like, okay, but I noticed that like also because they were like wasps

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flying through the restaurant a little bit, you know, especially in the evening when like the

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the windows because in the beginning, the windows are open and you're sitting there with this

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beautiful wildflower field, which again is very beautifully curated. I noticed this because

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especially because I have a passion for horticulture. And as you know, I spent some

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time like actually studying horticulture and stuff. And these type of like arrangements that look like

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a very wild wildflower bed, but I actually curated different plants that are like set at different

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levels. Super beautiful. Yeah, but it really looked wild. But you can tell that was like a

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bouquet. Yeah, exactly. It's like different levels, different textures, different colors,

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absolutely stunning. And I really like the fact that it's like there's an ant walking around the

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table. And it's not like in other restaurants, it would be like, oh my god, it's an ant, you know,

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but there it's kind of like, man, we're in the garden with nature, you know, like there's an

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fucking ant, you know, it's because there's a fucking nasturtium flower right here that we're

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showing you. And of course, there's an ant in there. They always hide in the nasturtium flowers,

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you know, it's notorious. So then we were asked about the drink pairing. And we went for the

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because we didn't want it to get like super drunk. So they offered us we could have wine pairing,

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sake pairing, or non alcoholic pairing, and or a mixture. So we went for the mixed pairing,

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we allowed them to choose how to build it. But a hybrid as Xander called it, hybrid pairing. Yeah,

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perfect, perfect choice. Yeah, that was a perfect choice. Yeah, because non alcoholic were so

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interesting, probably even more interesting than the wines and sake we had. I mean, like the wines

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and sake were of course, excellent wines and sake. But I would say the most memorable ones were the

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some of the non alcoholic drinks 100% 100%. I mean, just from the creativity point of view,

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you know, which parody you think worked the best for you? I don't know if the pairing but the drink

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that I remember the most it was this pollen, honey kombucha with saffron. That was incredible.

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That was crazy. That was so nice. For the main course we had sake. Yeah, that worked. That was

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for that wise it worked. There was also like a wine, the oxidated wine. That was also like a

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super one. That's true. That fit really, really well. So then first course arrives. And then

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that's also something that I got really impressed, like how the service performed. Because these were

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all the time like invisible hands putting things and taking things away from your table. But the

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moment they would set the plates, it was perfectly choreographical. There were two standings, one on

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one side, one would put like the thing they put under the plate and the other one would come

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just one second later. Not never more than one second. It would be like a ballet, you know,

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like, boom, boom. Then you had all the dishes and then everything arrived. Same thing when dishes

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would arrive, it would never be that, you know, like, I would have a plate, you're waiting and

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then the other one comes, it would be like the three things at the same level of timing. And

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first course was the kohlrabi shawarma. Yes, which is a smaller version of an old vegetable main course

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that used to do the celeriac shawarma. Basically, layers of kohlrabi, as they explained, some dried,

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some fermented, some fresh, stacked, cut, skewered and grilled and glazed. As we later found out,

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there was the peach tree resin in between the layers of the kohlrabi. This kohlrabi, it came

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with some fresh white currants on the side, some nasturtium flower and glazed in the truffle sauce.

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And on the side, you had pickled pine cones like olives and these preserved beans and little

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sandwiches of oregano leaves. Yeah, these were like meaty, thick oregano leaves, like, almost like

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succulent plants. And this was filled with a kind of like a salsa of herbs, like of wild herbs.

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Yeah, so you had this sandwich of leaf, herb paste and another leaf. And they told us to

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mix it all together, have fun. Which was really fun. It was really fun. Yeah. And it was really

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cool because it was so layered and because you would have a bite with, you know, some of the

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olives, you'd have a bite with a little bit more of the currants that gave you this like acidity kick.

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And that's kind of like the first dish really kicked off the tone. It wasn't like a small

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kind of bite. It was already like a very nice, warm welcome. And it immediately set the tone

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for the flavor profiles that we were going to encounter. Did you mention the truffle sauce?

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Yes. It was like a very buttery truffle sauce around the kohlrabi shawarma. And yeah, the fun

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thing about it was, as you say, like a little bit of this, a little bit of that, you mix it all

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together. You take just one, just two, you know, like different combinations of the same components.

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Yeah. Yeah. It sounds like very in your face truffle and this and that, but all flavors are

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very mellow and very elegant and very, very harmonious. And that's something we said the

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whole meal through. Exactly. It was not like this here truffle, bam, like wow. You know,

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fermented pine cones like bam in your face. No, no, no, no, no, no. Exactly. Like the subtleness

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of everything. I would say even the first tea that we had on the waiting, it was already setting the

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tone of this subtleness that you will find all over the menu starting from there. Yes, absolutely.

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Yeah. So next dish, what was it? Ah, sorrel noodle soup. And yes, both are very interesting,

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very beautiful presentation. Yeah. Like you had like, so first of all, the plate was a cube of

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ice, a block of ice with a oval hole in it where you have like this soup and three clover leaf

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shaped noodles. Yes. And yeah, this was very refreshing, very citrusy, lemony,

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granisman, apple, like those kind of notes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The noodles are made kind of like a

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mochi made out of kuzu and fermented honey. Then you had this tiny dollop of like fresh

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cheese underneath each noodle, very beautifully plated, like very round. I was kind of like,

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how did I get it to stay so round? You know? And the soup, as you were saying, like made of

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sorrel and for sure green apple. And because it was plated in the ice, you were eating it like a

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soup out of this ice bowl. It was very, very refreshing. Noodles had a really pleasant,

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chewy texture. The fresh cheese wasn't salty or sweet or anything. It just had a very comforting

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fattiness to it that really went well with the like really refreshing soup. Yeah. All in all,

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you also had a little bit of clover and like flowers on the side that you were meant to kind

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of eat off the stem as you were eating the soup, which also was really, really nice. And I love

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that there are these like hand eating elements where you like pick and make your own dish,

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which is very interactive and always makes it very fun. Yeah. What I liked the most or what impressed

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me the most was the chewiness of those noodles. It was really like, I don't know, like a soft

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gummy bears kind of thing, like a soft udon something, you know, like udon texture kind of

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like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Really, really nice. That was more of a textural dish. It was very

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light and refreshing. Very, very refreshing. Yeah, absolutely. Next dish, we had the seaweed salad.

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The seaweed wraps. Yeah. That was crazy. Like this, this like so far, like the other things were

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kind of like familiar flavor spectrums, but this one was the first one that went into like a

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complete unknown realm, you know, right? Because of the sauce, I think the sauce was really,

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really trippy in a way, like it kind of tasted very mildly like truffle. They said it was made of

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seaweed. It was a seaweed and truffle sauce, but like it had a layer of fat on top of it, like an

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oil, very thick and kind of splitting as you were kind of stirring it. So it had this like really

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weird lava lamp texture. Again, this like overlying theme of sort of like fattiness without being

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heavy. Deep umami with hints of acidity. And I could have sworn there was some sort of elder

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flower, like vinegar or something in there because it had this like, and then this like floralness

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that sometimes comes through, through rose or through jasmine or through this or through

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whatever, through geranium or I don't know, you know. Yeah, I remember it also felt like I thought

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of mustard oil because of the oiliness of the sauce. It was like a kind of like a thick

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vinegarette thing. And that combination of seaweed with flowers and mustard,

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yeah, it was something I've never experienced and it was quite nice. I think that was the most

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interesting thing, having that feeling of what is this? You know, you can't put the frame it into any

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tradition of any kind. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And then there were little wraps made with kelp seaweed,

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oyster leaf, a horseradish cream and beech mustard flowers, which had a great texture and were very

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refreshing in their temperature and their texture and in their like very fresh taste. The horseradish

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and the mustard, they came through not as like potently spicy, but just as in like spicy,

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refreshing and together with this like velvety sauce, which again is like a texture that I found

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a few times. It's like velvety sauce. It was very fun to eat. It was very refreshing and light.

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Yeah, and I have here peach flowers in my notes. Beech mustard. Beech mustard. Beech mustard.

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Okay. It's like this like mustard thing that grows on the beach and you can eat the flowers.

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They're like nice and pungent. Yeah, and it really had like this kind of like game where you don't

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know what you're going to find in each scene that you're trying. Then, oh, this is something else.

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Yeah, yeah. Also, it's what Kevin was telling us. He was like, we don't tell you all the stuff that's

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in the elaborations because otherwise it would just be like in this Koji and that Koji and this

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Tamari and this reduction and this vinegar. Exactly. And you don't want to hear that.

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Yeah. Next. Ramzan. Yeah. Koji wrapped in Ramzan. Yeah. So basically, barley Koji cake, as they

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called it. They brought out the whole Koji thing wrapped in a piece of Ramzan, wild garlic, grilled.

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And then next to that you had some orepine, which is a crispy leaf. Also with like a little rose

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petal or something and like some herbs inside. I feel like they were like, I don't know, like

245
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something lemony. You had a fried Ramzan flour and you had a little bit of daikon or rashi

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grated daikon radish on the side. What did you think of this one? Incredible. Like first of all,

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the Ramzan tasted, it was kind of like, it tasted like meat, but like this Germanic or Nordic kind

248
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of sausages. It had this kind of funk to it. Yeah. Like this maybe I would say over-smoked

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that you find in central Europe. Yeah. So it really reminds me of the smoked sausages with

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the Koji inside. So super strong umami. What else we had? The horseradish. Yeah. It was kind of like

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a vegetable hot dog. Like from the inspiration point of view. You know, like it's interesting.

252
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Yeah. Very good. Very good. Yeah. Like the taste of grilled sausage was really cool. I think it was

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like, and again, it had this like fattiness, umami-ness. It had this like flavor. I don't know

254
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where it came from. And with these like punches of acidity, you know, again. Yeah. And like every

255
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now and again, and super, super interesting. Really, really. It had this like almost like,

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when I say funk, I mean like, you know, like how a really nicely, um, sweat has a funk, you know,

257
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this like Edel-Schimmel kind of situation. Yeah. Also interesting on this dish is the cutlery that

258
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they brought. What's this? This prison shank. This prison shank that really looked like a homemade

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weapon in jail. A super primitive and sharp knife to cut the ransom. And it really added to the

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experience of enjoying the dish. Honestly, everything added to it. Like cutlery and plate-wise,

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um, everything added to it. Beautiful plates. I think every time we got a new plate, because we

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were into ceramics and cutlery and all that sort of stuff, every time they brought something new,

263
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it invited you to pick it up, to look at it, to enjoy the texture, you know. Um, even the, um,

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the charges, you know, the charges are the plates that you put the plate on, right? So it stays on

265
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your table, which we had quite a long time. And like they were just really, really beautiful.

266
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So, and again, we had like this succulent leaf that it was again, like a leaf sandwich. And what

267
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was the flower in the middle? I don't remember. Fried ramsen flower. Yeah. And a fried flower.

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That, yeah, that reminds me of, you know, zucchini, fried zucchini flowers over these kind of things.

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Next dish. Wow. This was one of the highlights. This was one of the highlights.

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And I like how they put it in the menu. Today's crudite. That's it.

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That's it. Wow. What, what can we say about this? One of my favorite dishes. Yeah, for sure. And

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so we have here, I don't know, at least I couldn't say how many, because if you can't like the little

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leaves, it'd be 20 different, uh, vegetables and fruits and leaves and flowers, probably even more.

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And on the bottom, there was this smoked umami-rich kind of soup and it had something else,

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right? It had chili oil, it had smoked tomato, but the sauce on the bottom, it had like chili oil,

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I think on top and the sauce on the bottom. I don't know if it was the tomato, but I feel like

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it had some sort of like, I don't, in the beginning I was like, is this buttermilk? And then I was kind

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of thinking maybe it's just green tomato smoked and then emulsified with something to get the

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creaminess, you know? But, um, what was amazing about this dish is like the quality of the

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ingredients and they like left a supernatural, but it was so nice because you had such a huge variety

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and you had strawberries inside there also and then you had like whole basil leaves and basil flowers

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and whole little like, um, tips of fennel flowers. And so as you were eating this dish,

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you know, you had such an oyster leaves and stuff, you always had like a different punch.

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You had this like really beautiful vegetable texture, crunchiness and different levels

285
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and herb punches that as you were chewing, they were like coming through and punching through

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and then bound together by this super delicious warming umami sauce slash soup.

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The sauce made the dish for sure. Yeah, absolutely. For me, this completely brings me to

288
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Michel Bras Gagriou or Mugari Gagriou. And then Mugari would do it like with this strong

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emmental sauce under this herb salad that you had many different herbs and a strong

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emmental umami rich. And in this case, it was like smoked tomato umami. But I like that.

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It's more organized that many of the vegetables are repeated. It's not like you have, you know,

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just once zucchini and then you have 45 different vegetables. In this case, it was repeated. So you

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would have written while you eat that you would have like the same thing once in a while, the same

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of it again. Everything so carefully sliced. I have a picture of like a micro zucchini that was just

295
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sliced like an abanico, you know, like really crazy. Yeah, she was saying that it takes them

296
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20 minutes to assemble these dishes. Yeah, that they have a competition of who plates it faster

297
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like inside the kitchen. Yeah, one of the highlights for sure. And here I also have,

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did we already have like the like the red soft drink here? It was a sumac,

299
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Suna kombucha with gooseberry. What else did it have? Rose. Rose. Incredible. This one,

300
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also one of the highlights of the drinks. Yeah, for sure. For the Venezuelan audience,

301
00:28:34,760 --> 00:28:41,960
it reminds Sandra and me to frescolita, but like in a very organic way. But yeah, it was kind of

302
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that. No, my first goal is that not organic frescolita. She's huge. All right, next dish,

303
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the nasturtium dumpling with quail egg. Wow. And I was really impressed by what the guy told us when

304
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we were leaving that that dish has 57 ingredients. Insane. Like what the fuck. So basically, it's like

305
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a little almost like a soup dumpling, but the outside is made of nasturtium leaves that are

306
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somehow, I don't know, like layered and like stuck together and compressed somehow. And then inside

307
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you have a soft boiled quail egg. And outside on the flat side of this dumpling, which gets

308
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brought in this like beautiful sort of like flower pots with leaves, it's kind of standing in the

309
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middle. It's a couple of aromats, pine needle, Sancho pepper, and some other things. And inside

310
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of this like dumpling must have been a couple of ferments. Also, it was almost like you had to eat

311
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it in one go because the egg was like underneath was a little bit of like egg yolk sauce, but I'm

312
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not sure whether that was just to stick it on or whatever. And it was this vegetable hamon. Yeah,

313
00:29:46,680 --> 00:29:51,960
it was a vegetable ham, which if somebody told me I'm gonna make a vegetable ham, I'm gonna put

314
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pepper and asparagus, I'd be like, man, shut the fuck up, you know. Yeah, it's true. It's like,

315
00:29:59,080 --> 00:30:05,720
it's like a BCC student. It's like, okay, listen, I'm gonna make a vegetable ham. I'm gonna put this.

316
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And then the fats don't be asparagus and be like, man, get the fuck out of here, you know.

317
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But I mean, if they would leave the white asparagus out and use the pepper and forget the

318
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mimetic play of it, for me would have worked maybe even better, you know. You think so? I mean,

319
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I'm just speculating. I mean, honestly, they didn't even, I thought it was kind of cool. Like,

320
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I looked at it and I was like, because it wasn't like in your face either. It's not like, oh,

321
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this is our vegetable ham. They just said, you have like red pepper and white asparagus,

322
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plonk. You look at it and you're like, it kind of looks like ham. You have to figure it out yourself.

323
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And that was kind of smart because like if they would have told us, it would have become gimmicky,

324
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but no. And yeah, the pepper, it tasted like it had a texture like fruit leather,

325
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like almost like fruit leather and ham had a baby, you know. And it was smoky, it was sweet,

326
00:30:59,640 --> 00:31:07,160
it had a miso flavor because it was cured, you know. It's yeah, and it had like pepper on it,

327
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which then again afterwards came through. And I mean, it did fulfill the same functions basically

328
00:31:12,120 --> 00:31:18,760
as like a slice of like cured meat would, but it was very fun to eat and very delicious.

329
00:31:18,760 --> 00:31:23,080
Yeah, it was very peppery, like normal red pepper. Also with some hints of kind of

330
00:31:23,080 --> 00:31:29,880
piquillo pepper, it reminds me. And yeah, and this leathery, chewy texture to it. Super nice.

331
00:31:29,880 --> 00:31:34,520
Yeah. So what's next? What's next? The potato soup and the butterfly flatbread.

332
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Ah, okay. Also one of the highlights. Yeah. You were expecting the potato

333
00:31:40,280 --> 00:31:44,040
soup. You were like, probably the potato soup is next. And that's exactly what it was.

334
00:31:44,040 --> 00:31:48,520
Yeah. I mean, it's so iconic. I mean, like the, I think he used to call it the Nordic coconut.

335
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He used to have this like whole kohlrabi with the leaves and like the same sort of straw.

336
00:31:53,480 --> 00:31:58,120
You get like, but now it's a potato, which I think is even cooler. Yeah, because it's so weird.

337
00:31:58,120 --> 00:32:04,840
It's like, get a potato in dirt. How many chefs can do that? Like elevate potato to that level

338
00:32:04,840 --> 00:32:10,520
and serving like, you know, this big Dutch potatoes in the middle of a three-star restaurant with a

339
00:32:10,520 --> 00:32:16,200
straw. You know, it's really audacious to do something like that. And it's also the association

340
00:32:16,200 --> 00:32:22,920
because raw kohlrabi is fine. Raw potato is not fine. You know? So which I also thought was pretty

341
00:32:22,920 --> 00:32:29,080
interesting. The potato soup, again, I thought it was going to be like clever. I thought it would

342
00:32:29,080 --> 00:32:37,080
be like a cold potato soup of like, you know, there was elderflower in it and stuff, but it was

343
00:32:37,640 --> 00:32:42,760
a warm potato soup. It was a little chunky also. Was yours chunky? No. No, mine was a little bit

344
00:32:42,760 --> 00:32:49,880
chunky. Seasoned with elderflower. Yeah. And this is something I couldn't expect to find like in any

345
00:32:49,880 --> 00:32:54,600
classic, for example, German restaurant. Yeah. That kind of potato soup in that regard. It was

346
00:32:54,600 --> 00:33:00,280
not impressive, but for me it was impressive that it was plated on a raw potato and it didn't have

347
00:33:00,280 --> 00:33:06,520
like starchy potato, starchy flavors or raw potato flavors anywhere. It was perfectly clean. I don't

348
00:33:06,520 --> 00:33:11,400
know how they did that. How they plated in a raw potato without tasting like raw potato, you know?

349
00:33:11,400 --> 00:33:16,200
No. Yeah. I think it's just like the, that it's so ala minute. They fill it in, they serve it

350
00:33:16,200 --> 00:33:20,760
straight away. It's not enough time for the potato flavor to come out. I think. I have no idea. And

351
00:33:20,760 --> 00:33:27,080
I also don't know how they make that plate, like how they hold it like a coconut so it's empty

352
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and they insert probably like some kind of special tool or way to take them. I think so. You have

353
00:33:31,080 --> 00:33:35,480
these like little grinders, you know, they can go like, they can have like holes in wood and stuff.

354
00:33:35,480 --> 00:33:38,760
With a pavisian or something like that. Yeah. I mean, that's what I thought in the beginning,

355
00:33:38,760 --> 00:33:42,840
but that would take forever. No, like I've done that before with stuff and it's like,

356
00:33:43,480 --> 00:33:47,000
you do that with apples and it's like, Jesus Christ, you know, you do it with a whole potato,

357
00:33:47,000 --> 00:33:55,640
let alone 85 or like 90 a day. Nah. To make a crab pie with apples. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah.

358
00:33:55,640 --> 00:34:04,920
Basically the same approach. I wonder where Rene got his idea from. Hey, hold on. Wait a second.

359
00:34:04,920 --> 00:34:11,640
And next to the potato soup was one of the best dishes, I think. Also this butterfly, again,

360
00:34:12,360 --> 00:34:18,200
leaf sandwich. Yeah. You had like this cracker on the outside and inside the, I opened it like a

361
00:34:18,200 --> 00:34:22,920
little bit and there was like a lot of things going on inside there. There were like completely

362
00:34:22,920 --> 00:34:30,040
different components. Again, like radish-y, mustard-y leaves. There was green strawberry inside. Green

363
00:34:30,040 --> 00:34:36,040
strawberry. I have it here. Yeah. I'm pretty sure there was some sort of tarragon oil also going on,

364
00:34:36,040 --> 00:34:44,200
like a green oil and a very particular kind of flavor. And really fun. I mean, really beautiful.

365
00:34:44,200 --> 00:34:49,880
It looks like a butterfly in flight and it gets brought to you in like a sunflower and you're

366
00:34:49,880 --> 00:34:55,800
meant to pick it up and push it together and then just eat the thing. And just super tasty. Really,

367
00:34:55,800 --> 00:35:01,960
really tasty. Again, with like hidden notes of acidity, fattiness, mustard-y flavors. And by this

368
00:35:01,960 --> 00:35:07,400
point, it was really interesting that they had already a couple of times repeated components,

369
00:35:08,200 --> 00:35:15,240
flavor profiles, like this horseradish. We already had it before in the garlic leaf with koji.

370
00:35:15,800 --> 00:35:21,720
At this point, we were already saying that you could really feel like concept cohesiveness

371
00:35:21,720 --> 00:35:29,080
across the menu. That it felt like, let's say, a movie where there's this recurrent idea that

372
00:35:29,080 --> 00:35:34,440
you see over and over again. Or a music album, like a really good music album that you feel that

373
00:35:34,440 --> 00:35:39,240
the whole thing is one concept here. You could feel the same thing. That many dishes were kind

374
00:35:39,240 --> 00:35:44,760
of like in the same spectrum of flavors or ingredients, but there was always like a different

375
00:35:44,760 --> 00:35:49,720
angle, a different curve, a different approach each time you had like the same thing, but

376
00:35:49,720 --> 00:35:58,200
different like in many courses. Especially with this leaf sandwiches or this herbal pastes and

377
00:35:58,200 --> 00:36:03,640
these kind of things. Absolutely, absolutely. It's kind of what I teased earlier. This like

378
00:36:03,640 --> 00:36:08,920
velvety fattiness that was very comforting without being heavy or fatty, like fatty in

379
00:36:08,920 --> 00:36:15,880
a negative way. Just really kind of coating your tongue with this deep umami, floral sweetnesses,

380
00:36:15,880 --> 00:36:22,840
savorinesses from the ferments and from smokiness, etc. With acidity and floral notes, but everything

381
00:36:22,840 --> 00:36:28,520
so elegant, so harmonious. I really expect this, like you're saying, it's kind of like, okay,

382
00:36:28,520 --> 00:36:33,240
like bam, nasturtium here and bam, horseradish there and like pine needle acidity here, bam.

383
00:36:33,240 --> 00:36:39,240
But everything was just so smooth, so elegant. Really, really nice. I feel like I would like to

384
00:36:39,240 --> 00:36:43,240
believe that, like we were talking about, it's like a very Japanese flavor profile.

385
00:36:43,240 --> 00:36:50,680
I was going to say the same thing, that very high-end Japanese is very subtle. You see it also with

386
00:36:50,680 --> 00:36:56,760
the tea, that you don't have this, ah, here you have this, or infused tea that you feel the umami

387
00:36:56,760 --> 00:37:07,640
on your throat, you know, like it's just like very smooth, elegant teas. Yeah, yeah. Then next is,

388
00:37:07,640 --> 00:37:11,880
this was also very interesting talking about Japanese. This felt very Japanese to me. It was

389
00:37:11,880 --> 00:37:19,160
a king mushroom in this kind of like gelatin with a little marjoram foam, one of the favorite

390
00:37:19,160 --> 00:37:24,440
ingredients of the show, marjoram. Yeah, marjoram in the half an hour show, I thought you meant the

391
00:37:24,440 --> 00:37:30,440
yesterday show. But again, marjoram and oregano, a flavor that appeared many times, many, many times.

392
00:37:31,400 --> 00:37:36,040
Like horseradish appeared many times throughout the meal. And I thought that was crazy because

393
00:37:36,840 --> 00:37:40,440
usually that's a no-no in high-level kitchens, repeating an ingredient.

394
00:37:40,440 --> 00:37:45,480
Yeah, even in... You can't use tarragon here. You use tarragon in the starter already. You can't use

395
00:37:45,480 --> 00:37:50,120
it for the fish, you know. You already have tomato here, and I work the same way, you know. Like I'm

396
00:37:50,120 --> 00:37:55,960
sort of like, oh, we already have a tomato reduction here. I can't have a marinated tomato here,

397
00:37:55,960 --> 00:38:03,880
you know. Yeah, but I think this actually enhances the experience. And I feel the same, and I had the

398
00:38:03,880 --> 00:38:09,720
same thought until yesterday. I was like, okay, wow, they repeated ingredients, and that just

399
00:38:09,720 --> 00:38:13,880
added to the experience. It didn't take away from it, you know. Yeah, yeah, because you see it.

400
00:38:13,880 --> 00:38:16,920
Because it also makes sense because it's like regional ingredients. It's like what's available

401
00:38:16,920 --> 00:38:20,600
to them, you know. Of course, they've got to use it in different ways, you know. Like why wouldn't

402
00:38:20,600 --> 00:38:24,920
you? You can use horseradish in a refresher way. You can use it in a spicy pungent way, you know.

403
00:38:24,920 --> 00:38:29,800
Like you can use it fresh. You can use it as an oil. Like why not? It makes complete sense. And I

404
00:38:29,800 --> 00:38:35,000
think that's really cool. But I remember when we worked with Hoffmaner, who was also like a very

405
00:38:35,000 --> 00:38:41,000
vegetable driven chef, he had the same idea. Like, yeah, I have no problem with repeating

406
00:38:41,000 --> 00:38:44,680
ingredients across the menu. And this is a vegetable restaurant, and we can use vegetables

407
00:38:44,680 --> 00:38:48,760
in different ways. I remember him talking about that. Yeah, yeah, nice. Yeah, so this

408
00:38:49,720 --> 00:38:55,560
mushroom dish, it was the stem of the king oyster mushroom that we would then eat as a main course.

409
00:38:55,560 --> 00:39:02,680
And it was sliced in this very Chinese way where you take tofu, and you put chopsticks, and you

410
00:39:02,680 --> 00:39:08,600
slice very carefully, very straight down the tofu, all the way. And you turn it, you repeat the same

411
00:39:08,600 --> 00:39:14,680
process. And if you've done it correctly, and you put this tofu in soup, it will open up all these

412
00:39:14,680 --> 00:39:21,400
like strands like a lotus flower. Like a chrysanthemum, sorry. Yeah, like a brush. Like a very gentle

413
00:39:21,400 --> 00:39:26,680
brush. Which is a very, very difficult Asian technique that I've tried a few times. It's very

414
00:39:26,680 --> 00:39:31,400
hard to do. You can do it with different things. You can do it with radish also. The Japanese do

415
00:39:31,400 --> 00:39:35,400
it with radish, actually. There's a type of pickle where they slice radish in this sort of way, and

416
00:39:35,400 --> 00:39:40,840
then they pickle it, and it softens, and it opens up like this chrysanthemum flower. So that's the

417
00:39:40,840 --> 00:39:47,240
stem kind of poached or whatever. Then covered in a mushroom gel, which we luckily figured out how to

418
00:39:47,240 --> 00:39:54,200
make between the three of us. Chander was eating with us, and he asked, how do you make a gelatin

419
00:39:54,200 --> 00:40:02,120
of pure mushroom? No, because it was like in plie. There's this mushroom, like this gelatin made out

420
00:40:02,120 --> 00:40:09,240
of mushroom. And I'm like, what do you mean made out of mushroom? Exactly. Silvery kindly explained,

421
00:40:09,960 --> 00:40:11,640
you add gelatin to mushroom.

422
00:40:15,640 --> 00:40:18,840
I should have asked. You know, by illusion.

423
00:40:18,840 --> 00:40:30,840
And yeah, marjoram foam. Marjoram oil and horseradish cream. Yeah. The little white thing was horseradish.

424
00:40:30,840 --> 00:40:36,040
It was horseradish, and the oil was marjoram. It was very marjoram-y. It was very marjoram-y, yeah.

425
00:40:36,040 --> 00:40:40,040
But I also think that on the horseradish cream it had marjoram flowers. Yeah. Because it had

426
00:40:40,040 --> 00:40:44,920
these pink flowers. Yeah, because it was really like a popper. It was really pungent. Yeah, absolutely.

427
00:40:44,920 --> 00:40:49,240
Very good. It was very comforting, homie. The wine went really well with it. It was like a sherry, like

428
00:40:49,240 --> 00:40:54,600
oxidated wine from Jura. It worked really well with mushrooms. Yeah. But I mean, very tasty,

429
00:40:54,600 --> 00:40:59,160
but not one of the highlights of the meal for me. Yeah. Next dish was one of the highlights,

430
00:40:59,160 --> 00:41:03,640
for sure. Next dish was an absolute highlight. Yeah. I mean, this dish and the crudités were

431
00:41:03,640 --> 00:41:08,120
really the ones that made me stop while I was eating and be like, oh, fuck yeah. Yeah. Like,

432
00:41:08,120 --> 00:41:14,120
so next dish, we had like this. It was plated on leaves. So kind of like a bowl of leaves was like

433
00:41:14,120 --> 00:41:21,320
the plate. And you had like this snowball, I would describe it, like a snow cotton somehow that you

434
00:41:21,320 --> 00:41:29,080
had to eat really quick because it would like go away. It was basically like, it has this taste,

435
00:41:29,080 --> 00:41:35,080
they explained to us the name of the cheese. It was like a traditional Danish cheese that it resembles

436
00:41:35,080 --> 00:41:44,840
comte. To me, it also had like some hints of a very light kind of parmesan. Yeah, for sure. But

437
00:41:44,840 --> 00:41:53,000
yeah, and this with yuzu. So I feel like the cheese flavor was on the bottom and on the top was the

438
00:41:53,000 --> 00:41:58,840
yuzu. And on top of it, it was like black yuzu. Like when you ferment black lemons, they explained

439
00:41:58,840 --> 00:42:04,440
to us that they do it there with, they leave it at 60 degrees for two weeks. Was that correct? Or

440
00:42:04,440 --> 00:42:09,960
40 degrees? 60 degrees. Okay. Because these are the ones that you can also do on the sun, just leaving

441
00:42:09,960 --> 00:42:15,880
them outside to the sun until they're black. And there were just some little shapes of that on top.

442
00:42:15,880 --> 00:42:21,240
And the interesting thing about this is that it was strong cheese and refreshing at the same time.

443
00:42:21,240 --> 00:42:27,880
Super interesting dish. Absolutely. An amazing dish because also it had this texture that would

444
00:42:27,880 --> 00:42:33,000
just disappear in your mouth. And cheese had this like, you know, when you think of parmesan, you

445
00:42:33,000 --> 00:42:41,320
think of salty umami, which it had, but in a very light, milky and refreshing way, you know, and the

446
00:42:41,320 --> 00:42:48,120
yuzu, although being black and fermented, a very strong, fragrant, pure yuzu flavor. Also on top

447
00:42:48,120 --> 00:42:53,720
was some like dried and I think smoked pumpkin, they said, like grated on top as well. I couldn't

448
00:42:53,720 --> 00:42:58,520
pinpoint that out for me. The yuzu and the cheese were there, but it was like such a refreshing

449
00:42:58,520 --> 00:43:04,280
thing. You ate it and it was pretty much gone in your mouth, but you were left with these flavors

450
00:43:04,280 --> 00:43:11,480
and it was a very, very refreshing experience with a very sophisticatedly light, ethereal flavor

451
00:43:12,200 --> 00:43:17,240
profile. And it's also interesting that they explain us that the chef that developed this dish

452
00:43:17,240 --> 00:43:24,920
is Alvaro, if I'm not wrong. And that he worked tickets because this dish was very Albert Adriaich,

453
00:43:24,920 --> 00:43:32,280
you know, like this foam wine component. By the way, like next time we do this, we should do this

454
00:43:32,280 --> 00:43:37,960
at the Enigma. I think that this would be like a good place to go, eat and have like a full review

455
00:43:37,960 --> 00:43:44,760
of the restaurant. Because those are like thought provoking dishes for sure. Yeah, absolutely.

456
00:43:44,760 --> 00:43:50,600
Yeah. One of the highlights for sure. Yeah, for sure. And again, so simple, three ingredients. I

457
00:43:50,600 --> 00:43:55,560
mean, like main ingredients, obviously there's more ingredients to make this. But you know, I mean, mainly

458
00:43:55,560 --> 00:44:03,720
the cheese, the black yuzu and the pumpkin. So smart and so emotion, like emotionally evocative.

459
00:44:03,720 --> 00:44:10,520
Very, very crazy. Very cool. Next is I would say very Japanese, very simple, very minimalistic. It was

460
00:44:11,400 --> 00:44:18,680
a marigold tempura. The whole flower pot, you would have like the whole flower completely fried. And

461
00:44:18,680 --> 00:44:27,880
next to it like cured egg yolk. And they told us what it had. It had tamari, mushroom tamari, and

462
00:44:27,880 --> 00:44:35,320
koji, I think, koji oil. Yeah, this reminds me of this kind of Yoshihiro Murata egg yolk sauce

463
00:44:35,320 --> 00:44:42,200
marinated in soy sauce. But very light, very, very light, you know, no like crazy saltiness,

464
00:44:42,200 --> 00:44:48,200
no egg flavor. It had like a very nice sweetness to sauce. And it had these like, because when I

465
00:44:48,200 --> 00:44:53,960
was tasting it, it had obviously it was cured and had these notes of like fermented barley and stuff

466
00:44:53,960 --> 00:45:00,360
like that, which you usually get in these like very high quality super light soy sauces that normally

467
00:45:00,360 --> 00:45:05,640
you don't see outside of Japan at all. Ogaashi, I think it's called. It's like, like I used to use

468
00:45:05,640 --> 00:45:10,040
the super light soy sauce and you could drink it like a tea almost, you know, like a spoon. Seafood

469
00:45:10,040 --> 00:45:15,720
like a tea, you know, like light brown, a little bit salty, but like nutty and really, really nice.

470
00:45:15,720 --> 00:45:19,960
For seasoning soups and stuff amazing, right? It has nothing to do with like the Kikkoman soy

471
00:45:19,960 --> 00:45:24,440
sauces that I like. They serve their function as well, but it's kind of like you add a little bit

472
00:45:24,440 --> 00:45:30,280
too much into a soup. It's fucked, right? And yeah, it was like, again, so, so elegant and

473
00:45:30,280 --> 00:45:35,400
marigold tempura. Marigold has a very, there's different types of marigold. Some are intensely

474
00:45:35,400 --> 00:45:42,680
flavorsome, like biting into tangerine skin, like very overly floral. But this one just had a very

475
00:45:42,680 --> 00:45:48,040
lovely floralness to it. It was sprinkled with saffron and coriander seeds, which also are like

476
00:45:48,040 --> 00:45:53,240
very in your face ingredients, but the nutty, sweet floralness of the saffron and the coriander

477
00:45:53,240 --> 00:45:58,600
just kind of blended into the whole thing. Very delicious. Exactly. The sauce was so good. It was

478
00:45:58,600 --> 00:46:03,800
a dipping sauce. It was kind of like a very light mayonnaise that we drank it like a shot. Because

479
00:46:03,800 --> 00:46:08,600
that's the sort of people we are. Yeah, they like it. There's no shame here. They like it. By the way,

480
00:46:08,600 --> 00:46:15,000
this we didn't pick up his name, but this Greek guy from service, he was so cool. So kind. Andrea,

481
00:46:15,000 --> 00:46:20,760
I think Andrea. Yeah. Yeah. Shout out to Andrea, the Greek guy from Noma. He did a, he did a

482
00:46:20,760 --> 00:46:27,400
fabulous job. He liked seeing us drinking the sauce. Yeah. I think, I mean, not to toot our own

483
00:46:27,400 --> 00:46:32,120
home, but I think we were fun guests. Yeah. Maybe a little bit too loud at times, but we were just

484
00:46:32,120 --> 00:46:37,640
laughing our ass off. No, we were not alone on that. Next one. This was a very fun dish.

485
00:46:37,640 --> 00:46:46,200
Grilled peas from the pot. Simplicity perfected. Peas opened surgically with the peas still attached

486
00:46:46,200 --> 00:46:50,920
to the pot. Grilled almost like you would grill langoustines in the shell or oysters. Yeah. With

487
00:46:50,920 --> 00:46:59,240
a sauce made from pine needles and horseradish again. Yeah. Yeah. A very sweet umami heavy sauce

488
00:46:59,240 --> 00:47:04,840
with hints of smokiness and the sweet peas that you would have to kind of take in the shell and

489
00:47:04,840 --> 00:47:09,640
like scrape the peas off with your mouth, eating it with the thing and then throwing the shells

490
00:47:09,640 --> 00:47:15,080
into the middle. Like if you had a crap boil or something like that. Yeah. Amazing. Super nice.

491
00:47:15,080 --> 00:47:21,080
Super straightforward. Also, I like what you said. It's fun to have dishes where you have to throw

492
00:47:21,080 --> 00:47:26,200
the shells to the middle. Like this act of eating and throwing the shells is it's also something

493
00:47:26,200 --> 00:47:31,160
like really, I don't know, that evokes something in your memory that reminds you of whatever,

494
00:47:31,160 --> 00:47:36,120
eating prawns at the beach or something like that. And you're in touch with the produce. Like you

495
00:47:36,760 --> 00:47:41,640
appreciate it more than if you just take it with like a knife and fork and like it's a different

496
00:47:41,640 --> 00:47:46,440
kind of experience. It's more involved, right? Obviously. But you take the shell and you put it

497
00:47:46,440 --> 00:47:51,160
to your mouth, et cetera. I mean, you know, people who take that to an extreme, I'm a Garret, you know,

498
00:47:51,160 --> 00:47:56,120
when they say, okay, yeah, I want you to snog the salad of this like ice face, right? And you're

499
00:47:56,120 --> 00:48:00,920
involved with it. Or more innovation when they say you have to take this used condom and put it in

500
00:48:00,920 --> 00:48:11,240
your mouth. Yeah, yeah. Fakka. It's like Fakka, that bull. Next dish. Artichoke heart and Padron pepper.

501
00:48:12,200 --> 00:48:18,120
Both grilled. This felt very Italian to me. Like you were saying that, yeah. Yeah. Like it reminds me

502
00:48:18,120 --> 00:48:24,520
of Italian flavor profiles because it had this foam. Again, like there was no cheese in it,

503
00:48:24,520 --> 00:48:32,040
but with the umami and floral notes, it evokes somehow again, this parmesan thing. Yeah. With

504
00:48:32,040 --> 00:48:37,560
artichokes and peppers. Come on. Like that's as Italian as it gets. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's just

505
00:48:37,560 --> 00:48:43,880
like such a cool dish. Like the Padron pepper and the artichoke heart, both grilled. Jasmine, butter

506
00:48:43,880 --> 00:48:49,480
sauce, formed up. The Padron pepper was covered in basil flowers and then there were nasturtium

507
00:48:49,480 --> 00:48:55,320
petals kind of scattered around the plate. And like you say, like the fact that the

508
00:48:55,320 --> 00:49:04,440
vegetables were grilled, it gave them such a umami boost. The sauce was floral, salty, like tasty,

509
00:49:05,560 --> 00:49:10,840
fatty. And then the flowers not just gave the flavor, because obviously basil flowers are very

510
00:49:10,840 --> 00:49:15,640
strong. Nasturtium flowers have a sort of spiciness, but it also gave this like crunchy texture to

511
00:49:15,640 --> 00:49:20,280
the whole thing. That's also something I wanted to mention that I mentioned yesterday that it was

512
00:49:20,280 --> 00:49:27,320
really interesting that many, if not all of the dishes had flowers, or most of them. And you could

513
00:49:27,320 --> 00:49:32,760
really taste the flowers, which is something that like this crappy flowers that you buy on restaurant

514
00:49:32,760 --> 00:49:37,880
suppliers just to make a decoration. They don't taste like anything. They're just to add a visual

515
00:49:37,880 --> 00:49:43,160
to the dish and they taste like grabbing flowers from an urban garden and putting it in your mouth.

516
00:49:43,160 --> 00:49:49,560
These flowers were highly aromatic and some of them they would squeeze micro dots of sauces

517
00:49:49,560 --> 00:49:53,720
inside the flowers. Come on, like how? Oh yeah, that had me tripping actually. Like you bite into

518
00:49:53,720 --> 00:49:56,440
the flower and you're like what the fuck, that's not just a flower, there's something inside of

519
00:49:56,440 --> 00:50:03,560
here. But they didn't tell you? We haven't talked about the environment that the kitchen expressed

520
00:50:03,560 --> 00:50:11,880
to the dining room. Wow, yeah intense, huh? Yeah, because I said yesterday, remind me of this army

521
00:50:11,880 --> 00:50:15,640
of mercenaries in Game of Thrones. You remember the ones that had like spears and were like

522
00:50:17,800 --> 00:50:24,040
true. Oh yeah, those guys. I know the Unsullied. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.

523
00:50:24,040 --> 00:50:28,440
It reminded me, have you ever seen the last samurai with Tom Cruise? Yeah. You know the scene in the

524
00:50:28,440 --> 00:50:32,920
beginning where he's there in the very beginning with the like army he's supposed to train and they

525
00:50:32,920 --> 00:50:37,800
meet the samurais for the first time and they come, you see them break through the fog on

526
00:50:37,800 --> 00:50:41,960
there with their fucking demon helmets and masks and they're like...

527
00:50:46,680 --> 00:50:54,600
So first of all, you would not for a single second find a chef looking nowhere. Everybody was

528
00:50:54,600 --> 00:50:59,720
looking down to whatever they were doing with absolute focus and just like whatever they were

529
00:50:59,720 --> 00:51:05,800
doing like plating or taking. What was that? I think it was like rosemary flowers out of

530
00:51:05,800 --> 00:51:12,280
rosemary one by one with very delicacy and you could feel the pressure if you started to hear

531
00:51:12,280 --> 00:51:21,080
more and louder yes because it was... As it gets higher you would say oh okay something happened.

532
00:51:21,640 --> 00:51:26,040
Somebody's angry. Yeah, you could tell that the two the two head chefs they were

533
00:51:27,000 --> 00:51:31,480
like electric in the beginning. I mean in a way that was almost a little bit too much, you know.

534
00:51:31,480 --> 00:51:36,040
I mean I get it's like the whole thing but it was sort of like afterwards he came to the table

535
00:51:36,040 --> 00:51:39,480
again it was kind of like how was everything you could tell he was more relaxed but in the beginning

536
00:51:39,480 --> 00:51:45,160
you know he brought a dish and he was like yeah so this is uh yeah is everything okay yeah cool

537
00:51:45,160 --> 00:51:49,960
yeah all right and just like fucked off again which like is part of the experience and like

538
00:51:49,960 --> 00:51:55,160
wasn't uncomfortable or anything but it was just funny it's just noteworthy. I mean yeah it's like

539
00:51:55,160 --> 00:51:59,960
a football match you know they're playing their match and things happen sometimes

540
00:51:59,960 --> 00:52:08,760
you're about to get a scored a goal or something so you have to push back and you could feel it.

541
00:52:08,760 --> 00:52:13,320
Yeah at the top of the game it is what it is you know like they have to fucking deliver

542
00:52:13,960 --> 00:52:23,240
every fucking day every night is finals you know yeah I get it we've been there.

543
00:52:23,240 --> 00:52:29,800
Yeah absolutely. Game on. Yeah like that regarding the kitchen and then the service as I said

544
00:52:29,800 --> 00:52:35,320
like they would I think the pace the way they would talk the way they would take time to explain

545
00:52:35,320 --> 00:52:39,160
it felt really really nice for some reason they didn't know we spoke Spanish because

546
00:52:39,800 --> 00:52:44,280
if they knew probably some of them would have spoken Spanish to us but they spoke in German,

547
00:52:44,280 --> 00:52:48,280
they spoke in English, they spoke in different languages. Yeah yeah you could tell they sent

548
00:52:48,280 --> 00:52:52,520
one of the chefs to us because which is also a cool thing to do because like they knew we were

549
00:52:52,520 --> 00:53:00,920
coming from Berlin it's a little thing and yeah it was really cool. Next dish was the

550
00:53:00,920 --> 00:53:09,800
salt baked black oyster mushroom and tomato salad. This was the main course. Yeah yes so I mean great

551
00:53:09,800 --> 00:53:19,080
dish a very beautiful umami mushroom flavor the salt baked mushroom baked whole then sliced as it

552
00:53:19,080 --> 00:53:26,520
seemed mushroom had a very nice crunchy toothsome texture as mushrooms sometimes have the green

553
00:53:26,520 --> 00:53:34,840
rice inside was very nice yeah and the sauce again very fatty with a dashi reduction mixed into it

554
00:53:34,840 --> 00:53:43,640
which gave it this really beautiful ham umami mushroom flavors um very comforting. Yeah and

555
00:53:43,640 --> 00:53:52,200
actually it was this tomato salad with mirabelles herbs again fried flower buds fried with buckwheat

556
00:53:52,200 --> 00:53:59,800
some of the flowers with like a buckwheat paste super nice and yeah again this I think that was

557
00:53:59,800 --> 00:54:05,480
like the binding element of the whole experience it was like this freshness of herbs and fruits

558
00:54:05,480 --> 00:54:12,200
and acidity with strong umami profiles and that mixture of both things that was kind of like the

559
00:54:12,200 --> 00:54:19,240
opera thing that came back and forth through the whole dance. Yes and I mean he had a he paired a

560
00:54:19,240 --> 00:54:25,160
sake with it which was oh yeah which was perfect because he told us it was like quite intense um

561
00:54:25,160 --> 00:54:32,040
intense sake um and he said just take a few sips first it was quite alcoholic as well and it had

562
00:54:32,040 --> 00:54:37,640
that deepness that mushrooms have you know just like deep flavor in the beginning like it was a

563
00:54:37,640 --> 00:54:42,280
dish that like grew on me not that I didn't like it in the beginning but it grew on me more and

564
00:54:42,280 --> 00:54:47,000
more the more I was eating it and the more I was eating the sauce and the rice that soaked up the

565
00:54:47,000 --> 00:54:52,600
sauce and very very small grains of rice very interesting and the mushroom and it wasn't like

566
00:54:52,600 --> 00:55:00,680
in your face crazy this that blah but just very comforting very deep flavor um very complex without

567
00:55:00,680 --> 00:55:05,720
being over the top I think that's actually a good you know it was all very complex without being

568
00:55:05,720 --> 00:55:13,720
like in your face over the top yeah and then the dessert started yeah magnolia popsicle

569
00:55:14,360 --> 00:55:20,920
magnolia popsicle yeah also very as a very beautiful um my least favorite of the three desserts

570
00:55:20,920 --> 00:55:28,440
a very beautiful presentation came on like a branch uh like a magnolia bud you had the like

571
00:55:28,440 --> 00:55:37,400
magnolia petals and inside was an ice cream made with gamaldansk and milk crumble if I don't if I

572
00:55:37,400 --> 00:55:42,120
remember correctly yeah and I remember there was something we never asked but there was something

573
00:55:42,120 --> 00:55:48,040
crunchy with which was a milk crumble but there was also something very aromatic very like a spice

574
00:55:48,040 --> 00:55:54,600
or something that I never know what it was yeah absolutely it had like very light milky flavors

575
00:55:54,600 --> 00:56:01,000
of tonka and rose exactly exactly that's absolutely and yeah kind of like vanilla caramel

576
00:56:01,000 --> 00:56:08,280
notes from the crumble I felt like in general very fun to eat of the branch very milky very soft

577
00:56:08,280 --> 00:56:14,840
the least favorite for me too yeah maybe maybe from the overall menu I would say maybe maybe yeah

578
00:56:14,840 --> 00:56:18,920
yeah we're just we're just not to say much because it was still great yeah and I mean

579
00:56:18,920 --> 00:56:26,840
um same as in like in a movie or an opera you need to you can't have just tens sometimes you need to

580
00:56:26,840 --> 00:56:35,640
have like a seven to like a stronger impact on the next one so next course we had like grilled roses

581
00:56:36,040 --> 00:56:43,400
with a mixture of different berries and in the middle it was again like a like a rose cream

582
00:56:43,400 --> 00:56:50,600
cream a grilled rose ice cream and on top was like a yuba a milk skin exactly yeah yeah what

583
00:56:50,600 --> 00:56:58,680
did you think of it I really like this one like uh you're very light very pure yeah the low sugar

584
00:56:58,680 --> 00:57:04,120
as well like you would enjoy the the natural sweetness of the fruits I would say that happened

585
00:57:04,120 --> 00:57:08,920
with the with the three main desserts not the extra one that we got what I thought here also

586
00:57:08,920 --> 00:57:13,240
like I like desserts that are not too sweet that was with like ice creams and stuff I like it when

587
00:57:13,240 --> 00:57:17,800
it's not too sweet it's nothing worse than just like berries with sugar and like the yuba it had

588
00:57:17,800 --> 00:57:22,920
like a two-some texture for people who don't know yuba it's like um traditionally made with soy milk

589
00:57:22,920 --> 00:57:29,400
you boil salt milk a sheet forms on top you carefully lift it off with a stick and you dry

590
00:57:29,400 --> 00:57:34,840
it it's a very traditional japanese ingredient yuba they do the same thing for many years now

591
00:57:34,840 --> 00:57:40,440
with milk they started doing that in noma I believe milk milk skin take a a toothpick or

592
00:57:40,440 --> 00:57:47,720
whatever like a long skewer at one end pick it out and hole as a hole and hang it up to dry and rose

593
00:57:47,720 --> 00:57:53,640
ice cream again very subtle the mixture of berries I remember like it was cool because Xander was

594
00:57:53,640 --> 00:57:57,320
saying stuff like I think there's basil inside and then I was kind of eating it there was like

595
00:57:57,320 --> 00:58:02,200
one berry which is like a mulberry that in combination has like a very floral sweetness

596
00:58:02,200 --> 00:58:07,000
in combination with the rose I was like oh yeah you're right it does taste like like fresh basil

597
00:58:07,000 --> 00:58:12,360
flower or whatever really really nice but very understated very very Scandinavian in a way like

598
00:58:12,360 --> 00:58:17,960
a berry bowl with like milky stuff you know like cold skull yeah yeah yeah kind of that sort of

599
00:58:17,960 --> 00:58:24,200
vibe very good and then the last dessert was was definitely my favorite dessert I mean the

600
00:58:24,200 --> 00:58:30,200
presentation the act and but then also the flavor combination I don't have pictures of this one no

601
00:58:30,200 --> 00:58:34,760
it was bee pole and saffron and sea buckthorn I know why you don't have a picture of this one

602
00:58:34,760 --> 00:58:41,240
because you uh you had a whole whole dessert panic I had a whole dessert yes because you took

603
00:58:41,240 --> 00:58:49,320
the whole dessert and you started shaking it so uh no no no no no no don't do it like that

604
00:58:50,520 --> 00:58:56,680
so what came was like a little almost like a jewelry box made from beeswax and the top had

605
00:58:56,680 --> 00:59:03,480
a handle that was a poppy flower a dried poppy flower with the poppy seeds inside and so what

606
00:59:03,480 --> 00:59:08,840
you were meant to do is pick up this flower lift off the lid to reveal underneath a very beautifully

607
00:59:08,840 --> 00:59:18,120
plated dessert of a woodroof cream with a paste of hazelnuts and dried berries and you and bee

608
00:59:18,120 --> 00:59:25,080
pollen and you were meant to take the flower and shake it on top of the dessert to basically like

609
00:59:25,080 --> 00:59:30,200
a salt shaker shake the poppy seeds over the dessert and then you were going to eat it

610
00:59:30,200 --> 00:59:37,080
eric misunderstood the instructions you know you also helped me miss it what was my fault

611
00:59:37,080 --> 00:59:43,160
no I think I said like turn the whole thing over and yeah whatever like go ahead

612
00:59:45,240 --> 00:59:49,480
and the way the company picks it picks up the whole thing and shakes it like a f***ing maraca

613
00:59:50,920 --> 00:59:56,280
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

614
00:59:56,280 --> 01:00:03,320
that's not the way you do it but um yeah very delicious like one bite simple simple in a way

615
01:00:03,320 --> 01:00:09,800
lots of things going on in the woodroof very beautiful tonka vanilla flavors then the paste

616
01:00:10,360 --> 01:00:18,680
a certain salty fattiness from the hazelnuts and a certain sweet acidity from the dried beans

617
01:00:18,680 --> 01:00:25,240
the bee pollen on top again sweetness in the flowers and then two distinct bites for me

618
01:00:25,240 --> 01:00:30,520
because you got these like beautiful little horn spoons to eat it with I think I had the dessert

619
01:00:30,520 --> 01:00:35,080
like five spoons in total two of those spoons had a very strong punch of fresh acidity

620
01:00:36,040 --> 01:00:42,040
and I don't think we're gonna say we asked the our waiter what it was he was reluctant to tell us

621
01:00:42,040 --> 01:00:46,600
because it was a secret he did tell us in the end but I think we'll abstain of that information

622
01:00:46,600 --> 01:00:51,960
if he well he didn't want to tell us he told us in confidence I don't know if we should publish it

623
01:00:51,960 --> 01:01:00,520
yeah yeah it was it's an ingredient I don't know what was famous for they used to use it a lot

624
01:01:00,520 --> 01:01:05,000
and with the poppy seeds also adding a little bit of crunch tonka vanilla cinnamon flavors

625
01:01:05,560 --> 01:01:11,080
very very very flowery again very delicious also like there was this component that was also all

626
01:01:11,080 --> 01:01:18,840
over the menu also in the drinks like honey pollen like of course these are again flowers you know

627
01:01:18,840 --> 01:01:26,600
like yeah is that like a flowery component yeah absolutely and then we got a bonus dessert again

628
01:01:26,600 --> 01:01:35,800
honey yeah a bonus dessert which was one of my favorites I think yeah yeah so it arrived and

629
01:01:35,800 --> 01:01:43,080
it looked like a slice of beeswax with the honeycomb shape they had the same color also

630
01:01:43,080 --> 01:01:49,240
and it was a cake made with white chocolate and it was filled with sea buckthorn and whiskey vinegar

631
01:01:49,240 --> 01:01:55,320
the whiskey vinegar was insane yeah so you would crack into this into this beeswax looking thing

632
01:01:55,320 --> 01:01:59,320
this honeycomb looking thing and inside would be almost like a mousse which I guess is like

633
01:01:59,320 --> 01:02:05,000
white chocolatey mousse maybe and then like a liquid center of sea buckthorn and whiskey vinegar

634
01:02:05,000 --> 01:02:11,640
and again like the mixture of combinations the mixture of flavors they married in such a way that

635
01:02:11,640 --> 01:02:16,680
if you wouldn't have told me what was in it I wouldn't have been able to pick it out

636
01:02:16,680 --> 01:02:24,120
I would have said I would have been sure that it had passion fruit passion fruit yeah yeah yeah

637
01:02:24,120 --> 01:02:32,360
it was this whiskey vinegar for sure this acidity but also when you transform liquor into vinegar

638
01:02:32,360 --> 01:02:41,000
some aromatic notes come out that weren't there before that develop and maybe there was something

639
01:02:41,000 --> 01:02:47,080
that resembles passion fruit for me yeah incredible like really really incredible yeah it was one of

640
01:02:47,080 --> 01:02:52,120
my favorite desserts also yeah for sure yeah I think it was my favorite dessert for sure the

641
01:02:52,120 --> 01:02:58,520
the one before that the woodroof cream very tasty but that's just because of also the the novelty

642
01:02:58,520 --> 01:03:02,760
aspect of like how many times do you eat something and you're like this is a flavor I've never had

643
01:03:02,760 --> 01:03:06,360
before because we've eaten in so many restaurants we've cooked in so many restaurants this happened

644
01:03:06,360 --> 01:03:12,200
many times across the menu yes yes it was so unique it had so much of its own character yeah

645
01:03:12,200 --> 01:03:17,640
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

646
01:03:17,640 --> 01:03:23,240
to be so individually expressive while being so subtle and elegant and understated yeah

647
01:03:24,360 --> 01:03:28,280
incredible high class cooking and that is not even talking about the aesthetics

648
01:03:28,280 --> 01:03:35,160
which are insane right yeah aesthetically it's stunning yeah like I wasn't able to find like

649
01:03:35,160 --> 01:03:42,200
a single flaw like something like ah this dish I didn't like or and I didn't like the plating

650
01:03:42,200 --> 01:03:46,520
or I didn't like the way they served or they did a mistake here there I couldn't find

651
01:03:47,080 --> 01:03:51,800
nothing anywhere yeah yeah where exactly they gave me sparkling water instead of still water

652
01:03:52,600 --> 01:03:56,200
I told him in the beginning still water and then the first class was still water

653
01:03:56,200 --> 01:04:03,400
and then somebody gave me sparkling water and what else then we had like we were invited to take a

654
01:04:03,400 --> 01:04:13,000
walk in the garden with a cocktail I had like it was like a Norwegian gin with fennel exactly

655
01:04:13,000 --> 01:04:18,920
and you had like a grass kombucha we had like a grass kombucha with chateau green chateau

656
01:04:18,920 --> 01:04:24,840
super nice both delicious yeah absolutely delicious and served perfect function again

657
01:04:24,840 --> 01:04:31,480
interesting again elements from the garden made sense you know digestive oh we didn't you know

658
01:04:31,480 --> 01:04:37,640
we didn't talk about the koji coffee that was with the with the last dessert right yes with the with

659
01:04:37,640 --> 01:04:43,000
the woodruff cream yeah so they like after like own they roast their own coffee so they have this

660
01:04:43,000 --> 01:04:48,120
like cold brew that they mix with sparkling water and on top of that they add a foam of

661
01:04:48,120 --> 01:04:54,200
lacto fermented rose water super beautiful coffee with like really beautiful berry notes and floral

662
01:04:54,200 --> 01:05:00,600
notes the rose water foam again you hear rose and you think wow so I'm not going to be too strong but

663
01:05:00,600 --> 01:05:06,040
it's just so light and floral that it just really ties in with these like floral coffee flavors

664
01:05:06,040 --> 01:05:13,800
it was it actually complemented the woodruff dessert perfectly I think yeah so then we had

665
01:05:13,800 --> 01:05:19,640
a walk in the garden we could take a look at the test kitchen and then we had like a tour through

666
01:05:19,640 --> 01:05:25,000
the kitchen through the grill place the different kitchens of the different workplaces we had like

667
01:05:25,000 --> 01:05:33,080
a little bag with a souvenir with this wild rose what is it is a vinegar the menu also to have like

668
01:05:33,080 --> 01:05:39,320
the whole menu because it was very hard to keep track of like a small kitchen tour which was also

669
01:05:39,320 --> 01:05:44,200
lovely yeah really really lovely got shown a little bit the areas explain how the whole

670
01:05:44,200 --> 01:05:48,840
restaurant is designed and every room has like a different material the main dining room is oak

671
01:05:48,840 --> 01:05:55,080
uh then another one is like danish pine and like area for the waiters is concrete other areas brick

672
01:05:55,080 --> 01:06:05,320
and it's uh you know very cool um very cool space yeah very very cool space um 85 members of stuff

673
01:06:05,320 --> 01:06:11,000
front of house back of house uh kitchen porters etc yeah half of the team is in Kyoto right now

674
01:06:11,720 --> 01:06:18,120
with our friend Kevin doing the same shit there like um setting up this whole very unique operation

675
01:06:18,120 --> 01:06:21,640
crazy undertaking absolutely amazing experience

676
01:06:25,240 --> 01:06:29,880
that's it for this week's episode of potluck food talks if you like what we're doing

677
01:06:29,880 --> 01:06:33,560
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678
01:06:33,560 --> 01:06:48,840
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