Visit the photo set 2014: Restaurant noma on Flickr.
Robin and I had the opportunity to join our friends Ken and Mona Duffy and their son Matt Duffy and his girlfriend Jodie Wasserman on a quick trip to Copenhagen to hit two of the world’s best restaurants. Matt is a chef by profession and had stayed with us in Amsterdam several years ago when he did a few stages at various restaurants in Europe including Noma. The Duffys received an invitation to visit Noma as guests and we were able to join. The Duffys flew first to Amsterdam and then the six of us flew onto Copenhagen. For me, I spent about a total of 44 hours in Copenhagen, most of it eating.
The first restaurant we visited was Amass, a restaurant owned by chef Matt Orlando, who has worked in a variety of world-class restaurants including a stint as sous chef at Noma. We arrived at Amass via the harbour taxi, a very nice way of traveling on a beautiful April evening. Upon our arrival, we were offering some bubbly while we explored Amass’ herb gardens located just outside the restaurant. We then moved inside for the tasting menu dinner which took us several hours to explore. Highlights were the fermented potato flat bread and the dry-aged beef with carrots and buttermilk.
The next day it was on to Noma for lunch. While we’re not in the habit of eating in two-star Michelin restaurants for lunch, this worked our well for Noma as we were able to enjoy the experience without worrying about going to bed stuffed. Like many places, dining at Noma was as much theater as it was food and the care in sourcing the food locally and exquisitely preparing it was obvious in all 20 courses. With Matt’s connections, we were then able to visit the kitchen and food laboratory where the next set of creative dishes were being developed. In total, I counted about 30 people who were likely involved in the making of the food we ate that day.
All in all, a foodie’s dream mini break. Thanks to Matt and Mona for making it happen.