René Redzepi is often hailed for introducing a new chapter in contemporary cuisine—a response, however indirect, to chefs like Ferran Adrià, whose El Bulli was known for pushing boundaries of avant-garde cooking. From the inception of his renowned restaurant, Noma, Redzepi has advocated hyperlocavorism, using the freshest ingredients gathered from in and around Copenhagen.
At the “New Yorker Festival,” he joined New Yorker writer Jane Kramer for a live conversation on foraging, Danish cuisine, Noma, and making lunches for his two young daughters. Turns out that it’s the latter that causes Redzepi the most anxiety on most days, because they’re even pickier eaters than the most fickle critics.
His rule of thumb for foraging is that “nothing is not edible.” One just has to be smart about the find—mostly to avoid eating something that will kill you. Meanwhile, he’s staunchly against the use of sugar for its capacity to “coat things,” as well as its addictive quality.
Audience members were treated to a taster of wood ants with “pickled rose hips and fermented cricket.”
[via Eater National; Grub Street]