Text № 12

from “Recipes from the ‘World’s Best Restaurant’” by NPR Staff, NPR, 2010

This year, a tiny, 12-table restaurant in Copenhagen was voted the world's best restaurant. The next day, Noma got 100,000 online requests for reservations. What makes it so great? Chef Rene Redzepi, 32, will only use food that is native to the Nordic region. That means no tomatoes, no olive oil — instead, he uses a wide variety of local and wild food he often gathers himself.

The chef has just published a cookbook whose value, above all, is not necessarily instructive, but visual. "Use it as an inspiration," Redzepi tells NPR's Melissa Block. "Look at the beautiful pictures; see how food comes together." Although the recipes are nearly impossible to make at home, the photos alone will take you to the salty shores of Scandinavia.

"We have a region that's very big — 25 million people in that region. Which means we have a nature and a product diversity... that needs to be used again."

The recipe "Blueberries Surrounded by their Natural Environment" is one way to use that product diversity. Blueberries are abundant in Scandinavia. "My last meal on Earth," says Redzepi, "I would love it to be a bowl of blueberries with cold cream." He thought about what grows with blueberries on a forest floor and decided to use mushrooms and pine nuts. The dish looks simple, but has more than 30 ingredients and more than 12 steps.

Block, who considers herself an adventurous chef, was intimidated by some of the recipes. They include such instructions as "submerge in liquid nitrogen" and "load a spray paint gun" in the "Snowman" recipe — undoubtedly some of the craziest directions this year. But Redzepi wants the book to be an inspiration more than a textbook.

"Look in the book and see the amount of vegetables," he says. "Use that as an inspiration: Eat more vegetables." He also wants readers to use their own environments for inspiration. "Take your family out. Take a trip to the forest and experience the greatness of getting on your knees and picking your own food and going home... and eating it."