Jeff Gordinier on chef René Redzepi’s plans to completely change (and move) Noma, considered by many to be the best restaurant in the world:
The changes at Noma are not driven by necessity. There has not been a rent increase at the original location; business remains brisk. Mr. Redzepi simply believes that the restaurant, where he has led the kitchen for 12 years, is ready for a dramatic evolution.
Ballsy move, but also probably the right one. Disrupt yourself before you’re disrupted and all that.
When a restaurant has its own farm, as Mr. Barber does at Blue Hill at Stone Barns in the Hudson Valley, it can signify a chef’s desire for “the ultimate control” of ingredients, he said, but “obviously the best kind of farming is the lack of control,” and cooks have to learn to work with whatever the earth produces.
This is the restaurant equivalent of Apple wanting to control all the components in its products.
luisamariatraumer