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>> ANTHONY BOURDAIN: Coming up,
Chef David Chang has fun
foraging with Chef Rene
Redzepi...
>> The essence of it is that the
cook has a connection with it.
>> CHANG: Crazy.
>> BOURDAIN: ...samples the
unripe...
>> They cannot just be unripe.
They have to be perfectly
unripe.
>> BOURDAIN: ...and overripe
treats in Rene's kitchen at
Noma...
>> This is a leek that's almost
a year-and-a-half old.
>> CHANG: Which is insane.
>> BOURDAIN: ...travels outside
Copenhagen for some lessons on
farming...
>> It's just like asparagus.
>> CHANG: So good!
>> BOURDAIN: ...and explores the
seafood of Denmark.
>> This mahogany clam is 200
years old.
>> CHANG: I feel wrong cooking
it.
That's delicious.
Put that on the menu tonight.
>> BOURDAIN: Enter The Mind of
a Chef.
Copenhagen, Denmark has become,
to the surprise of many, the
center of the food revolution.
Leading this revolution is an
unassuming juggernaut, Chef Rene
Redzepi.
His restaurant Noma is ranked
number one in the world and his
strict regional cooking
philosophy pushes Nordic cuisine
to new creative heights.
Rene challenges his chefs to
explore, rediscover, and design
dishes using ingredients found
solely within the Scandinavian
landscape.
You may think that this kind of
philosophy is limiting, and that
would make sense.
But the nightly 12-course meal
Rene and his team create at
Noma proves this assumption
wrong.
And Redzepi's influence is not
limited to just Denmark but to
the entire culinary landscape.
A visit with Rene usually begins
with a trip to the forest, or in
this case the seashore for a
bit of foraging.
>> Jesus, look at these, man,
beach asparagus.
>> CHANG: That's crazy.
>> Mmm.
Oh yeah, here we go.
These are the young shoots of
scurvy.
If you kind of go in here, you
see how much more there is of
it.
Just shooting everywhere.
This particular plant right here
is one of the reasons Noma still
made it to this day.
>> CHANG: Crazy.
>> I've always considered a
Scandinavian nut as a spicy
nation, you know?
This was truly one of the
moments where I thought if we
have cilantro growing right on
the shoreline, what else is out
there to be found?
>> CHANG: No way.
Let me pedal.
I'm not going in there.
>> BOURDAIN: After a relaxing
morning foraging by the sea,
Chang and Rene head to the test
kitchens of Noma to make a
little magic.
>> CHANG: We're in the lab at
Noma, just across the street
from the restaurant.
Am I drunk or are we moving
around right now?
>> We're moving.
We're on a boat.
Maybe you're drunk actually.
Let's cook this dish.
We are in a region where butter,
dairy, still prevails.
You could say that dairy is our
pork.
This is smoked butter.
We gently heat it.
We dump in our asparagus, from
this specific farm that is
situated in a specific area with
a very specific soil.
In this very near area of this
asparagus field, we just pick
all the plants in the wild.
>> CHANG: Literally is across
the street almost.
>> Across the street.
They live together, we serve
them.
These are hop shoots.
So we pour this on too.
Gently, gently break down the
hops.
This is enough heat so that it
cooks but keeps the moment where
it goes from raw to cooked.
I mean you could just serve this
on a plate and you want to eat
it, right?
>> CHANG: It's harder to plate
that to look natural than it is
to plate it like a clock you
know.
It's pretty.
>> I got lucky.
Keep it to that.
I'm not too sure I can do that
again.
Now what we'll do is we'll want
to add like a rounded, meaty
tone is we add snails.
We heat in a bit of snail broth.
They have been cooked.
>> CHANG: A lot of people don't
know about snails and in America
we have to sort of import the
snails.
>> Why?
>> CHANG: Nobody, not to my
knowledge if they are, they're
not making them delicious, so
we're still getting them from
Burgundy.
>> But don't you have snails?
>> CHANG: Oh, absolutely, but we
can't serve them unless they're
USDA approved.
>> Okay, so you can't go out in
a forest after a rainy day and
collect 1,000 snails, take them
back to Momofuku, boil them
with lots of plants, serve
them...
>> CHANG: Soy sauce.
>> With the kimchi juice.
We have these plants which we
just lay there onto the plate.
>> CHANG: You have your cooks
that pick these veg and explain
to the diner where it came from
so the diner has a connection
to where the food came from.
>> Yeah, exactly, but that's the
most important point is that I
think it's very important as
well that the customer has a
connection.
But, for me, the essence
of it is that the cook has a
connection with it.
You will be amazed at how many
cooks don't know that white
asparagus is a plant that grows
under the soil.
Which for me is weird.
That is what defines our
restaurant, that connection.
All right, so, at the farm we
have some pheasant egg.
These have been poached.
We take away the white.
We add the snails and now come
the plants.
Woodruff, which tastes
significantly like tonka bean,
young shoots of blackberries,
the leaves of the birch tree
pickled into vinegar for
acidity.
These almondy-tasting leaves,
which are called rowanberry, and
some hop greens.
These plants are distinct in
their own flavor.
So you take a bite, there's a
new texture.
Maybe you get a piece of the
snail, which is rich, earthy and
then, pop, you get like the
citrus tones of the spruce.
It's a very, very complex dish.
This is fermented red currant
juice, blended with woodruff.
It's the sauce.
There you go.
>> CHANG: It's a good dish.
>> I would love to live at a
place that looked like that as
well, honestly.
I love everything about these
things.
It's like a wonderful, happy
marriage.
>> CHANG: Yes.
We have a smörgåsbord of
shellfish and we're just going
to freestyle, off-the-cuff
cooking.
>> I want to do scallop.
You want to do scallop?
>> CHANG: Yeah.
>> Look, look, it's like a heart
pounding.
>> CHANG: Eating raw scallops
is one of my favorite things.
I almost rather eat scallops
raw than cooked.
This is the... what you were
calling salad hearts,
>> Yeah, you have the salad and
you have the heart and then we
make sure that we take the root
as well.
It's crunchy, nutty in flavor.
You can sauté it, you can cook
it.
>> CHANG: I just did a quick
pickle.
>> That's a good idea.
>> CHANG: Where are you getting
these apples from?
>> They're from last year.
They preserve and actually
develop flavor that is really
good.
You made like an apple dashi,
right?
>> CHANG: Yeah.
And here I just mixed together
buttermilk water, soy and apple
juice.
>> Oooh.
>> CHANG: And this is the flower
of the scurvy grass.
It's got a nice little heat and
spiciness.
So it adds a little pepperiness
to the dish.
Go ahead.
>> Mm-hmm.
It's really good.
>> CHANG: Not bad.
>> This is so exotic to me.
It's really good, man.
>> CHANG: Thanks, man.
One of the beautiful things
about Rene's cooking is eating
things that I had never had
before.
One thing that's been a staple
has been the green strawberry
and no one would ever think
about putting it on a menu.
>> Taste it first of all.
You would wait until they are
bright red, sweet and delicious.
Now they're acidic.
They cannot just be unripe, they
have to be perfectly unripe.
>> CHANG: But perfectly unripe
is an extraordinary
contradiction.
>> This one I have in this hand
is perfectly unripe.
This one is an unripe unripe.
This is very green while this
one is white green.
That's what we want.
>> CHANG: Perfectly unripe.
>> Perfectly unripe strawberry.
I'm going to do these with a
scallop.
You have to get really close
now.
Its last breath.
It's incredibly sweet right now.
I'm just going to plate one up.
I just want a dish where
everything's kind of raw still
and full of life.
Then I'll add a few plants.
Stone crop just like this.
Then I'll add some juice.
Some of this fresh sweet pea
juice.
>> CHANG: That's beautiful,
buddy.
>> It took five hours to gather,
five minutes to arrange on a
plate and it will take 30
seconds to consume.
May I feed you?
>> CHANG: Please.
That's delicious.
Put that on the menu tonight.
>> Check it out.
Each line on this mahogany clam
represents a year of it's life.
So when we get these in they are
usually between 200 to 220 years
old.
In 2007, they found one 405
years old.
>> CHANG: I feel wrong cooking
it.
You know?
>> That's the point.
How do you cook something like
this?
There's a clam inside which is
very, very, very special.
So, going to char this leek.
>> CHANG: So nice out.
I don't know if people
understand, we're cooking on a
house boat adjacent from Noma,
his restaurant, on a beautiful
day in Copenhagen.
You can't beat this.
When people see roasted
vegetables, you know what they
only probably roast ever?
Red peppers, green peppers on
shish kabobs .
>> Let's go in and cook this.
>> CHANG: Yes.
>> I'm actually going to put
them into a container while
they're hot.
Add a touch of oil to them.
Salt.
Let them cool down and steam
here.
Are you ready for this, Chang,
just to show you while I open
it?
>> CHANG: That is insane.
>> Check out the shell.
This will just last anything.
>> CHANG: Mahogany clam.
>> The thing we eat is this part
here, this guy here.
>> CHANG: That's it.
>> Just cut it off so we can see
it.
This guy.
Check this out because this is
the special part.
This animal is 200 years old.
I'm going to slice it.
And then as you slice it you
will see.
>> CHANG: It's so meaty.
>> It's so meaty.
Look at all this, which has so
much texture to it.
So I'm slicing it thin.
Taste this.
There's not a lot of the coral
on it.
It's actually the most meaty
part there is.
>> CHANG: That's extraordinary.
>> Two hundred years in the
making.
I'm just going to cut this stem.
So I'm going to put these on
here.
So that, you know, you can have
a mouthful.
I'll add a bit of the beach
mustard.
I think it needs a touch of
spice.
Then I'm going to put clam juice
with a bit of butter in it.
We add a bit of oil.
That's it.
>> CHANG: I think that's
beautiful.
>> BOURDAIN: The magic to Rene's
cooking begins just outside
Copenhagen in the fields of an
anarchist farmer, Soren.
>> Mr. Soren.
>> Hi, Rene.
And you have a friend?
>> Yeah.
>> This is a little bit of the
old leek field.
You see this one here and here
you see a tiny bulb.
When I take the leek out, then
it slips this one in the ground
and then the plant, a new leek
for next year.
>> CHANG: You pick that off and
boom.
>> So we could do this for eight
years without putting a new
seed.
>> That's amazing.
>> That's really amazing.
I just leave everything, we
don't control it.
Leeks are bi-annual but nobody
thinks about it.
We just kill it after one year.
>> CHANG: How old is that one?
>> This one is planted last year
in April or something like that.
if you do like this it's just
like asparagus.
Oh, sorry.
I cooked it with asparagus many
times and it's so good.
>> CHANG: So good.
>> It's very, very good.
It still gives you an onion
breath, though.
>> CHANG: I always have onion
breath.
It's all good.
>> BOURDAIN: It's Soren who
led Rene to use what he calls
vintage vegetables, which
basically means vegetables that
are way, way past their prime,
but when cooked properly are
still delicious.
Like these potatoes.
They've been sitting around for
almost a year, intensifying in
flavor.
>> All right, so a pile of...
>> (Bleep) potatoes are what we
named them.
>> A pile of (bleep).
>> Actually it's a waste product
from potato, from one year and a
half.
If you store potatoes too long
then they will start growing
potato from potato so it's
concentrated potato.
>> CHANG: That's intensely...
something.
>> Very intense, yeah.
We're not doing anything new.
It has been done before.
We just forgot to use it.
I don't think I'm a very good
farmer, but I think I have an
open mind.
>> CHANG: It's very, very kung
fu master.
>> You can look in two ways.
You can have a very broad
horizon or you can go very
close.
If you go very close you see the
potential in what your
surroundings have.
That's no limits of the
potentials I have here.
Here we have, for instance,
sorrel.
Normally you use the small
leaves like this.
The stem of almost everything
is very different from the root
and the leaves.
And you can cook the stem.
And nobody thinks about it that
way except these new restaurants
like Noma.
>> You want to taste something
crazy?
I'm not saying it's good, it's
just crazy.
>> CHANG: That's crazy.
>> It's a new kind of kitchen
thinking that gives a big
respect to both the plants and
the meat.
This is a place where you really
feel life and death.
I think that's very essential
for me.
You get challenged all the time
and I think if you get
challenged then you live.
If you don't get challenged and
if you don't seek the challenge,
then you die.
>> CHANG: This dish is about
trash.
>> Yes.
Taking the stuff that we usually
throw out and finding uses for
it.
Like this, this is a leek that's
almost a year-and-a-half old.
>> CHANG: Which is insane.
>> It's insane.
Usually you would just throw
them out and their delicious.
They're juicy and crunchy and
better than a leek.
We're going to grill some stuff.
We're going to go out and grill
some of these ingredients.
So I burn these.
A cucumber this shape, this is
trash.
>> CHANG: They're not allowed to
sell it unless it looks,
uniform, right?
>> Uniform so they fit in the
case.
There you go.
We're all good.
Let's go in.
So what we're going to do now is
put them in a container.
We add an oil of wild thyme.
Then we seal it for like 30
minutes.
We do the same thing with these
stalks and stems here.
Look at all these.
I've thrown tons and tons and
tons of these stalks out, you
know?
We just put them in a strainer.
They don't need to be cooked a
lot.
Just touched by heat, in this
case just warm butter.
It could be water.
Now they're still full of life.
Another trash is a milk skin.
Everybody's seen it in their
home.
You cook milk and you leave it
and you come back to it and
there's a disgusting skin on
top.
In this case we just lift it off
gently, cover these grilled
ingredients.
Take a few stalks that are
pungent and fragrant.
And then this is a type of
seaweed butter.
You see it's almost like an
olive tapenade.
As a liquid we have buttermilk
whey.
You love buttermilk.
>> CHANG: I do.
>> So do I.
This is strained buttermilk.
That whey that drips off.
And then a bit of this thyme
oil.
It's important that it doesn't
boil.
As soon as it gets too high in
heat the acidity, the light
disappears.
And we have a vinaigrette.
>> CHANG: That's beautiful.
>> Just like that.
That's it, it's finished.
>> CHANG: Trash.
>> Green trash.
Not white trash.
(laughter)
>> Honestly when we first
started out with this project,
we were... you know, "Is this
even possible?
Is there enough ingredients to
do 20 dishes?"
And there is, of course.
There's ingredients to do 1,000
dishes if you see the
possibilities.
I don't think there are such
things as bad ingredients that
nature made, you know.
Its just a matter of kind of
taming it or decoding it.
That's what we're doing, we're
decoding our soil, our region.
>> BOURDAIN: It's true Rene's
cooking philosophy may take the
idea of eating local to an
extreme point, but by setting
boundaries in his kitchen, he is
pushing his team to be more
creative.
And the result is a restaurant
leading the way to a vibrant,
modern Nordic cuisine.
>> CHANG: I think that right now
Noma's in this period where
they're extraordinarily
influential and fruitful and
really working so well together
as a team.
Just eating here, it's just on
point.