A Legend Says Good Bye

 One of the most innovative restaurants in the last twenty  years is Noma in Copenhagen.Next year, 2024 is going is going to be it's last as a popular eatery.It will come back , with the same innovative food and original recipes. Yet it won't be the same.

The New York Times Food critic Pete Wells wrote about this legend of a restaurant in today's New York Times Food section. He was lucky to get reservations (although he had to piggy back his with a friend's) when he reviewed it in 2018.The top chef and owner Rene Redzepi took Nordic cooking and turned it on its' ear. It's a mix of new and old, with bringing in traditional ingredients and using them in different ways. He used the bright orange berries of the sea buckthorn and used them in all sorts fo recipes from jams to cocktails. Chef Redzepi and his assistants foraged wood sorrell and other plants , long used in Scandanavian cooking and made it a part of the new Nordic cooking manifesto. He used burning hay to perfume certain ingredients along with using parsnips instead of fruit in desserts(!) Noma made a big deal of serving  a variety of pickled foods as an appetizer. Even Chef Redzepi also renamed the appetizers, calling them snacks. 

Other restaurants like El Bulli in Spain and Chez Panisse have dozens of imitators and both eateries have given chefs inspiration with all sort of dishes. Yet it's Noma that all turn to for ideas. They can copy it's use of slates, rocks, seashells (!) longs and mismatched pieces of hand hewn pottery. There are influences from modern Scandanavian furtniture to not serving tomatoes in anything as Noma does. Yet as much as they copy  they cannot get it compeltely right. Mr. Werlls desctibes having a dish painted with edible paint in the shape of an iridescent starfish covered with the sparkling roe of Danish trout. Yet according to him its excellence may be inseparable from the culture of overkill. Maybe once Chef Redzepi gets rod of those "pesky diners" he can work on newer innovations and more original recipes that reflect the Nordic heritage. Or maybe he 'll be influenced by Asian cooking since Noma is now in Japan. He coud easily use sea weed in a new way or reinvent sushi or tempura,

Noma may only have a year but it will probably be a glorious one. Diners from all over th e world  still want to try its' innovative dishes. It still has spark and the ability to change the food world.

Trouble In A Culinary Paradise

 Imagine working in the most perfect place one can think up. It has stunning views and comes not just with tantalizing job offers but delicious food. Now imagine it all being a big lie. That's what happened to the workers at the Willows Inn on Lummi Island off the Washington State coastline. The ultimate's chef's dream turned into a worker's nightmare.

Regular contributor Julia Moskin, contributed this eye opening report in today's New York Times Food section. She exposed practices better associated with trendy big city restaurants and crimes  that are not at all uncommon in New York, Chicago, Boston or Los Angeles.It started with the famed chef , Blaine Wetzel falling in love with this tranquil island in the San Juan Archipelago. He was only twenty-four and fresh from a two year stint at the famed Copenhagen eatery Noma. Any restaurant would have wanted this rising superstar in the culinary world. Instead he answered an ad on Craigslist posted by an island chicken farmer who owned the century old inn. Its' isolation appealed to him .It had less than one thousand people living on it. There were unspoiled forests along with local fisheries and farms - all perfect for fresh ingredients. It quickly became a global destination with visitors paying a whopping $500 for a night. The dishes were either foraged or fished not far from it. Yet it was nothing more than a fairy tale.

Ms. Moskin interviewed thirty-five former employees for the article and their stories are horror ones.For one those fresh ingredients weren't exactly fresh nor were they local. They were ferried in from the mainland, namely from distributors and other farms. Pacific octopus came from Spain and Portugal. Chicken was bought from Costco. Venison came from a farm in Idaho. Even more disturbing were the allegations against Chef Wetzel for sexual harassment. Underage teenage girls were given potent alcoholic drinks and drugs. There was inappropriate touching by older male workers while Chef Wetzel himself drove home a drunk underage worker, Sarah Letchworth. He wanted to drive her to his place to do shots. If that wasn't bad enough there were biases against female workers. Jen Curtis was a seasoned chef di cuisine when she joined the restaurant's staff. Chef Wetzel promised her a sous chef position as soon as it became available. She was shunted aside for male sous chefs. Then there was also the racism, with slurs being hurled at Asian American chefs.Interns were also abused, as they were forced to work fourteen hour days. Thankfully the inn's former workers filed a class action lawsuit against the chef who was accused of wage theft and provide rest breaks along with misappropriation of tips. 

The Willow Inn can be redeemed by a more compatible, caring chef. it is a paradise with fresh ingredients waiting to be turned into delicious dishes. It can overcome this bad period and enter a more understanding, honest one.