That’s right, I heard it straight from the horses’ mouth ”“ Rene Redzepi, owner of NOMA, the best restaurant in the WORLD according to the esteemed San Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2010.

It all started the morning after our first Momofuku experience. I was an obsessed woman – I wanted to find out everything I could about David Chang and the philosophy behind his food and his restaurants. I was delighted to discover that he was doing a talk with Rene Redzepi at the New York Public Library that night! This could only happen in New York, we had to go”¦

The talk was a moderated discussion between David Chang and Rene Redzepi about cuisine and culture and how a cultural identity can influence and inspire a chef’s menu. For example, David Chang’s food is clearly influenced by his Korean heritage, the time he spent growing up in America and working in Tokyo ”“ you only need to take a bite out of the Momofuku shrimp bun with its Big Mac inspired sauce to understand what I mean. For Rene Redzepi, the cultural connection is far stronger ”“ NOMA’s chefs actually forage the local region for the rare ingredients that make up his take on Nordic cuisine.

So you’re probably still wondering about the shitty carrots. Well, Rene Redzepi talked about how he served “shitty carrots” for the winter and how they quickly became one of NOMA’s signature dishes. The “shitty carrots” were born out of necessity – NOMA is so strict on it’s ingredients being sourced from local farms and foraging expeditions. The last winter was so unforgiving that there was no way he could gather enough ingredients to feed to his hungry customers. He was forced to somehow create a Michelin star quality dish out of carrots that had been in the ground for a year and forgotten about! Watch the video below and you will see why they are probably the only shitty 1 year old carrots anyone would ever pay good money for.

For those of you with an hour or so to kill, there is a recording of the full discussion here. I highly recommend it if you’re interested in seeing the creative process that Rene Redzepi and the NOMA chefs go through to create a dining experience that is deserving of title ‘best restaurant in the world.

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