Art of Noma, Rene Redzepi, Mette Soberg

There’s a reason Noma sits atop the list of the world’s best restaurants. Every bite, every dish, every course surprises, delights, challenges, and deeply satisfies in a way that’s unique in the world of dining. As the New York Times’s Pete Wells wrote recently in praising Noma’s flavors, “sauces are administered so subtly that you don’t notice anything weird going on; you just think you’ve never tasted anything so extraordinary in your life.” In Noma 2.0, René Redzepi digs deep into the restaurant’s magic through the creation of nearly 200 dishes, each photographed in spectacular beauty and detail.

Noma 2.0—the title is a reference to the reinvention of Noma after it closed in 2018 to move to its new compound across the water—is about true seasonality, from wild game in the fall to just-picked peas in the summer. It is about using only local ingredients, to build a cuisine that is profoundly situated in its place and culture. It is about transforming the ordinary—a mushroom, a chicken wing, often through fermentation—to develop haunting, memorable flavors.

It is about composing a plate that delights the eye as much as the palate, whether through the trompe l’oeil of a “flowerpot” chocolate cake or a dazzling mandala of flowers and berries. It is about pushing the boundaries of what we think we want to eat—a baby pinecone, a pudding made of reindeer brain—to open our palates with a startling confidence. And it is about how to stay creative and challenge yourself over the course of a career.