The distil of Redzepi’s genius

Things had exploded for René Redzepi since his Copenhagen restaurant Noma, skyrocketed to No. 1. From a relative unknown with a penchant for playing around with local ingredients, Redzepi is now treated as a culinary rockstar with international media queuing up for 10 minutes of his time, to capture the pearls of culinary wisdom that issue from his lips. That’s all you have before his minder, with clipboard in hand, hurries you to end the interview as some other journalist is waiting her turn.

Just 34 years old, he is already named among Time Magazine’s Top 100 Most Influential People in the world. Yet he is humble, unaffected, personable and friendly. He is first a professional chef of the highest order, before celebrity. In fact, fame does not seem to have gotten to his ego. For him, the main impact from being awarded the coveted accolade is “the freedom to cook what we want”. This encompasses taking his unique route of culinary exploration to greater lengths, as well as giving his staff the opportunity to travel and see more of the foodie world.

While he now tops a list of elites measured by conventional restaurant guidelines, Redzepi’s style and food forays are by no means mainstream. He has pushed the envelope in more ways than one, beaten a new path forward and established that the road less travelled can lead to the pot of gold. Indeed, if cooks were musicians, he’d be the indie, bohemian folk singer with a pop bent.