Over the past decade or so, the demand and expectations of high-end restaurants around the world have gone up, with more people interested in enjoying quality or unusual culinary experiences. This might seem a bit rich coming after the United Nations declared in 2009 that global food production needs to increase by 70 percent by 2050 if the world is to sustain itself.
With that in mind, "Noma My Perfect Storm," a documentary that profiles chef Rene Redzepi and explores ingredients seen as exotic in the West — such as insects, tree bark and animal blood — does leave you wondering how the astronomical bills at such restaurants can be justified when there are so many nations unable to sustain their populations.
To be fair, Noma, Redzepi's Copenhagen restaurant, which has been voted the world's best four times in the space of five years (2010, 2011, 2012 and 2014), is noted for using seasonal, locally sourced and foraged Danish ingredients, meaning that it at least encourages the consumer to think outside the box regarding food sources, and it uses ingredients that involve less energy consumption. All that's a feat in itself considering Denmark is enveloped in wintry weather six months of the year.