In April 2014, chef Rene Redzepi was riding the crest of a wave. Noma, his iconic Copenhagen restaurant, had just been voted back to No. 1 on the World 50 Best list, cementing its place as one of the top global dining destinations. And then, at the awards ceremony, he dropped a bombshell announcement. He was going to close Noma, take a sabbatical from Copenhagen, and instead move the restaurant to Tokyo for a couple of months in early 2015.
It was not going to be just him and a couple of chefs. He was taking every single member of staff, from the kitchen and waiting staff right down to the long-serving dish-washer — with several spouses and children in tow as well. And rather than serving the same dishes that had made them famous in Denmark, Redzepi was planning an entirely new menu, using only produce sourced in Japan. It was a radical move and the risk of failure — or just not being up to Noma's usual standard — was high.
Noma Japan opened in early January 2015 in Tokyo's Mandarin Oriental Hotel. It ran for only six weeks, but it was an outstanding success and few who ate there are likely to forget it. The experience led Redzepi to repeat the experiment with a similar residency earlier this year in Australia, and to plan another in 2017 (April 12-May 28), this time in Mexico.