There was some big food world news this week: Noma, known to some as the best restaurant in the world, is closing. Not immediately – there’s still a year left in its current incarnation in Copenhagen, a year that also includes a stint in Kyoto. And the exact date isn’t practically important. As Jaya Saxena says, few of us were going to make it there anyway. Plus it should also be noted that chef René Redzepi will continue to do pop-ups even after the restaurant “closes.” But, most interesting to this forum, absent a daily lunch and dinner service, Redzepi and team will be spending their time “exploring new projects and developing many more ideas and products.” (Emphasis mine.)
As of now, Noma Projects, the part of Noma dedicated to developing new ingredients (or, as it describes itself, “the beginning of a myriad of projects that will have food, deliciousness, and education at its core,”) has three pantry products for sale: There’s the smoked mushroom garum Noma Projects launched with, plus a wild rose vinegar, and the Forager’s Vinaigrette, which is a blend of the wild rose vinegar and a blackcurrant wood oil.
Noma is far from the first restaurant to launch a line of goods, which leads me to wonder, how does Noma Projects plan to break ground in this space? What are the further products that will uphold Noma’s reputation as a center for innovative culinary ideas? What would feel appropriately Noma? And so, I asked the Eater staff to speculate with me. Some ideas, free for the taking:
A candle. Everyone's got one these days. Noma’s would ideally be a version of the entirely edible caramel, cardamom, and saffron candle served as a part of the 2021 summer menu.
MSG 2.0. Can Noma 3.0 come up with the next essential seasoning? Something so good you’d want to sprinkle it on everything? Maybe it’s made from mold.
Those fruit-leather beetles. I do not want a stagiaire to have to spend their unpaid time painstakingly assembling edible beetles, which is why Noma should let us pay good money for one.
A fermentation kit. The Noma Guide to Fermentation already exists, so it’d be nice for its authors to start selling all the tools needed to complete the projects it contains. They could even package it all together with the book. I’m predicting an instant gift guide darling come November.