BL #10: Nosh On New Nordic Cuisine

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Geo: 55.6763, 12.5681

It used to be that Spain's Nueva Cocina was the leading movement in the foodie World, with Ferran Adria and his disciples representing the vanguard of this technical and scientific culinary revolution. Adria's El Bulli was the epicentre of all things new in the World of molecular gastronomy, a controversial and relatively-new discipline in cooking, that many purists considered to be sacrilegious.

Whether or not you agree with the techniques employed, and whether or not you enjoy the end product, is irrelevant - the methodology of Nueva Cocina was validated repeatedly when El Bulli was ranked the number one restaurant in the World five times. However, that run ended in 2010, when Copenhagen's Noma wrested the crown away, and completed a Three-peat in 2012. Noma led the charge of New Nordic Cuisine, an even-newer style of cooking that finally knocked Nueva Cocina off of its perch, as El Bulli closed its doors in 2011.

Nueva Cocina draws its inspiration from innovative techniques and presentation, and often times the use of exotic ingredients; some would say its reign ended because of exhausted creative juices - constantly pushing the limits of food and cookery is simply too difficult to maintain for years at a time. However, its proponents would counter that it's not possible to run out of creative juices, as any juices would've been turned into foams or gelatinous spheres!

Though NNC does draw upon some of the teachings of Nueva Cocina (in fact, Noma's head chef Rene Redzepi once worked at El Bulli), the food is more about the use of local Nordic ingredients and traditional, perhaps even nearly-forgotten techniques, and enhancing them with modern techniques and international influences. In a way, the culinary World has come full circle, with a return to a simpler, yet still technically intensive, style of cuisine.

Any establishment ranked on the list of top restaurants in the World is very difficult to secure a reservation for, and it's practically impossible to get one at a place that sits atop the list. El Bulli used to employ a lottery system where prospective customers submitted a request approximately six months in advance, and if lucky, would secure a spot within a few weeks of the desired date. You didn't plan a dinner there around your trip, you planned a trip around the dinner!

While the process is much simpler at Noma, it's no easier to obtain a table there - you make a request using an on line form for a date and time that is surely fully-booked, only to be told that you can place yourself on the waiting list, hoping that simultaneously the planets align, Hell freezes over when pigs are flying overhead, so that delicious pork popsicles fall from the skies and land on your plate at Noma, but only after about a thousand people on the waiting list ahead of you decline the last minute offer to dine at this culinary Mecca.

Of course, our call from Noma never came, so the backup plan was put into action - while dinner at the restaurant that started the New Nordic Movement was not possible, it certainly was possible to dine at a one of the many other Michelin-starred locations around Copenhagen that were, at least in some small way, inspired by Noma. After much research, we decided on Marchal, a relative newcomer to Copenhagen's buzzing culinary scene, based upon its intriguing menu and more palatable prices - it's expensive enough to eat a basic meal in Scandinavia, let alone anything considered to be World-leading!

Having previously experienced the grandiose vision and theatrical presentation of Nueva Cocina before, at El Celler de Can Roca in Girona, Spain, it was natural enough to make comparisons with NNC. In many ways, Nueva Cocina can often be more about the presentation, demonstrating culinary innovation, and blowing apart the diner's preconceived notions of what food's taste and texture should be, than it is about the food itself.

At Marchal, it really is just about locally-sourced food, prepared as technically-perfect as possible - we didn't find any unusual techniques or exotic flavours in any of our dishes, at least, not that we could discern. The style of dining was also different from Can Roca - while Noma favours the extravagant multi-course tasting menus dished out at Nueva Cocina establishments, Marchal offers a series of sharing-plate sized dishes, in addition to roasts and seafood dishes designed for two.

Overall, I found the experience at Marchal to be similar to Can Roca, in the unevenness of how the dishes played to my palate - some were excellent, while some were, quite frankly, somewhat disappointing. At Marchal, the less impressive dishes weren't bad in any way, it's just that they didn't all live up to our expectations - for the most part, the dishes were consistent, in that the worst dishes weren't bad by any stretch, only a little less tasty.

The range at Can Roca was more extreme, with a number of truly breathtaking dishes that would've blown away anything we had tonight, while others came off as somewhat bizarre in both taste and texture, and would've been overshadowed by any of Marchal's lesser dishes. The duration of tonight's meal was also excessive compared to Can Roca, even though we "only" shared a total of seven courses tonight, whereas Can Roca had something like fifteen courses. This was probably due to our choice to eat each dish separately, rather than to have them bring us one dish each at a time. The alacrity with which we attack and devour our food didn't help, either!

All in all, our introduction to NNC was a worthwhile experience, though not overly-memorable, and devoid of any breathtaking moments. It wasn't an entirely fair comparison between Nueva Cocina and NNC, but it was the best we could do, given the circumstances - the true test would be to sample both Can Roca and Noma, while both experiences are still fresh in our memories.

So while we managed to cross one item off the bucket list tonight, another two have actually been added - the first is that we'll definitely need to plan better the next time we are in Copenhagen, and actually sample Noma. The second? As of 2013, Noma is no longer ranked as the number one restaurant in the World - that distinction now belongs to Can Roca! Naturally, another return visit to Spain is now also on the bucket list, to see what changes have made it leap to the top of the list, from the eleventh-place ranking it held when I dined there.

Better start making those reservations soon!

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Photos

Hotel d'Angleterre ...
... the home of Marchal.

Still Lacking Passion ...
... Bertel Thorvaldsen is perhaps Denmark's most famous sculptor, with a museum devoted to his works. My impressions today were still the same as those from six years ago - while the technique is flawless, his works seemingly lack passion or life, with his sculptures appearing to have blank expressions on their faces.

Most Comfortable Museum Ever ...
... Copenhagen's Design Museum features many of the iconic chairs designed by this part of the World, and made us feel positively intellectual as we read our museum guides.

Overrated ...
... the famous Little Mermaid statue - one of the most popular tourist sights in all of Copenhagen, but in the end, it's nothing special.

Tight Squeeze ...
... some of the canal tour boats can barely squeeze underneath the bridges - there were only a couple of inches on either side of our boat as we passed through.

First Course at Marchal ...
... fjord shrimps with tomato juice, dill, and acidic cream. Good, but definitely not worth the price tag, as this was by far the most expensive dish of the night. The acidic cream was interesting, with the texture of a soft cheese, and the shrimps tasty - but truth be told, we would've preferred the shrimp we had in the various sandwiches and salads we gobbled down earlier in Oslo and Gothenburg.

Tempura Cod ...
... with spring cabbage, new potatoes, hot mayonnaise and dill vinaigrette. The cod was delicious, piping hot, salty, and crispy, without being greasy. The hot mayo was a nice accompaniment, the potato great, and the continued liberal use of fresh dill in Scandinavia was excellent - a much better dish than the fjord shrimps.

Fried Zander ...
... with fennel puree, pickled pear, tarragon oil and foamed mussel sauce. We weren't sure exactly what zander was, but it's actually a local sweet water fish that is currently in season. Nicely cooked, but not an overly memorable dish.

Fried Lamb and Sweetbread ...
... with beans, green gooseberries, olive puree, and chicken fume. The lamb was fantastic, not gamey in any way, and incredibly tender. The sour gooseberries were a perfect balance for the rich lamb, and the crisp green beans provided a nice textural contrast. The sweetbread had an interesting chewy texture, and was even richer than the lamb - again, the gooseberries helped, in that regard.

Hidden Treasures ...
... the chefs here seemed to like hiding their food - this was braised haunch of venison with farmer beans, chanterelles, black currant and glace. The sheet was somehow made of black currant, and once peeled away, left you with melt-in-your-mouth venison and some phenomenal mashed potatoes. Perhaps the best dish of the night.

Fried Beef Tenderloin ...
... with rehydrated beetroot, red currants and glaze with marrow. Again, this dish was hidden, this time with a leafy medicinal vegetable of some sort, which we've peeled away. A very herby and floral tasting dish.

Tart With Blueberries ...
... pickled cherries, liquorice, milk ice and lemon granité. There was way too much going on with this dish, including some salty and bitter flavours, and some champagne used in the sauce. We were not big fans of this dessert, though that still didn't stop us from gobbling it down in record time!

Holm's Bager ...
... a top-notch bakery in Copenhagen that made for a killer on-the-go lunch today. A pepperoni pizza bun and a wicked lox sandwich.

Interesting Organic Drinks ...
... black currant, and elderflower, a surprisingly refreshing and delicious beverage.