Have Cheetah,Will Review #27 – “Noma-My Perfect Storm”

It’s 9:36 pm

In my last blog entry,I tossed out a shout out to my new pal,Dan who has a great You Tube called Reject Filmz. He recently had a pair of giveaways on his channel and I entered one that was sponsored by Magnolia Films. As luck would have it,I won a BluRay of “Noma: My Perfect Storm” and so on this very cold and snowy Saturday,the cheetah and I watched it.

I’m a fan of food,Lori and I both were. Watching the Food Network was a staple for us. The Saturday morning lineup of shows were a time to have a cup of coffee and a light snack and watch the various chefs and cooks show us how they create their dishes.
Sunday night we always watched “Iron Chef America” where elite chefs from world class restaurants would battle a handpicked team of Iron Chefs using a secret ingredient in a 60 minute battle.
That being said,I myself,have been to one restaurant that was considered to be far above average and while I remember the experience,I did forget the name of it.
When I worked at the Agenda Lounge for Jacek Rosicki,the restaurant section always caught my eye. I liked watching how the kitchen worked,a bit noisy but always in order.
I always wondered how they kept the dishes in order during a busy dinner service but they always did and the food was outstanding.

So when I got the Blu-Ray from Dan,I was surprised that it was a documentary about a restaurant in Copenhagen,Denmark called Noma which has been named the world’s best restaurant several times.
The owner and a master chef in his own right is Rene Redzepi,a half Macedonian,half Danish who was born in Denmark. The film focuses on Rene and his efforts to get Noma off the ground and running. Director Pierre Deschamps does a great job at staying completely neutral and allowing Rene to express himself freely and openly. This means the language in this documentary is rather spicy and isn’t the stuff of normal films like this.

Noma struggled when it first opened until Rene went completely with fresh organic ingredients from within Denmark itself and other small European providers. This was interesting to see as much of the ingredients sold to Noma came from single persons or maybe a couple. In other words,at Noma,you often are getting one of a kind dishes.
While watching Rene is a bit hard because he comes across a little tough on his staff,its also very cool to see how he includes EVERYONE in sampling dishes and asking for their input. Chefs are very ego driven and to see Rene squash that within himself speaks for the character of the man especially when one considers he was named World Chef of the Year in 2008.

Deschamps highlights many of Noma’s dishes and while they are almost too pretty to eat,for me,I was wondering how filling they could be as it appears that you’ll need to eat a lot of them to have a full tummy.
Noma has been named the world’s best restaurant four times and ranks in the Top 10 annually. The film also covers a serious case of norovirus in 2013 that sickened many diners. This really hurt Noma and you can see the anger from Rene from the many people who emailed him trying to extort money from him by claiming to have been sickened and unless Redpezi refunded their money,they would go to the media. Noma bounced back from that crisis in 2013 and once again was named best restaurant in 2014.
Deschamps also interviews the various staff members who also share their feelings about both Rene and Noma itself,you can sense they also have a fierce sense of pride and loyalty to Rene.
This was a real fun treat to watch and both the cheetah and I gave it a paw/thumbs up…

My thanks to Dan from Reject Filmz and Magnolia Films.

If you are on Twitter,consider following me by clicking on here.