Hungry

Starred review from March 25, 2019
Esquire food editor Gordinier enchants in this alluring account of his jet-setting between Denmark, Australia, and Mexico with Noma chef René Redzepi in search of the secrets to, among other things, a mole that tastes like “an epic poem about history and time” and perfect tortillas that are “thick, chewy, redolent of corn.” In the midst of marital collapse and initially skeptical of the New Nordic Noma-worship “spreading outward from Copenhagen like invasive scurvy grass,” Gordinier became enamored with Redzepi and his drive “to reinvent himself and his restaurant.” The author tagged along as Redzepi, a man “allergic to coasting,” shuttered his world-famous restaurant and opened hyper-local pop-ups in Sydney, Australia, and Tulum, Mexico, before breaking ground on a new restaurant in Copenhagen. Gordinier catches a “contact high” off Redzepi’s manic drive to use only the best ingredients from local sources (“avocado leaves that smell like liquorice” in Tulum; foraged “Neptune’s necklace” seaweed in Australia), building meals “that tasted simultaneously contemporary and ancient.” Along the way, Gordinier found love, learning from the charismatic chef to always “keep moving.” This succulent tale of a culinary genius in search of constant transformation will enrapture Noma acolytes and travel and food enthusiasts alike. Photos.

May 1, 2019
A renowned chef reveals his appetite for risk--and edible insects. In 2013, Copenhagen's dining sensation, Noma, hit a serious snag: an outbreak of norovirus that threatened the restaurant's future and the reputation of its world-famous chef, René Redzepi. When Esquire food and drinks editor Gordinier (X Saves the World: How Generation X Got the Shaft but Can Still Keep Everything from Sucking, 2008, etc.) met Redzepi in 2014, the chef felt burned out, looking for new inspirations and, as he wrote in his journal, "scared of losing the precious worldwide attention we'd stumbled into." Eager to reinvent himself and invigorate his cooking, he decided to travel in search of new ideas, and he invited the author to come along to share in and write about the journey. At his own crossroads--depressed over his failing marriage--Gordinier saw Redzepi's invitation as a gift, a recognition of his talent, and a chance to join the "fierce, focused crew" that made up the chef's entourage. The search for flavor took the group to Sydney, arctic Norway, Copenhagen, and Mexico, where Redzepi planned a pop-up, Noma Mexico, to investigate "the complexity of Mexican cuisine," flavors that long had haunted him. The author reports the chef's ecstatic response to the lush abundance of the markets: tripe, blood sausage, bags of chicken hearts, wild cherries, prickly pears, avocado leaves that smelled like licorice, wondrous tropical fruits, and "galaxies of chiles, oceans of nuts, pyramids of palm sugar, lakes of tamarind paste." "To watch Redzepi in a Mexican marketplace," Gordinier writes, "...is like getting a contact high from somebody else's peyote trip." Redzepi's "kinetic fixation on propelling himself forward" characterizes the author's portrait of him: restless, "allergic to inertia," easily bored. Whenever Redzepi discovered an unfamiliar ingredient, technique, or custom, he seemed energized by "an electric current." Kelp, seawort, ant eggs, and grasshoppers are just a few of the ingredients he tried out, which for Redzepi "exemplify all meanings of the word 'wild' "--"flavors and textures of the untamed." A vivid chronicle of a rare culinary adventure.

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July 1, 2019

The hype about New Nordic cuisine may have diminished, but René Redzepi of Noma restaurant in Copenhagen remains a compelling figure. Gordinier (food and wine editor, Esquire) chronicles four years during which the author traveled with Redzepi. Chapters bounce among the United States, Mexico, Denmark, and Australia. Gordinier documents the highs and lows of Noma, from being named the best restaurant in the world to dealing with a norovirus outbreak. Just as the author undergoes a sort of rebirth following the end of his marriage, so too does Redzepi, leading to the closure and reopening of Noma. The book richly describes remarkable ingredients being turned into fantastic meals. Better still, though, Gordinier captures a sense of why such creativity in cooking matters and what the Nordic movement meant. VERDICT Part travelog, part memoir, this is a quick, delightful read difficult to categorize but easy to enjoy. Recommended for collections where memoirs and travel writing are popular.--Peter Hepburn, Coll. of the Canyons Lib., Santa Clarita, CA

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2019
Copenhagen restaurateur Ren� Redzepi can never sate his compulsion to perceive novel flavors. He fashioned Noma, his many-times-lauded Danish eatery, into a temple of gastronomy sought out by globe-trotting diners eager to spend hundreds of euros to swoon over 20-course meals featuring seaweeds and fungi, many foraged by the chef from Denmark's seacoasts and wetlands. Son of an Albanian Muslim immigrant to Denmark, Redzepi trained in classical cooking before reclaiming his Nordic heritage and transporting it into uncharted culinary territory. Gordinier, food and drinks editor at Esquire, follows Redzepi's peripatetic quest to expand his palate even more, this time focusing on the world's latest epicurean hotspot: Mexico's Yucatan peninsula. A jaunt to Sydney offers a chance to seek wild celery, and Norway's frigid waters yield pristine sea urchins. The pair visit a host of chefs and home cooks, absorbing how they make the most of local ingredients, especially insects. Anyone aspiring to appreciate the borderless world of avant-garde cuisine will learn plenty about a diverse group of chefs and how these women and men are transforming the future of food.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)