Redzepi and the Turtle Code

The stream of chef films and documentaries on television and in cinemas doesn’t look likely to dry up anytime soon. Next week, the 90-minute cinema documentary Ants on a shrimp by Maurice ‘Keuringsdienst van Waarde’ Dekkers joins the ranks.

A film about René Redzepi, ‘the world’s best chef’, who closes his restaurant Noma in Copenhagen for a month at the beginning of 2015, to pop up with his entire team at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Tokyo.

The Noma Trick

A year and a half of hard work, searching, observing, discovering and finding its own ‘voice’ as well as the soul of the host country precedes this mega-operation. This includes trips with the cooking team and Japanese foragers to the north, south, west and east, in order to understand Japan literally from the roots up.

Because one thing is clear from the start: the Noma trick will not simply be repeated – ‘We’re not tourists!’ No, Noma has to crack the turtle code; then they’ll be in good shape. The snapping turtle, Japan’s national dish, which is cut up while still alive.

If Noma can crack the turtle code, Redzepi will be in good shape.

Redzepi is no swearer (Ramsey) or shouter (Herman) in the kitchen. He isn’t the creative God who weighs and considers everything on his own. He is more like a Rembrandt at the counter. Or a Buddha.

Hard Work

That’s how he sends his best cooks a month ahead to Tokyo, with complete confidence, to develop dishes. Thomas, Lars, Rosio and inexperienced Kim work 20 hours a day in the basement of the hotel tower, in order to present the master with a roughly fourteen-course menu.

When Redzepi thinks absolutely nothing of their ideas a month later, he doesn’t shout, but calmly reminds them of the responsibility and freedom he has given them. ‘Is this really the best you can do?’

Redzepi is no God, but rather a Buddha in the kitchen.

From then on, the master doesn’t take over, but teaches his team that failure is actually a good thing. That if he had found everything perfectly fine, no one would have learned anything. Just a few weeks before the Grand Opening, they start again. Together. Redzepi makes adjustments, sometimes firmly, sometimes gently. But his trust in his people remains undiminished. Just like his sense of humor.

And of course it all works out. The live botan ebi shrimp with Nagano ants, the Japanese citrus fruits with kelp oil, the fermented black-garlic leather, folded in origami style: the 3,000 guests who are ultimately allowed to take their seats at tables 37 floors up, out of the 60,000 on the waiting list, are ecstatic.

The Turtle Code?

For some, a chef film is only good if it conveys a broader message for everyone. Follow your dream, don’t give up, stay true to yourself, failure is 99 percent of success – that kind of fridge-magnet wisdom. Others simply want to see dishes, and especially how they came about. Ants on a shrimp offers both.

And the turtle code? Failure is 99 percent of success, didn’t we already say that?

Ants on a Shrimp by Maurice Dekkers, in cinemas from 1 September.

Text: Marjan Ippel
Image: Still from Ants on a shrimp