Original subtitles

Downloaded from YTS.MX

[instrumental music]

[instrumental music]

Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX

[indistinct chattering]

- Oh, those damn elevators, man.

Come on, Lars.

Hey, Lars, where are you?

Oh, fuck.

So, you're still down at the bottom floor?

Chef, we're gonna have to open then.

Okay?

Just hustle. We, we, we..

We need -- we need to open. I'm sorry, chef.

I'm sorry.

Okay? Good, okay. - Alright, we're gonna open.

- Guys? - Yeah!

- We're opening. - Yeah!

- Let's go.

[Darkside singing "Heart"]

[instrumental music]

[music continues]

* Moonlight sets

* Feels like seven years

* Since I left

* Can't you see behind this love? *

* Tell me you don't know

* If you don't like what you see *

[music continues]

[laughing]

- World's best restaurant, 2010

is Noma, Rene Redzepi!

Best restaurant 2011 is Noma.

Best restaurant 2012 is Noma.

...2014

is once again, Noma.

[crowd cheering]

* Bones crunch

* There's a lot of noise in here *

* What do I look like to you?

- Morning, guys. - Morning.

* What do you want me to be?

- Morning, guys. - Morning.

- Morning. - Morning.

- Morning, guys. - Good morning.

- Today we have 41 guests booked for lunch.

We're starting with six tables at 12 o'clock.

The first one is Michael Gladis to guest table five

visiting from the US.

There's one vegetarian, so no meat and no fish.

But dairy and insects are fine.

This is a possible welcome back to some of them.

There is some history that they were here in 2012.

That's it for the reservations.

- Excellent. So, it's the last Tuesday in November.

And I just wanna remind everyone that as of next week

we start to..

A lot of people leaving.

So our team is gonna shrink dramatically.

These guys are going to Tokyo.

Rene is leaving, a lot of people are leaving, so..

Hang on. Beautiful. Have a good service.

[all] - Yeah.

[music continues]

- We're doing a full-on langoustine

and they're doing the lobsters.

We could upstairs, for example, tie the lobsters for them.

[music continues]

* What do I look like to you?

* What do you want me to be? *

[intense music]

- Where the hell are we?

Everything is in Japanese, man.

- Hi, this is Lars from Noma. Hi..

- When we first went there, we were like

okay, let's just go.

- We don't know exactly where to go.

You didn't have the correct address.

- This is a year and a half ago.

I thought, maybe, you know, stupid as I am

I think, okay we're gonna go, it's gonna be easy in a sense.

Or it's not gonna be s-high profile.

- Who gets to sit on this chair?

Aah.. - Louis Vuitton.

Louis Vuitton, Hermes and, uh, Chanel..

- It's also just fun. Let's have fun.

You know what I mean?

I mean, every day it's a grind.

Get ready, lunch, dinner.

Why don't we do that at a new place

and s-have fun with it, you know?

I wonder why they have them. Is that for the sun?

- Yeah, I guess so.

- It's unbelievable.

This place here is, like, unbelievable.

And -- and -- and I mean that in a bad way.

- Rene wanted to bring everybody, so..

Most people look at something financially.

Um, I had to look at, how do I make this work?

Here's an opportunity to give Rene Redzepi

and his team, his dream, to come to Japan.

So, Rene said, "I'm gonna bring everybody over.

"I'm gonna move the whole restaurant. I'm gonna close it.

"I'm gonna put my life and soul into this.

I'll come in and research it."

So I said, "Okay, we'll work it out."

- Nobody contacted us and said

"Hey, you wanna go to Japan?" No.

We said, "Do you want us?" And they were, like, "Sure."

Also the -- the mirror..

...needs to go.

Cheers. - Most welcome.

- Thank you. - Thank you.

- Everybody's fascinated, what are you going to do?

- So we -- we want this to be the success.

Finger towel, wow.

[chuckles]

It can be amazing and it can be

an experience never to forget.

And it could be a -- a thing where you just say

"Fuck, man, when is this thing over?

Get me out of here."

We'll see, I mean, it -- it depends on so many things.

[instrumental music]

- It's a tremendous amount of pressure here.

You don't speak the language.

You've, you can't communicate with anyone.

Ingredients... are totally different

to what we use back home.

Vegetables are like..

Most of them are not as flavorsome

as we -- we know it from back home.

And our kitchen back home is based on vegetables.

Of course it doesn't make sense to

to serve a raw piece of fish here

because there are probably 2000 restaurants out there

who know how to serve raw fish better than we do.

The next one is Rene.

He as well puts the pressure on us

to come up with this totally new menu

new ingredients, new techniques.

[intense music]

If we would have known..

...a year ago what is in front of us

we probably wouldn't sit here right now.

You know, nobody works 20 hours a day

somewhere downstairs in a basement.

At the end, we are all just a bunch of freaks.

Is it full already?

- No, no, just 12 of them.

- A normal person doesn't understand what we are doing.

- Hello, good morning.

- Good morning. - Morning.

People traveling around the world..

...to eat at Noma

because they expect something of us.

And we don't want to disappoint them.

- When I started at Noma

I had never been to Scandinavia.

I hadn't had sea buckthorn or lingon berries

any of this stuff

nor even had read about it.

It was -- it was quite amazing, because there is no reference

and you can just, kind of, let your mind...go to work.

And I am trying to have that same...stance where..

Okay, don't tr -- try to think about it too much

because once you get there

it should be intuitive when you taste it.

Every -- I gave up everything, I think.

Personal life...is empty.

[chuckles]

Yeah, it's empty, completely.

Which I don't really care though.

You know, that doesn't bother me.

It doesn't eat me at night.

I'm around people all day.

We're together..

Oh, the, oh, the whole day, every day.

Yeah, I think they know me more than anyone.

More than...my brother.

It's like your family or your...your significant other.

And then, uh, I'm..

[chuckles] I don't know, middle sister.

- Uh, we found yesterday, like, the perfect..

...massage center.

Ryan found it.

[laughing]

- Massage-e? - No.. Yeah, massage.

But, uh, it's a bit different massage though.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

- The thing is, uh, it was like a..

[chuckles] It was like, relaxing, relaxing massage

30 to 60 minutes, it was like..

This girl, like, without pants is just, like, on there, it's..

[chuckles]

Well, yeah, I wanna go there. Really get very relaxed.

- But the prostitution here is, like..

Super weird, man. - I mean, there's..

- You basically just talk to the girls

like, you kinda like --

- No, you don't do anything. You just talk.

- You don't do anything. You just talk.

- Like, escort-like, yeah. - You buy their company.

- Fuck that, man.

- I started working when I was 13 in a construction site

carrying bricks.

I knew already at that point I wanted to be a chef.

The environment, it's narcotic in a way.

You know, you get hooked.

This gang gets kinda underneath your skin a bit.

I already killed one.

You know, even if things heat up

they always come together as a kind of group or as a family.

- You're right-handed? - Yes.

- You grab it on this left rear quarter.

- Okay.

- Like this.

Careful 'cause these are snapping turtles.

They can actually bite you.

So you hold it like this. - Yeah.

And you grab it with your weak hand, basically.

Other way, like this.

Like this.

So that, when you flip them over

below its belly, this way

otherwise it kinda gets freaked out.

Other way, other hand.

Grab it with your strong hand. - Oh, okay.

- And then you're grabbing the neck with your weak hands.

- Mm-hmm.

- 45 deg -- 45.

- Just on the side, like this. - Yep. Mm-hm.

- There it is. - Its head. Now, grab it.

Grab it with your left hand. Left hand.

- This, right? - Right. Quick, quick.

- Living in the kitchen... is a lot more easier.

You know, in a way.

'Cause it's kinda..

...solitary, in a way.

You're kind of safe within the four walls.

Keeps you out of trouble.

You know?

And the next service is the only thing that matters.

You know, you don't have to worry

about when to come in the morning

you don't have to worry about Friday, if it's Monday.

You know, your girlfriend left you.

Yeah, it doesn't matter. The sauce needs to get cooked.

[instrumental music]

- I fucking hate these elevators.

It's a really, really good team to be working with.

Very dedicated, very enthusiastic.

Incredibly excited about what they're doing.

We come from very different backgrounds.

Which allows us to have very different strengths.

I don't think there's anyone else I'd rather be working with

to be honest with you.

- Well, the first thing in the morning

just, uh, turn the scallops.

Take the scallop off the sheet and then let it dry a bit more

and then freeze it.

- One of the challenges is just the time.

You can never be doing enough in terms of volume or speed.

You're constantly pushing yourself

faster and faster and faster.

- Did you bring the coquille tins?

- Yeah, they're in the dehydrators.

- Yeah.

[instrumental music]

- Um, the turtle? It's still a big one.

Giving birth is always painful.

I mean, it's the nature of our business, you know.

I think anyone who's not involved in the creative process

who thinks it's easy, is just not involved

in the creative process.

It's always hard.

It probably is, uh, I think a hotpot, I would say.

Hot broth.

I think, 'cause that's also what Rene...was thinking about

when he wanted to do the turtle dish.

Just like this beautiful, sort of, consomme of some sort.

[indistinct chattering]

[machine whirring]

- Just do what's necessary for the...

- Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

- And...that's it.

Do we have brown butter for the toast?

- Yeah.

- Next one, Kimi, toast.

- Yeah.

I'm gonna do the cod first

and then gonna go to the toast.

- What? - The cod liver.

I'm gonna do it first and then go to the toast.

- No, toast first. - Okay.

[intense music]

- It's a wild kiwi from Nagano.

- Just kiwi?

[music continues]

[indistinct chattering]

[music continues]

- What's up, Lars?

How are you?

Cool. I don't know where we are.

Yeah, I mean, we're entering Tokyo now.

Slowly.

So, what's the plan, my friend?

[instrumental music]

Honestly, it's like opening a restaurant from scratch.

It feels like in the beginning.

Only difference is that back then we're nobodies.

Yeah, those two.. Those -- those are good.

Twenty-five years old

the son of a Macedonian Muslim dish washer

my mother, a cleaning lady.

You know, we could do whatever we wanted. Nobody would notice.

If there were ten failures on the menu one night

it would be like, okay.

Now it's different.

Everybody expects on meal one, that it's like

one of the best in town.

Thomas, are you going skiing?

- Nice to see you. - You too, man.

How's it going?

- I think the -- the menu's very strong.

- Really? - We have everything. Yeah.

- I mean, of course, there's some dishes that we're working on.

- Yeah, yeah. That's good. I'm happy to hear that, chef.

- Happy birthday. - Thank you.

- I have a present for you. - Aww!

- Happy birthday. - Thank you.

- Getting good, actually.

How are you, chef? - Man!

Looks great.

- Shaved the beard off.

- It's a mega risk.

On our repertoire, on the staff as well.

It can be tense, you know.

What if they just say, "Okay, fuck this shit, man?"

- 30 years old, huh? - I know, it's gone.

- I'm gonna finish this and then just leave Noma, you know.

That's the horror story of it.

And then there is, "What if people don't enjoy the menu?"

What if we ourselves don't even enjoy with the menu

thinking, "Okay, this is not really 100%."

So, is this offices, or is this actually..

- Yeah, and then, more like..

- And banquet. Okay.

That'd be a disaster, of course.

Ah! Daylight.

Maybe we should move the kitchen here, man.

Okay, shall we try to write it up?

- Yeah.

- Kiwi soup and, uh, baby cucumber.

- Yeah.

- And what clam are we using for the tart?

- It's a white, kind of almost a gooey duck-looking clam.

- Uh-huh. Is it good? - Yeah, it's very good.

It tastes like raw oyster. - Cool.

- And that's basically what we have at the moment.

- And, uh, sweet potato.

- Yeah.

- Looks great.

- Squid? - Squid.

We've set up, um, as noodles, basically.

Almost, and then, like, a dipping sauce on the side.

With, uh, squid paste around the side of the bowl

so you can kind of pick it, lift it in..

- I'm curious.

- So we, uh..

- And when you cook the dishes, it feels different than home?

- Yeah.

- I mean, it feels, it feels different.

But also, somehow you always try to relate a little bit

you know, to feel comfortable.

- Hmm. But we have to watch out.

'Cause if we have 4-5 things that are exactly

like we do back home..

- It's kind of the same set up, yeah.

- Well, it is exactly the same set up.

I -- I've been saying this many, many, many, many times.

I know that it feels good to fall back on these things

but that's not the reason why we're here.

To fall back on all these things.

You know, then -- then you guys haven't been pushing enough.

To get out of that comfort zone.

It's basically copy-paste.

- Kind of, yes. - Yeah.

- And everybody tasted it already, right?

- Yeah. - So why bring it to Japan?

- How has the goma dofu ended up?

- It's good, I mean, it's just

getting the perfect texture is difficult.

- I understand that it's difficult to get it to work

but if you've done it every day for a month..

Have you done that? - No.

- No, so if you've done it every day for a month

it would have worked.

- Yeah.

- That's why you guys are here for a full month.

To make sure that these things, they work.

- Yeah. - What do we agree on the menu?

12 or 14 servings?

- Well, 12 to 14, it depends on the size.

- Depends on the size, so if it's 12, it's more or less

half the menu that's... copy-paste from back home.

That doesn't work. You can see that, right?

Or, hell, I would rather have 10.

If it's 10 servings that I like, that's it.

This is the menu.

This is where we challenged ourselves.

Where we're really showing how we prepared

a year and a half for this thing here.

- Mm-hmm. - You know?

Where all these manic hours of work

and preparation have gone into.

[instrumental music]

[indistinct chattering]

- Let's get 12 for 7, tonight, so..

When I first started working at Noma

I was at the bottom.

[music continues]

I was unfamiliar with a lot of the ingredients

and the techniques.

Um, I was not used to that

that pace and that style of working.

That type of service and that's frustrating.

Alright, here we go. - Okay, guys?

- Yeah. - Yeah.

- I feel like I've been given an amazing opportunity..

- Hello, welcome. Hi.

- ...to oversee this restaurant.

It's been given to me.

If that means sleeping less

or that means eating, like, shit

or if that means taking less time off

you know, I don't wanna fuck it up.

- We got lang.. We got clam on the..

Here we go. They're not all here yet, so..

- Tuna on toast, they're on the table.

- Yeah! - Yeah.

[instrumental music]

- Tuna on five? - Yeah.

- Do you cover that?

- So raw meat she doesn't want.

Raw fish, shellfish is fine.

P3..

P3, no raw meat.

Put your hip berry there.

[music continues]

Yeah, we need a gluten-free soup for the friends there.

- Yeah.

- One gluten-free soup, beautiful.

Berries' fine, clam. You have one clam gluten-free on table 5?

- Yeah, chef!

- You have one gluten-free toast?

One gluten-free onion.

What the fuck?

[music continues]

- This is the texture of the perfect, okay?

- Just on the edges -- - Yes.

- Alright? I'm gonna bring you the..

I'm gonna bring you the rest.

[indistinct chattering]

- It's your sperm project, right?

Is that correct? - Yes.

It's a pan full of sperm.

- There's people logging on here from all over.

Uh, Daniel. - Chef.

- Why don't you explain to people that are logging on here

what's gonna happen right now.

- Yes, so this is Saturday night project.

So this evening we have four people

a chef from each section of the kitchen

who will present an idea or a dish

to all of us here, and all of you out there.

Uh, and then we'll all taste it and give constructive criticism.

- And Vivienne, she's the first one, right?

- Yeah, so, Vivienne from Brazil.

- Alright, you wanna explain to us what's going on?

- Yes.

So this is the deep-fried sperm with a sperm emulsion.

- With a what? - A sperm emulsion.

With, uh, Ramson oil.

And the idea is just to rub the cabbage with the sperm

and dip in the sauce.

- So this is the deep-fried sperm.

And this is sperm emulsion. - Yes.

There is a lot of sperm.

- Okay, here it goes.

- Did everybody have a...a mouthful?

- Do you have any of the -- the emulsion?

- So how many people here loves fish and chips?

Everybody loves fish and chips, right?

Fried fish.

Was this a extremely good version of fish and chips?

- Yes. - Yes.

- I mean, if you, j -- if you look at it like that

then it's -- it was fucking amazing, actually.

Vivienne..

Like, if you think of it as fish and chips.

But because we're..

I mean, you should see the comments here

beca -- because it's like

your -- your brain wants to malfunction

when you hear it, "Deep-fried fish sperm."

But actually, as -- as -- as fried-up food

it was really, really amazing.

- It's delicious.

- It's better than the flesh.

The first time you create something

you -- you choose to tackle fish sperm?

- Yeah.

- Wow.

- Yeah. - Bravo.

- Thank you. - Very nice.

- Thank you very much. - Thank you.

- Thank you.

[applause]

- Thanks, Allie.

- Okay, time to go home. Thank you, guys.

- Thank you. - Thank you.

[instrumental music]

- We can feel so good about ourselves

but at the end of the day, it can never be good enough.

Because if people come here with the expectation

that this is the best restaurant in the world

then they want the best all the time.

And that's very hard to deliver

the best, all the time.

You do have people who purposefully are

coming here to criticize the restaurant.

The minute they walk in the door, they're looking for

reasons to say, "Oh, well, this isn't

the number-one restaurant in the world."

Of course, it does affect me.

This is my life. It is my life.

We see the same thing now through social media

or through conversation.

Or through the guests that are coming here now

that will be coming to Tokyo as well.

Their expectations are just as high.

Not only do they want the same level as they're getting here

but they also want it different.

[chuckling] So they want everything.

[chattering on TV]

[speaking in foreign language]

- Sometimes you can say among colleagues

Ohayou, ohayou.

But to the guests and to the, uh, senior

ohayou gozaimasu, ohayou gozaimasu.

You also bow, yeah, to the guests.

Ohayou gozaimasu. They don't come..

- Everything is organized..

...the visas, the rooms.

We have a school for all the kids

we know where we're gonna wash our clothes.

- Alright, let's bow at each other.

- We've had training in how to be Japanese.

- Come on, come on. Come on.

[speaking in foreign language]

- Yeah. - Is that right?

- Yeah.

But we need to work on this

because everybody feels weird about it, right?

- Yeah.

- It feels like something's wrong.

You can't even.. It's unnatural for us.

To stand at each other and then bow to each other, like --

- Yeah. - Oh, there's a big step, huh?

You can hug each other but we can't bow.

It's weird.

Don't hug people, okay? In Japan.

- I want to find some vegetables.

- Some vegetables.

- But they don't have any.

- I'll carry you.

- But the big one that we need to solve now

is of course, what are we gonna cook?

Noma in Japan, what is that?

I don't know yet.

[instrumental music]

We literally, we literally traveled

around Japan, you know.

Learning the landscape, hearing the stories.

Watch out, the carts.

The flavors..

Your decision to get yourself killed.

Being able to talk about how it is in the north

in the south, in the east and the west.

I don't wanna come to Tokyo as a tourist..

...as a stupid tourist, you know.

We wanna be well-educated travelers.

Hello, chef.

[speaking in foreign language]

- Uh, Yoshiko-san buy a dish..

sma -- small fish.

- Small fish. - Uh..

[speaking in foreign language]

- Yes.

Who was it that enjoyed the bonito most yesterday?

Yeah, the smoked one. I think that's what he's getting.

[speaking in foreign language]

This one's better?

You'd be a tourist if you come to Tokyo

and gonna have like, a tuna steak on the menu.

I mean, that would be the most stupid

ridiculous thing you could ever do.

Can you ask, to be a specialist in fish

how long does it take?

Yeah, training.

Oh..

- 30 years. - 30 years.

Me, only 22.

[speaking in foreign language]

[instrumental music]

Can you imagine that, standing there with our little

Danish knives..

...trying to slice tuna?

I'm not familiar with these things

and -- and they are like... uber specialists.

Yeah, we're gonna have to find our voice here.

[music continues]

- This very sour, like..

You wanna, you wanna...chew this twig.

The stem.

- Mm. The stem is amazing.

[speaking in foreign language]

- It doesn't taste so bad.

- When is the last that you can harvest this?

When d -- when does it get covered with snow?

- The end of November.

- Did you find a frog?

[laughing] Oh..

Tell him he wants to kiss it.

- It's poisonous, you -- you don't wanna touch the -- the..

- The back?

[laughter]

- On the -- on top of the..

- It's poisonous.

- What's that?

- It's the frog. - Frog.

- This really is mushroom heaven, huh?

- Yeah.

- We're not gonna turn Noma

into a Japanese restaurant.

But we wanna take our vision, our aesthetics, so to speak

and free-fall into a new culture

and see what comes out of it.

- We could even try the ones she's not using anymore.

You know, it has a mushroom taste.

- Does it? - Yeah.

To cook something in it, or I don't know.

- Yeah. - Ta -- tastes of mushrooms.

- Does it? - Yeah.

- But it's wood.

- You just eat the wood? - I know.

- We can put vegetables inside and cook it.

- To...fragrance? - Yeah.

- Good idea.

- I wonder how they are in the wild.

- Yeah. - Yeah.

[instrumental music]

- I think for us, it's about

finding the identity of a place.

We tend to look towards nature.

Like, if something grows in almost too perfect conditions

without an amount of stress

it grows very differently

than if it grows outside in the wild.

It's also the way that we start interacting

with the Japanese landscape, and kind of build up

our expression of what we find there.

- Hm, it's beautiful.

- This, this ear mushroom.

- Yes. - Very dangerous.

- Very dangerous. - Yes.

[speaking in foreign language]

- So, if you put it in a teacup

uh, you will be dead by, by five seconds.

Be careful.

- Watch out what you eat, guys.

We don't know whether we'll die or something.

Seriously, I mean it.

[instrumental music]

Did you just sneeze on this?

- No, actually it just came out this, out of my mouth.

Thanks for picking it up.

[music continues]

- It's crazy.

- This is crazy, yeah.

[music continues]

- This herb smells like an insisting person.

- What the fuck is that?

Those leaves are so fucking crazy, man.

- Guys, you're making us ashamed.

They are tasting ants.

What's that? That's a kiwi? - Yeah.

- This is a kiwi?

- A kiwi, an original kiwi.

- That's totally amazing.

That's astonishing. - Mm-hmm.

- Oh, my God.

It's like..

- That's the most sickest fruit ever.

- Wow, it's more than sweet.

It's also acidic and it's aromatic. And..

- Wow, Lars, man.

- Fantastic. I'm blown away by this.

- Yeah.

- Japan has a fruit culture that just dwarfs Scandinavian.

It's really a perfect smoke, actually.

It's -- it's sweet and hot and warm.

There's thousands of years of -- of work

and research and development.

If you can open your eyes to that

and really... plunge into all of this

I think you can really learn something amazing.

They're very good.

It's almost like going to school...in a strange way.

It's like, we're taking a college course.

But we have to write a -- a master thesis..

...and that's the menu.

It's angry. - Yeah.

- Thank you, um..

[instrumental music]

Is it good?

[speaking in foreign language]

Yes.

[speaking in foreign language]

- It's unbelievable that..

- For some reason, turtle is the big one.

Turtle is the local delicacy.

[music continues]

And that's like the big challenge somehow.

Can we crack the code of the turtle?

Then we'll be fine, somehow.

[cicadas chirping]

Hold on one second.

This one has what we're looking for.

So we have to check each individual tree.

- I do. I taste every tree.

- Okay, but I don't think, uh, we should tell everybody.

'Cause I don't think it's been told.

Each tree is different, even though it's the same.

Smell this.

And then smell this. This is the right one.

- Yes.

- Big difference. - Big difference.

- So we have to check every tree.

- That one? - No, those ones over there.

There's a big brim of it. Right over there.

We opened reservations and already now

there's 58,000 people, a stadium full of people

on the waiting list.

And we can fit in the month-and-a-half

we can fit, like, 3000.

This shoot, it tastes bitter

of lemon.

So, we -- we're gonna have to nail it.

[sniffles]

Okay.

It smells amazing.

Okay.

[indistinct chattering]

[clears throat]

It -- it taste, it's way, way, way too strong.

- Yeah. - How much did you put on?

- Two drops. - Really?

- Yeah. - Taste it. It's still..

So, we have to do it again, because it tastes of nothing

but that thing.

- Chef.

- Just, like, a drop. - Yeah.

First of all, you guys have been here for a month

so what I'm thinking of is that what do we want with this?

What is it? What is it supposed to taste of?

- We want a dish of this radish stem.

- But it isn't now. - No.

- At all, now, it's just a mixture of vegetables together

with a very powerful sauce.

I don't know, it's not gonna work.

You have copied a dish that works very well in Copenhagen

and tried to do it here.

- Yeah.

- But the thing is in Copenhagen, it's a

it's a root of lettuce

and on top of that, we put all the lettuce.

Right? - Yeah.

- So the eating experience of it is different.

- Yeah. - And it makes sense to eat it.

In a way that it makes sense to eat..

I don't know, tomato and basil together, you know?

Whereas in this thing here is..

I mean, it's perfectly fine.

But in some strange way

it's just ingredients on a plate.

- Mm-hmm. - With a sauce, you know?

Do we just skip it completely?

Kimi, you're allowed to say something, too.

- I've been trying to think about that for three years.

What would be a dish that he would accept?

And I...I -- I have no clue.

I guess -- I guess it has everything to do

with the complexity of perfection.

For example, I think the strawberry for him is, like

it's a very good thing.

- Again it's like the same thing.

Do you have any of the peanut water?

- When it's green, it's too unripe.

But if it's red, it's too ripe.

So it needs to be white.

In the middle.

So it's perfectly unripe.

And that's what he... thinks is perfection.

- What is it?

What do we want us -- what do we wanna do with it?

I don't know what you guys are..

If you have anything to say about it.

It's one of the worst things I've tasted in years.

I -- when you cons -- if you think of it

that it's supposed to be a stand-alone serving.

You know?

Just forget about it. Let's move on.

It's clumsy..

- Oh, just move on. - Yeah.

[instrumental music]

- You think it's so easy often

just to go back to what you know.

But that's not where we want to be

with this restaurant, that's not where I want to be

with this project, or this, you know..

...uh, culinary life that we've chosen

at -- at the restaurant, Noma.

Everything is about constantly stepping away from that.

So as soon as you feel comfortable in a situation

you get rid of that situation.

So that you again can be uncomfortable.

That's the thing that make the whole clockwork start.

Your brain tick.

I really don't know.

I'm searching for answers.

I need to read, I need to study

I need to talk to people, we need to assemble.

We need to figure out the solution.

And that's when new things happen

and you learn more about yourself

and -- and -- and the world, so...I love that.

[humming]

- So it's a wild Japanese kiwi soup.

- Yes.

- It doesn't taste Japanese at all.

Do you feel this thing burns your throat a little bit?

- It's itching a little bit. - Yeah.

You can't have a lot of this.

I also think it's too thick, Thomas.

- Yeah.

- And we can't serve it like this, you know.

I don't think this is gonna work, Thomas.

- Yeah.

- I really don't.

- Our job is not to succeed, our job is to fail every day

over and over again, and over and over.

It wouldn't be as exciting as it is right now

if he would walk in and says, "Hey, fourteen dishes, guys

you've done a great job."

- I think..

We -- we have a lot of kiwi?

It's not gonna work as a soup at all.

How was it as a ferment?

- It didn't work at all. - No?

- He always changes his mind, his style, his ideas.

And you always learn again from him.

I don't know where his mind gets it from

but it's like there's no straight line

or no direction sometimes.

And that's what makes him, I think, what he is.

- The cream tastes a bit..

- Off? - Well, you know..

When you're in the airplane

and they give you coffee..

...and you get that little plastic thing?

- It tastes of plastic?

- And you open it up and there's supposedly cream.

It tastes a little bit like that -- that cream.

- I'd say it's a 99% failure.

How one can become successful at it

is by the manner in which you recover from those failures

and not let it, sort of, take you down

but just to keep on moving.

The nature of the team allows us to be

very...creative

and sort of keep on moving

because we can sort of...put these..

...tremendous amount of failure every day

um, and spin it into something positive.

That was the whole point of coming here, you know.

To sort of push ourselves and, um..

...to try and make ourselves better.

- It's good.

You guys like it, too?

- Do you think it needs, like, spices?

- Mm-mm. - No?

- It's really fucking amazing.

Let's just work on the

on figuring out how to have it

cut it, put it on and it sort of looks like it's growing

out of the bowl.

Even though it's the same amount.

And I don't think it's the right bowl as well, either.

- It's small. - It's really amazing.

Well, you -- you -- you're ready, Sanchez.

Now we're just missing everything else.

[chuckling]

[instrumental music]

- What I think Rene wants

is he -- he wants something that is natural, complex.

Simple but complex.

Uh, something that will respect the nature.

Something that would make the ingredient

that we're cooking with elevate that into another level.

[music continues]

Rene's dishes are incredible in a way that you eat it

and still five minutes afterwards

it just kind of... does something to you.

[music continues]

I see a big dilemma..

...in Japanese perfection.

I don't understand, why would you try to restrain nature?

Why would you try to, you know, tell it how

the leaves should grow?

Because the most beautiful things in the world

are imperfect, anyway.

[music continues]

- That's it.

It helps it tremendously.

I mean, it's the next level.

- It's what we were looking for when we said

"Maybe it needs some pickle, almost."

- Yeah.

- This is what we're gonna do. - Alright. Yeah.

- Nice one, buddy.

[whistling]

- This is the first duck which came in

the second of December.

Four weeks aged.

- Hmm.

How many pieces should we slice it in?

- At least, I would say six, right?

- Yeah.

Dan? - Chef.

- Mmm. The glaze is so good, man.

- What, the -- the duck itself? - The glaze here.

- What is the glaze?

- Uh, reduced rye bread

water and mushroom water.

- Nice.

- Cool, so..

...you just simply eat -- eat it like this, right?

- Yes.

- Who cut this shit?

- Sorry.

- It needs to be thinner.

Like, double the size. The double the..

- Thin-ish. - Yeah.

If you ask me, if we nail this

we just serve it like that.

Chopsticks and people just sit and eat it straight.

No garnish, no nothing.

This one...I love.

- I wanna eat it as -- - This is fucking tasty.

- It's tasty, but, chef, does it taste like

the best sandwich you've had?

- Yeah. - I wanna eat it at my home.

- Yeah. - While I read a book.

- It tastes good, but it's not working.

It -- it's not..

It's not together, at all.

You know what I mean? It's really weird.

- Mm-hmm.

- The best part of the whole thing, is this.

The meat in itself. It's so good.

- Right? - Yeah.

- What's wrong with -- with just having that?

- There's nothing wrong. - Yeah, nothing.

- It's -- it's fucking good.

- It's amazing.

- Rene, his eye for the aesthetic is amazing.

- Do you have an egg yolk, Thomas?

- You know, he can put two things on a plate

and it just looks great, you know.

And that's not something that I can do

that's not something a lot of people can do and, um

it's very challenging to do that.

Because people who dine out

at some of the three Michelin Star restaurants

they wanna see...the zigzags and the this and the that.

And if -- if, if it's not there

then maybe they think that this dish is too simple.

And why are we paying the money?

Why did we come, you know

all the way from across the world to eat this?

In the beginning, a lot of people

questioned everything he did.

But he stayed true to that and kept going and kept going

and now it's taken him to a place

where he's put himself in his own class.

He hasn't deviated from that vision.

You know, Rene knows the food that he wants to serve

and he sticks to that.

[indistinct chattering]

- So the idea here is that

everything is from under the ground.

- Good. - It's a very humble dish of roots.

- Mm-hmm.

- And the egg is supposed to bring everything together.

- What are all these things?

- Uh, it's kind of like a water chestnut

a sort of yam, which is kind of almost like a potato.

Burdock root, lotus root.

It tastes delicious.

- What do you think, Lars? - I think it's delicious.

- I think it's delicious.

I think, I think it's fucking great.

- You have all these starchy vegetables...and --

- And can you still taste the peanut?

- For sure. - Yeah.

- Yeah. - For sure.

- It's delicious.

- So what are we saying with this? - It's delicious.

- To me it's -- it's -- it's something nobody had before.

I feel pretty comfortable. - Yeah.

- The egg yolk was almost like waxy.

And then, you, you know, the -- the flavors

itself were almost a bit mixing up

in a strange way because of the texture.

- It's like a soup? - Yes.

- So we agree this is good enough?

- Yes. - This is good enough for sure.

- Like, not just good enough?

- I think it's out of state. - No, it's delicious. Yeah.

- The flavors is just like, uh..

I don't know. It's sort of a..

- Okay, so we can write that in the, in the check book.

- Yeah. - Let's clean up.

- Yep.

[instrumental music]

[plates clattering]

- There's always only the first time

where everything is happening.

Where the creation is happening.

So we're in a creation moment.

- I don't know how it works.

Here in Japan every action has a meaning.

Almost a philosophy to it.

- The idea of the Kaiseki cuisine

which is like the tasting menu cuisine here in Japan

the way that it came from a cup of tea

from a cup of green tea.

It's a way of putting

a lot of value and energy and commitment

to seemingly totally unimportant everyday moments.

And then that becomes something special

and you can really start seeing things in a new way from that.

We also want to find some meaning why we do things.

Because it's grueling hours, it's crazy work.

So as you're also finding the ideas for what to cook

you're also finding

your own sort of meaning

with why you're doing these things.

I love it when that starts happening to the cooks.

When they start really seeing more than just a dead animal.

You know..

Thomas..

...fucking lively.

Tr -- I just brought two. - Yeah.

- Just for us to taste. - Yeah.

- So you guys can taste how it is.

Yeah, they're very, they're very aggressive.

- It's the same variety, right --

- No. - No?

- This is striped.

You can try to open them. - Yeah.

- Because the quality is the same as the other one, I think.

Exactly the same, and if you bite into it

and the whole animal just does like this.

[laughs]

It's wild, man.

- Eating the langoustine as a first course is a good way

to have a little bit of shock

for the guest.

It's nice to sort of get them out of the framework

where they're worrying about their kids or the babysitter

or do they need to get home in time

or what they have to do at work the next day.

It allows them to kind of immerse themselves in the meal.

- It's crazy how they change when they're dead.

- Ants?

- How they change when they're dead.

- Yeah, they need to be alive.

[indistinct chattering]

- Looking fresh.

- Yeah, don't hold the door.

[laughing]

[instrumental music]

Hello. Ten minutes. Ten minutes.

In ten minutes they're coming.

Hello, Miss Sanchez.

[indistinct chattering]

[speaking in foreign language]

Ten minutes.

Ten minutes.

Konnichiwa. - Konnichiwa.

- Shall we help with the.. Should we get the luggage out?

Should.. On the third floor.

Are you sure?

How -- how did you get.. How did it happen so fast?

- I don't know.

[indistinct]

What's up with this beard, man?

[speaking in foreign language]

Ciao, eh, how are you?

- Very good. And you? - Very good, very good.

We, uh, we've been busy, we've been busy.

- Hey, chef.

- That's it.

[indistinct chattering]

- This is the culmination of a dream.

So let's have a, a lovely, real welcome.

First a Japanese one..

...and then a Western one.

[speaking in foreign language]

[applause]

- Alright, and now we do the Western one.

Okay, we walk over

see if we can shake everybody's hand, give our names..

...and then we're colleagues.

- Yeah. - Alright.

Hello.

- Hello. - I'm Rene.

Alright, good.

Hello, I'm Rene.

So, the plan is now

that we're gonna go through them

each dish one by one.

So, let's, you know, open up to suggestions.

If there's anybody seen something stupid

something that can be done better.

We -- we feel it's almost there.

So, once we've done that

each section is gonna take their dishes

and practice.

Which one do we start with?

- Shrimp. - Shrimp?

Let's just get going. - Yeah.

- You set it like this. There's one per person.

You do it like this.

The ant salt.

Not too much of it.

And you make sure that..

...that you spread the spice...evenly.

We'll put it over here, so you can take a proper photo.

- Yeah.

- And then you can prepare for the next one, please.

- Yeah, chefs. Citrus.

- I'll come over and, and do it.

Just have everything up. - Sure.

- When guests come in, citrus section starts slicing.

Almost like a sashimi section.

Instead of fish, it's just fruit.

You know... the sashimi fruit section.

So, I know it's a strange thing

to be putting all this attention to fruit and citrus.

Almost like it's a prized piece of tuna

or something. But it just matters.

The technique of carving all this

is really important.

If you're, sort of, chopping away on the citrus too much

you're gonna make it bleed juice.

It's just gonna ooze out.

It's a clean, fast cut with a very sharp knife. It doesn't.

It actually stays and holds its juice...much longer.

Okay.

- The flavor of the citrus is gonna change daily.

So, this is something, of course

you need to constantly monitor.

You taste every day.

Taste them when they come in

so you have an idea before you start cutting it.

- Lars is the thinker. He's the clever guy.

The brightest of all of us.

If Lars doesn't know, nobody knows.

[instrumental music]

And then Thomas, he's like the mega talent

who's just good at everything.

Creativity, technique.

He's -- he's, he has a structure.

He knows where all the ingredients are

and what's coming in when and where.

Sehr gut, Thomas.

Yeah, this one's better.

- We simmer the sweet potato for about five or six hours

of course depending on the size.

Um, and then you take that syrup

and you season it with liquorice and..

- Sake, and.. - Sake.

- Butter. - Butter and..

- Lemon juice. - Lemon juice.

- And the same is with Rosie.

She's such a mega talent.

Well, one thing that she's specifically

is amazing at is her taste.

She's like, always a point.

So, if Rosie says it tastes great

then I'm, then I'm like

"Okay...it tastes great."

[music continues]

Dan is the guy who makes everything happen in the end.

He sort of knows everything, and talks to people.

He's the organizational mastermind, basically.

He's so good at that.

You know that when he was a child

he was obsessed with the weather channel?

He watched the weather..

...for hours, every day.

He's so dedicated. It's unbelievable.

Kimi is very green.

He's like the -- the kid.

And he's been amazing to have here in the team

because he's such a positive, vibrant, happy

emotional, very emotional..

I mean, he's so up and down with that.

He's bipolar, emotionally.

If you get angry with him, he becomes so sad.

- Hey, Kimi. - Yes.

- Kimi, you can't say that in front of everybody.

You can say, "No, I didn't put any vinegar

because I think it's gonna split."

- Yes, chef. Yeah, I understand, chef.

- You know, it's just not good enough, my friend. - Yes, chef.

- You know, just add a drop of vinegar when you're down there

checking it out.

And then you'll know if it splits or not. - Yes, chef.

- And look what happened to the sauce.

Seems like somebody pressed play on flavor.

- Yeah, sure. - Alright?

- Yes, chef.

- You need to be precise.

You know, it's like the mise en pla needs to be immaculate.

Not even a centimeter wrong

or gram too short, or anything like that.

It's real, real finger work.

There's no, there's no machinery that can do anything of this

for you, it's like, you as a cook, and your fingers

and your intuition, it's gonna make that difference.

So, does everybody know like, okay, what to attack right now?

- Yep. - Yes.

- Is that a yes or is that a no?

- Yes, chef. - Yes.

- I'm like the glue, here and there.

Wallpaper's peeling off here, I'll come and glue it.

It's a very delicate and intricate balance

that's very, also very difficult to talk about.

If you take one of these people out

there's an unbalance for a while.

[instrumental music]

There's none of these people

that won't do anything to make it right.

But it -- it -- it's intense.

Uh, it's very intense.

If you let, uh, cooking and staying in a kitchen

absorb every inch of your life.

So many people, they just don't have a fucking clue.

When they sit in there and they like..

"Oh.." you know.

[music continues]

- So..

- I think we can start at one o'clock..

- What's that? - We can start at one o'clock.

Uh, it's, uh, allergy pills.

I'll probably take two of that.

- Did you talk to a doctor?

- He said I could just talk to him on the phone

and now, they want me to go.

- I think, run down now.

[intense music]

- How was it?

- I feel like, super weird right now.

- Really? - Yeah.

- Oh, no.

You're all white.

- I don't really know... what it is.

You know, I'm taking strong steroid medication now so..

- Sit here.

Have a view of everything.

- I'm typically very stressed out and very worried

so it's not, like, this is a new

this is a new thing, you know?

[chuckling]

- He's got a shot in his butt. He can't sit.

[indistinct chattering]

- I was, I was waiting for the elevator

like...I felt like I was gonna faint.

So, I started running back and forth

till the elevator came.

- Did you think you were gonna die in an elevator

at the Mandarin Oriental in Tokyo?

- Sure there's that... that stress like shit.

How about if everyone is like, "Okay, this isn't that good."

Like, what the fuck do you do then? You know.

We did this whole thing and then people are like

"This is a joke," you know?

I mean, it's probably just not a good combination

of drinking a fucking ton of coffee

being nervous in general.

[indistinct chattering]

- So, today, I guess they used

they spent two hours and 45 minutes for the clams.

- That's not bad.

- Ten people.

- I mean...it's a lot of time...but it's worth it.

It's worth it. - It's worth it.

- It's how I see it. You know what I mean?

- For each service

we're spending 30 man hours

just for clams, to peel it.

- Hope they love it. - Hope they love it.

[instrumental music]

- Do you feel nervous?

- Good nervous, chef. - Good.

Me, too.

- Forty seconds on the shrimp, chef.

- The turtle, uh..

[blows a raspberry]

I mean, uh -- uh, we, we were almost there

but the -- the thing is, we're not 100 percent there.

So...we can't put it on.

[music continues]

What? What, what, what? Stop.

Thomas!

[indistinct]

When we tasted the other day..

...we didn't burn it like this, did we?

- Sorry? - This, this was gone over, no?

- Yeah. - Too dark.

- There's a difference between grilled and burnt.

- Yes, chef. - You burnt it.

[instrumental music]

If you were there right now

you just, you two guys are just standing here.

I mean, I know you have to, but come on.

- Yes, chef. - Run around.

- Yes, chef. Just doing nothing else.

I -- I find it pretty depressing that he can't do it.

- It doesn't change the fact that it's wrong.

And you guys just standing there..

...and not h -- helping, you know.

Hey, this is nice like this, actually.

That's cool.

[music continues]

- Whose knife is this? - It's mine, chef.

- Is this a sharp knife? Is this a sharp knife?

- Yes, chef.

- Chef, come on, man.

What's going on, Stu?

Th -- this is your section.

How can you do these things? - Yes.

- I don't understand it, Stu.

- Are you nervous or what? - Nervous.

- Get on and like, do it, okay?

I mean, this is like

everything needs to be redone here.

[music continues]

It went too what? - Too hot, or something.

- Come on, hustle, hustle, hustle, hustle, hustle.

- Yeah, are you good? - That's good.

Two duck, please. - Yeah.

- Yes.

- We're doing the two duck now.

[music continues]

[indistinct chattering]

- These ones gotta go, no?

Oh..

[chuckles]

- You're just like..

- Well, just put them somewhere.

Okay, opening day.

And...how do we all feel?

- Excellent, chef. - Good.

- Yeah. Me, too.

We changed a few things, like we agreed on yesterday.

- I feel very excited, very happy.

I woke up..

...and I felt like I wanted to throw up, you know?

You just, like, wake up two hours

before your alarm is supposed to go off.

And you just want to vomit

but you didn't eat the day before

so it's like, what do you vomit?

It's like, oh, you're just nervous.

- So, we've been thinking about the duck and..

- We -- we basically pulled it off.

Now, we're running a restaurant in Tokyo.

Even with a lot of effort and little sleep..

...but we're doing it.

- Anything else to add?

Shall we make it a triumph?

- Yes. - Yes.

- Okay. Let's have a good service.

- Yeah!

[indistinct chattering]

- Fucking nervous.

- You are?

- I'm always nervous.

- Yeah, nervous is good. - Hey, how are you?

- Because you care, chef. - Yeah.

- The day you're not nervous is the day you don't care.

- Yeah.

- I'm nervous, too.

[intense music]

You don't always realize..

...that a restaurant has become something more than just

a little restaurant on a corner of Copenhagen.

And I don't know what that m -- means.

It feels great.

I mean, honestly, we were talking

about it yesterday in the kitchen and I said

"Ask yourself, would you rather be without it?"

And I asked myself that, too.

And all the answers was no.

You wouldn't wanna be anywhere else

than in Tokyo right now.

We need, we need... four minutes, right?

Suddenly, it's also become the thing.

Like, the thing.

So, um, I'm more concentrated, actually..

...than I've been in many, many years.

As soon as the flowers are up, the greens are up

I think we should open.

- You want me to get it now or..

- The flowers are just getting in.

Oh, fresh deliveries.

- Thank you so much. - Breakfast, lunch and dinner.

- I ordered 45. Do you mind if we just take one real quick?

- As long as I don't have to.

- Yo, here, pass it. Come on, quickly.

- Come on, come on, come on, come on.

- Whoo!

- Here. - Hey, chef, where are you?

- Pass it. Pass it.

- You're gonna miss the opening.

Did you find the flowers? - Yeah!

- He's just waiting for one thing.

- He's stuck in the elevator.

- Who is stuck in the elevator? - Lars.

Give us one minute and a half. We're still waiting for Lars.

I don't, I don't want Lars to miss the opening.

I think it's unfair that if he's been here for a month

and he misses, like, the moment of the opening.

- What?

- Hey, Lars, where are you?

Oh, fuck.

So, you're still down at the bottom floor?

Chef, we're gonna have to open in..

Okay. Just hustle.

We, we, we...we need... we need to open.

I'm sorry, chef. I'm sorry.

Okay? Good.

Okay. Guys! - Yeah!

- We're opening. - Yeah!

- Let's go.

[blowing raspberry]

[chuckles]

And remember, don't let any frustrations come out.

- Never. - Just let it eat you up from the inside, okay?

- Yes, chef. - Yes, chef.

[clears throat]

[laughing]

- Oh..

Oh, I -- I -- I can't, I can't calm down.

I mean, the whole thing is, like..

Too excited.

I feel like when, when every time my, my wife

gives birth, that's how I feel like.

Just like when her, when her contraction starts.

First table coming in. - Yeah!

[instrumental music]

- Hello.

Nice to meet you. Welcome. - Nice to meet you.

- Hello, pleasure to meet you. - Hi. Nice to meet you.

- Nice to meet you. Please, right this way.

Seven.

- Is it good on seven? - Yeah!

[music continues]

- Table seven. Yes.

- Beautiful. Beautiful, chef.

- I'll explain it on seven.

Here we are.

So, we serve you shrimp

from just out here of Tokyo.

And we marinate them with a few flavors from Nagano forest.

And they are very fresh.

Very, very fresh.

- Give me a knife or something. Come on, come on.

We're behind.

Give me a knife. Do we have a knife somewhere?

- Here, take mine. - Yes, give me a knife.

- They're wonderful citrus fruit.

And they are served with different types of spices

and then a sauce of a very specific type of seaweed

that's from Hokkaido.

Monkfish liver with kelp.

And I would encourage you to eat it straight away.

45 freshwater clams. - Oh!

- Today it took us, 13 people, four hours to open them.

- Okay, come -- come on. Quick, motherfucker.

Yeah, beautiful. Yes.

Let's go with the first two cuttlefish.

- Yeah!

- If you have organic soybeans soaked in soft water

and steamed 20 minutes before you eat it

tofu becomes more than tofu.

And we serve it with yuzu and shaved walnuts

from the Nagano area.

- I need six citrus up, now. - This is scallop.

- I need six citrus, now.

I need two and two toast and I need

two and two cuttlefish please.

- Yes.

- Roses up, Rosie.

- Cuttlefish soba, marinated with fermented cuttlefish

that we did this spring.

Then a cold broth that's made from Nagano pine tree

and wild roses from Okinawa.

- More roses, please.

- Right, the next thing we have for you is pumpkin

that's cooked with kelp and served with a sauce

of the sprouts of the cherry tree.

And then it's also served with salted, washed

and dried cherry blossoms.

Yes.

- Garlic flower, which shaped in -- into leaves

to play with the origami tradition of Japan.

- Oh, that's great.

- A dish of everything under the ground, at the moment.

- Just talk -- talk to me.

I need glaze, I'll give you glaze.

No, no, no. But like, what do you need?

- Duck and we serve this with a dipping sauce

of wild mountain grapes from Nagano.

The idea is you just share it amongst and dip it into the sauce.

We can't be in Japan and not have rice.

- Yeah. - Right?

So, it's a rice dessert made from sake.

And the sake lees.

[instrumental music]

Guys...a very good vibe so far in there.

[instrumental music]

[music continues]

* Sensually dancing our arms and our legs intertwine *

* I can see your eyes roll around *

* Roll around roll around

* Passing the pearly gates

* A thousand times

* In my mind in my mind

* Passion screams our names without a sound *

* You and I are on the same page *

* And we're writing every sentence of it *

* Now the words are in the right place *

* Aah ah aah ah

* You and I are on the same page *

* And we're writing every sentence of it *

* Now the words are in the right place *

* Aah ah aah ah

* Aah ah aah ah

* Aah ah aah ah *