It´s had to believe but just over one month ago i began my stage at Restaraunt Noma here in Copenhagen currently voted as the worlds best restaraunt for the second year running in the San Pellegrino´s top 50 list and it´s been a very interesting month thats for sure. Already in the short time ive been here i have seen three sections in the kitchen, participated in service and learnt alot of new things. From the first day i knew that it was going hard work especialy after doing over 90 hrs in the first week i was there (or five days) but the time has gone so quickly its crazy, and the long days are made especially easy thanks to the relaxed mood of the team of chefs that have to deal with all the stress of having everything ready on time, also training new people every week to do the tedious tasks involved in preparing the dishes that give Noma the title it has, oh and then theres the added stress of dealing with the head chef Rene which at times makes one wonder why there is even a kitchen team here to put food on the plates. As for me the stress is limited to worrying if ive done a good enough job on things like cleaning the 3 cases of baby leeks or radishes, and in a timely manner. So its good because it gives me time to be looking at what else is going on around me and making sure im gaining as much new information as possible.
The first two and a half weeks i worked on the snacks section which is probably the busiest section in the kitchen because when every guest arrives they recieve up to 8 small courses which all come from this one section thats a total of up to 320 pieces of food per service and they must be sent fast so the flow of service isnt fucked from the start, and because of that the pressure is big on this section but its over quickly and then its back to prepping radishes, leeks and moss, thats right moss from the ground which must be carefully cleaned, washed, blanched and fried, this job alone takes about 2 hours to get enough just for one day and must be done everyday. This section was fun to work on but i was soon traded to the AM team after the chef from there kicked one of his stagiers out of his kitchen and i became his replacement.
Working on the AM team was good and i didnt even find it a strugle to get up at 5 in the morning aswell thanks to the crazy amount of daylight here at the moment. So for the next week and a half i worked form 6am till 6 or 7pm which was a hell of alot better than 6am till 10pm and also there was no service to worry about just gettig things ready for the guys for service. The Am team has its own little kitchen and produces alot of the bigger production jobs which require more time and manpower however untill this last week there has been 10 to 12 to less stagiers in the kitchen but we still managed to get it done. So there was four of us on that section 2 chefs and 2 stagiers busting out things like chicken skins which requires scraping the fat from the skins and laying them on a tray to be baked untill crispy and then cutting them into perfect rectangles so they can then go as part of a snack. We usually process about 90kg of skins a week and it takes 3 of us up to 2 hrs of soild scraping every day to make sure we have enough needless to say i had sore hands and arms after the first few days thanks to that job. Also its this sections responsibility to make the staff meal for anywhere up to 40 people and James the chef in charge dose a awsome job every day making what for most people is there only meal of the day and every day its different and always tasty.
So just as i got settled into the routine of morning shifts and expecting to be on that section for the good part of a month i was offerd the chance to be the only stagier on the boat where there is 3 chefs and myself just working on the new dishes and techniques which they will use in the main kitchen. The only catch is that i had to commit for 1 month minimun which i think is a small price to pay for getting to see what goes on with the creative process behind the best restaraunt in the world.
So for the last week i have been working on the boat which has been interesting because its alot slower pace, better hours 9 to 6 and although somtimes i feel like im just there to wash up and get everything for them from the main building i have also got a look in at the thought process behind some amazing dishes which not everyone who comes to Noma gets to experience, and its only my first week on this section so hopefully as i settle in to yet another routine i will get to take more from this opportunity and i am looking forward to it.
Well thats defiantly not alll of whats been going on in my life in the first month at Noma but its a good start to this blog thing that im deffiantly not updating enough but hopefully i will get some more posts up soon aswell and some pics too but untill then this is all you get hope u found it interesting.
peace out from Noma.
