An Afternoon At The Noma Test Kitchen

To get to the Noma test kitchen one must walk the mean streets of Christianshavn, a neighborhood in Copenhagen that is as tough as the docks at Sausalito. As in, not very tough at all. It's a beautifully maintained stretch of former military buildings and more modern apartment complexes, separated by crisscrossing canals.

Noma sits at the end of one of these streets in a converted 18th Century warehouse. The restaurant is located on the ground floor, while the spacious test kitchen is above. It is here where chef René Redzepi goes to work — which he explained in our rapid-fire interview. Yeast was on the mind. Here are some shots of the action at Strandgade 93.

A wall of reference and recipe books sits below Noma's three (consecutive) San Pellegrino's World's 50 Best Restaurants awards. Noma was number one.[/caption]
The grand room where the Noma staff holds meetings and the nightly family meal.[/caption]
Staff lockers, quintessentially Danish in design.[/caption]
René Redzepi and a staff member.[/caption]
Noma staff meal: salad, roasted vegetables, pasta, pork loin, frozen bananas[/caption]
Chocolate-covered frozen bananas. A future menu item perhaps?[/caption]
Redzepi shooting an Instagram photo for Food Republic.[/caption]
American Lars Williams (right), formerly of WD-50, heads Noma's experimental test kitchen.[/caption]
Working on a yeast-flavored English toffee in the Noma test kitchen.[/caption]
Noma staff meal.[/caption]
René Redzepi in the kitchen at Noma.[/caption]
Outside Noma.[/caption]
The world's #1 restaurant.[/caption]