Mads Refslund, formerly of Noma, brings Nordic Cuisine to the Ritz-Carlton
Chef Mads Refslund helped rediscover the natural flavours of Nordic cuisine - then took the idea to the New World, writes Mischa Moselle
Danish chef Mads Refslund can trace his fascination with food back to a home-made pizza. But he's best known for something that's closer to his roots: popularising New Nordic Cuisine at his New York restaurant Acme.
Refslund is in Hong Kong for The Ritz-Carlton's food and wine festival, and his dinner menus tonight through to Sunday showcase the New American and New Nordic cooking of Acme, which he founded in 2011.
Refslund describes the food from Acme as family style, designed for sharing and for being eaten with the hands. The relaxed style extends to his wearing jeans in the kitchen. Typical dishes on The Ritz-Carlton menu include pork crackling and parsley, a very Danish combination, tweaked with seaweed; cucumber and buttermilk are enlivened with horseradish.
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Organic chicken grilled in hay comes with green asparagus, baby kelp seaweed and salted egg yolk. Diners at Acme might also try items such as sea bream, green almonds and porcini or sea urchin with eggs and cauliflower. "This is daring food, and it should start a conversation," says Refslund.
These combinations bear the hallmarks of the groundbreaking food at Noma, the restaurant he co-launched with chef René Redzepi and culinary entrepreneur and chef Claus Meyer in 2003. Before starting Noma, Refslund and Redzepi, who met at catering college, took a trip around Iceland, Norway, Sweden and the Faroe Islands to discover new ingredients and dishes. Their travels were later catalogued in Redzepi's book Noma: Time and Place in Nordic Cuisine.
Redzepi, Meyer and Refslund were instrumental in launching New Nordic Cuisine, a style of cooking that uses foraged ingredients such as wild berries and seaweed. Menus at Noma also made use of ingredients and techniques that had not been used for 200 years. Some even dated back to Viking times.
Six months after Noma opened, Refslund decided that the kitchen was too small for two chefs and quit, although he says he remains on friendly terms with Redzepi, who is now an internationally acclaimed chef.