COPENHAGEN, March 31 — How does a restaurant that’s been named the best in the world try to hold onto its reputation as a leader in avant-garde gastronomy? It commissions a band to record a soundtrack that includes chicken noises for the enjoyment of their guests as they do their business in the loo.
Because at the world’s best restaurant, no detail is spared when it comes to the complete dining experience.
Called “Stream of Noma,” the hour-long piece created by Danish band Efterklang is played in the bathrooms of the Copenhagen restaurant and is composed of sounds collected or “foraged” from the restaurant itself, as well as from a local chicken farm.
Noma, helmed by superstar Danish chef Rene Redzepi, is best known for popularising the idea of using foraged wild plants and catapulting the trend of New Nordic cuisine.
The soundtrack features 20 “focal points” to represent the 20 servings of Noma’s menu and is an eclectic audio mix of chicken clucking sounds; kitchen commands; running water; and rhythmic melodic elements.
Or, in the words of Efterklang: “‘Stream of Noma’ is an abstraction of the Noma kitchen, the process — the circle, the suppliers, foragers, preparation — and the result is the menu. The piece tunnels a link between the kitchen and the diner, providing a behind-the-scenes glimpse, though both aural and abstract, at the mystique of the restaurant.”
Noma has taken the title of World's Best Restaurant by UK-based Restaurant magazine four times and is the current titleholder.
Redzepi follows in the footsteps of Spanish chef Andoni Luis Aduriz, who commissioned a local musician specialising in the Txalaparta, a traditional Basque instrument made of wood and played with batons, to create an original symphony of musical sounds for his restaurant back in 2012.
For the soundtrack, artist Felipe Ugarte travelled as far as Ethiopia and Peru to cull the sounds and melodies that would make up Mugaritz BSO.
French chef Paul Pairet is also regarded as one of the pioneers in sensory fine dining for his Shanghai restaurant Ultraviolet which opened in 2012 and where courses are presented to the sounds of fierce blizzard storms or to the strains of AC/DC.
The immersive dining experience is also accompanied by lights, images and vaporised scents diffused in the air.
And triple Michelin-starred Spanish restaurant El Celler de Can Roca also created a one-day culinary opera called “El Somni” involving lights shows, original music scores and state-of-the-art graphics for a table of guests that included celebrities like Indian actress Freida Pinto and chef Ferran Adria.
Listen to “Streams of Noma” here. — AFP-Relaxnews
