Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
A chef whose restaurant Noma in Copenhagen has been named best in the world four times and is Michelin-starred.
On the island
Eight records
It's a very classic tune in the Latin American countries... that's where I go to tap out from kitchens.
When I was a kid, every winter we used to go to my grandparents' house... and we would watch the Disney shows. So this just reminds me of my childhood tremendously.
I was with my friend, his name is Michael, and he said, Do you want to listen to some music? ... and then he played run DMC. It's like that.
It's one of the first time I ever bought an album. I went to the record shop and I wanted to buy Iron Maiden Phantom of the Opera and the guy at the record shop he gave me Andrew Lloyd Wepper Phantom of the Opera presumably because he thought this guy you're not supposed to listen to Iron Maiden but I really like Iron Maiden.
One of my favorite movies growing up was The Labyrinth. David Bowie was in it. It was the first album I ever bought. It was difficult to choose between Queen and David Bowie because I listened to both of them quite a bit. So I put them together and we're gonna listen to Under Pressure.
I had five years of my professional career where Spitting Blood happened.
OneFavourite
This is one of the favorites in the kitchen. You have to listen to this and envision a Tuesday morning, forty cooks sleepy, getting ready for a long week. How do you wake them up? And we do that by playing Metallica.
This is a band that I grew up with listening to a lot. And my brother specifically grew up with this. ... it's really a sound of my childhood. And this is Kaftwak with Autobahn.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:24When do you dream?
Well, that happens constantly all the time. You know, when it's winter I dream of spring, for instance. And when it's spring, I dream of summer, and when it's summer, I dream of the berry season. And I think dreaming using your imagination is something that's splendid to do in cooking, because there's so many ways of using ingredients, and there's so many ingredients. When you actually start seeing the world as your one big larder, then you can really start dreaming.
Presenter asks
2:57Do you worry that reaching number one is the beginning of the end?
Oh, yeah. I had one of those burnouts where people were telling me, That's it. You're so young and you've already reached the ultimate goal. What are you going to do with the rest of your life? And the funny thing is that I had never opened NOMA with the ultimate goal of receiving accolades. You know, the ultimate goal was the understanding of what is the mouthful of our region. How does our region taste? And I truly believe that we don't understand that yet we're infants in that respect.
Presenter asks
9:30How did your parents meet?
Well, there was uh a little ad in the local newspaper in Macedonia, and it said Denmark is looking for labor. ... And at one point he found himself being a dishwasher at an espresso bar. And I actually live right nearby now. And my mother, she was the young seventeen year old cashier that fell in love with this dark stranger.
The keepsakes
The book
The Complete Works of Mad Magazine
If I'm alone on an island, I need something fun. So I'm gonna choose the complete works of Mad Magazine.
The luxury
I need something that also reminds me of home, so I think I'm actually gonna choose one full day of snow.
Presenter asks
14:05Were you thrown out of school?
I wanted to finish my tenth grade in school, and they told me after ninth grade they said. We do not want you more in our school. I I was I was not a good school kid. Let's just say like that. There was a few moments where I actually fell asleep and I woke up and everybody had left.
Presenter asks
15:25When did you realize cooking was interesting?
Yeah, it was my best friend at the time. He wanted to be a cook always. So I just followed him. I told myself, what I have to lose, I can be with my friend. And then the magic happened. In the first week of school, I can't remember what day, the teacher wanted us to do a competition. ... And I remember it so vividly. That was one of the first adult moments of my entire life. And then the question came: so, what do I like about food? ... And then I came back to Macedonia to one specific moment that still to this day stands out as one of the moments of my life. ... And I remember how he slaughtered them ... And then the moment when ... they would pluck the chicken ... Wow, it's just one of those moments. And it's still the best chicken I've ever had. ... And so we cooked it, and then the third adult moment came. ... And I said, Stop. No, no, no, no. Don't you see there's just a little place right here. ... Why does it matter where the source is? Why are you suddenly thinking like this? I almost got scared!
“If you go to where the ingredients are, and it's early winter, and you're brushing the leaves out of the forest floor, and you can see the young shoots coming out ready for spring... To me that's just magic. You know, a moment that can only happen that day. It's just magic.”
“Caviar is expensive, anybody who has enough money can get it. But every year for two weeks, Chicken of the Woods comes into season in Denmark. ... don't tell me that's not more valuable than a kilo of caviar that everybody who has enough money can buy.”
“I remember it vividly, actually. We we had had a we had had a smashing day, going to the bakery and getting bread and the women there making rose water for you when you're when you're thirsty and catching fireflies playing soccer, and then we went to bed. And in the middle of the night we got woken up. ... And they took us and they said, We are leaving. ... And then we start driving, and I remember that I stood up in the back of the car and looked behind me, and there was my whole family, aunties, cousins, everybody, standing there crying and waving.”
“Out of the blue I had this overwhelming sensation of not being able to walk any more. And I remember telling myself, I feel like laying down and crying. ... I stood there and I felt so weak, like I've never felt before.”
“I remember when we got our second Michelin star, and I called him up, I said, Father, father, we have our second Michelin star and then he said, That's good, son. Now you can support your family.”