Noma Projects Heads To London For One Day Only After Restaurant Closure
Earlier this year, Noma announced that it will be closing its doors in late 2024, and fans have doubtlessly been wondering what the future holds for the Copenhagen gem. Now, it looks like their question is about to be answered.
For one day only, Noma Projects is sending a six-person team to Kol, a Marylebone, London-based restaurant that describes itself as "Mexican soul" with "British ingredients." To say the event will be star-studded is an understatement. KOL holds a Michelin star and was ranked 23rd on the World's 50 Best Restaurant List for 2023. Noma has three Michelin stars and topped the World's 50 Best List in 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2014. Now, Kol Chef and Co-owner Santiago Lastra and Thomas Frebel, Chef and Creative Director of Noma, will be joining forces for a collaborative menu, teasing five dishes and two drinks.
Per an Instagram post, the pop-up will be a standing event with "snacks and drinks," and will take place from 12:30 to 8:00 p.m. on Sunday, September 10 at Kol. At the exclusive event, fans will also get to take home two of Noma Projects' new line of pantry products like "forager's vinaigrette," smoked mushroom garum, and corn yuzu hot sauce.
What's on the menu?
It's safe to say that foodies' expectations will be high for the menu, which has not yet been released. Saffron ice cream in a beeswax bowl and grilled reindeer heart over fresh pine needles have graced Noma's tables in the past. For the pop-up, Frebel has hinted at a "series of bites," including something made with peak-season British corn, a local seafood ceviche, and a Mexican chocolate ice cream with seaweed salt.
The collaboration with Chef Lastra promises an interesting spicy flair. Kol's menu boasts offerings like a langoustine, smoked chili, and sea buckthorn taco, and mole with purple carrot, coloradito, and fermented blackcurrant. Fans will have to wait and see how Kol's style melds with Noma's emphasis on foraged produce.
A spot in the room (actual seat not promised) costs 95 euros (about $103), which is something of a steal considering the regular tasting menu at Noma is 3,950 Danish kroner (about $576) per person. Tickets for the London event will be available for presale on August 20 at noon, and they're in short supply — 60 tickets each for three 90-minute dinners, so just 180 people total will be able to attend the exclusive event. In order to access the presale tickets, foodies must be subscribed to KOL's newsletter.
Noma Projects and a glimpse into the future of the food scene
Historically, Noma didn't earn its global acclaim by shying away from the avant-garde. This pop-up marks the team's transition into Noma Projects — a formless, experimental venture that would allow Noma to live on through a series of spin-offs. Inspired to liberate the kitchen team from the trappings of conventional service industry work (i.e. long hours, low wages, strained creativity), Chef René Redzepi shocked the food world in January by announcing that Noma's formal dining room would be closing. Following its official closure at the end of 2024, Noma very much plans to carry on, just without such heavy reliance on a brick-and-mortar restaurant — and this pop-up with Kol could be a glimpse at what's to come. Now, the establishment is rebranding as Noma Projects with a greater emphasis on gastronomic research and development than on serving sit-down meals.
The artist formerly known as Noma already toted an on-the-premises greenhouse for growing the produce it plated. Looking forward, Noma Projects has already launched a seaweed farm on a Danish fjord and is workshopping ideas to build a fermentation facility.