Can't Get a Reservation at Noma? You Can Now Experience a Taste of It at Home

Want to elevate your cooking à la Rene Redzepi? Noma Projects' umami-bomb condiments and seasonings will help.

When Noma, the world-renowned Copenhagen restaurant from chef Rene Redzepi, announced its eventual closure, many people panicked. It's already difficult enough to score a reservation there, but now we only have until spring of 2025 to save money (the meal costs about $800 with wine pairings), get off the waitlist, and book a flight to Copenhagen or Kyoto for the restaurant's fall 2024 pop-up.

Known for its use of local ingredients and experimental fermentation, Noma is a bucket list destination for many restaurant lovers around the world. And now, you can experience a taste of the much-lauded restaurant from the comfort of your own home. 

Related: How to Eat at Noma Before It Closes

Since 2022, Redzepi and the Noma team have packaged and sold items directly from the restaurant's fermentation lab under the name Noma Projects. Some of their most popular releases have included Mushroom Garum, a bold cooking sauce akin to soy sauce; Vegan XO Sauce, a sweet and smoky paste; and Dashi RDX, an umami-packed syrup meant for drizzling and dipping. All three of these products are timeless, but for the first time, home cooks can purchase products that align with Noma’s seasonal tasting menus. 

With the “In Season at Noma” series, Noma Projects will now release special product bundles inspired by the themed, seasonal tasting menus at Noma restaurants. “Season by season, you’ll now be able to cook with the same delicious flavors that are fueling our creativity at that particular moment in time,” says a Noma representative.

Related: How to Source, Store, and Use 10 Essential Global Condiments

Last week, I had the privilege of experiencing a taste of “In Season at Noma’s” first collection, The Ocean Bundle, at American Express' Centurion New York during a kickoff event in partnership with Resy. The evening included two hands-on workshops and a dinner where we tasted some of their most commonly used ingredients like pickled rose petals, extraordinarily sour ants, and the newest products: Elderflower Peaso, Ocean à la Crème, and Nordic Shoyu.

The three items act as umami bombs — delicious, flavor-enhancing ingredients that add emphasis to most dishes on Noma’s winter, Ocean Season menu. A play on traditional miso, their Elderflower Peaso is made with yellow split peas for a more acidic paste great for marinades or as a spread on toast. Then there’s the Nordic Shoyu, with a profile similar to light soy sauce, it’s fermented from fava beans and toasted rice (rather than soybeans). And finally, the Ocean à la Crème, a combination of the Mushroom Garum, Roasted Kelp Salt, and Koji Oil, is what Noma claims as “the culmination of their search to create sauces that are light, rely exclusively on plant-based ingredients, and still delivers astonishing umami.” The Noma team recommends drizzling this syrup-like ingredient over cooked fish or even ice cream for a savory dessert.

The Ocean Bundle is available for pre-order on nomaprojects.com and will begin shipping in late April. So stock up on ingredients while you still have the opportunity. The Ocean Bundle is a limited release, but the products will keep in your fridge for at least three months — thought at the rate I’m using them, there’s no way they’ll last that long.

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