Rene Redzepi

René Redzepi is a Danish chef and co-owner of the two-Michelin star restaurant Noma in the Christianshavn neighborhood of Copenhagen, Denmark. His restaurant was voted the best restaurant in the world by Restaurant magazine's World's Best Restaurants in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2014.

The Michelin-starred Copenhagen restaurant boasted glowing reviews and frequently topped best-of-year lists, making it nearly impossible to score a reservation. Specializing in food with a Nordic flair, it inspired eateries around the globe and made a star of chef René Redzepi.

Then, in 2015, Redzepi announced a move that stunned the culinary world: he revealed he was going to close Noma and travel the globe in search of fresh inspiration. Redzepi planned to reopen Noma (and did, in 2018 — it just placed second on the 2019 World’s 50 Best Restaurants list) but promised the new version would be different. In his new book, Hungry, food journalist Jeff Gordinier follows Redzepi’s unconventional path to reinventing the best restaurant in the world. The book traces Redzepi's four years traveling and searching for new flavors in cities like Sydney, Tulum and Mérida.

Classically trained, Redzepi began his culinary career in 1993 at Copenhagen’s Restaurant Pierre André. Prior to opening noma in 2003, Redzepi worked at the 3-star Le Jardin Des Sens in Montpellier, France; Ferran Adrià’s acclaimed El Bulli in Rosas, Spain; Thomas Keller’s 3-star Michelin restaurant The French Laundry; and lastly, as sous chef under Chef Thomas Rode Andersen at Copenhagen’s famed Kong Hans Kælder.

Redzepi is noted for his work on the reinvention and refinement of a new Nordic cuisine and food that is characterized by inventiveness and clean flavours.