Moving Restaurants - Redzepi in Tokyo, Blumenthal in Melbourne by Bruce Palling

In 1969, Maxim’s, then arguably the most famous restaurant in Paris, became the first haute-cuisine establishment to bestow its name on another restaurant – in this case perched on the roof of the Intercontinental Hotel in Dusseldorf. The new outpost never gained even the glimpse of a Michelin star, but it heralded the trend for a new way of branding and marketing famous restaurants and later chefs, around the globe.*

Compared to what is going on in the realms of haute cuisine today, it seems a world away. No one could have imagined how quickly gambling hubs like Las Vegas would take the concept to such bizarre extremes, even replicating the actual cities where the restaurants originated. Why go to Venice, the argument seems to go, when you can gondola away on a Vegas canal with St Marks as a backdrop and still have a pizza? It has become de rigeur for all gambling places like Macau and Singapore to have restaurants carrying the names of international chefs on their kitchens.

Now, we have also not just one, but two of the most celebrated restaurants actually physically relocated – along with their staff - to countries on the other side of the globe. René Redzepi of Noma was in Tokyo this year for five weeks, while Heston Blumenthal of Fat Duck fame, is still physically ensconced in the largest Melbourne casino until summer. They are not the only ones. Last year, Spain’s el Celler Can Roca went on a road show around Latin America with Pop Ups in Mexico, Columbia and Peru. Back in 2011, the acclaimed American chef Thomas Keller of French Laundry and Per Se fame also moved his kitchen to Harrods in London for a fortnight. Ferran Adria, of el Bulli fame, still occasionally appears in global cities replicating his molecular efforts, even though his restaurant closed nearly four years ago.

Noma in Japan: live shrimps with ants in their pants (photo Gennady Jozefavichus)

There is a fascinating and overlooked back-story to all of these nomadic ventures. These are not merely highly acclaimed chefs - they are the only ones that at some stage have held the number one slot of the World’s 50 Best Restaurant Awards. It is almost as if you need the legitimising confirmation of this supremely marketable international brand to make such a move viable. Just think of the expense and effort required to relocate to an entirely new location in another country, where you have zero knowledge of how to source the best ingredients – and even worse, not actually have cooked with them ever before in that environment. Not that this deters the punters – in the case of Noma and Fat Duck, reservations for both restaurants were oversubscribed in minutes and had to be allocated to a mere fraction of the hopeful contenders. Price can't be an issue either - apart from the £275 per person cost for the Fat Duck menu, best to avoid the grander imported wines, some of which have mark ups of more than 500%. ***

 However, Heston is a household name in Australia, thanks to his numerous TV appearances and a lucrative sponsorship deal with one of the largest supermarket chains.

To be truthful, I have never once had even a single meal prepared abroad by a famous chef in someone else’s kitchen that came close to the original experience. How can it?  It takes years for a great restaurant to evolve and then you have all of the other requirements like trusted suppliers, not to mention knowing intimately how the kitchen equipment performs along with the staff who are in charge of it.

That is not to say that such events are not worth attending as they obviously represent the nearest thing to the real experience that is possible in a foreign environment. The dinner organised by René Redzepi at Claridge’s Hotel was amusing and clever and my hunch is that virtually every customer went away exhilarated at their experience. However, it was a mere hint of what is accomplished at home, though I suspect that the majority would have subsequently tried their luck for a table at the actual restaurant on the harbour in Copenhagen.

Noma in Japan: slice of clam tart (photo Gennady Jozefavichus)

 But this is not the only reason for such a move, though the motives of René and Heston are hardly identical. Even physically, René has a beard and unkempt hair which makes him look like a mature student, while Heston shaved his head and wears oversized spectacles (sponsored, of course), which enhances his very saleable image of being the mad professor. **** Foodwise, in Redzepi’s case, he is not going to make any effort to recreate his New Nordic cuisine – something that would be impossibility, given how the guiding philosophy of his restaurant is to use local or regional ingredients. Instead, he is making a virtue of using what is available in Japan and applying his techniques to explore and bring out their uniqueness. This will also provide him and his 70 staff with a superb amount of knowledge that can be applied in various ways when he returns to his kitchen in Copenhagen. There has been a highly favourable response to his Tokyo dishes, which seem to have embraced the local terroir with the addition of his now notorious live shrimp with ants dish.

In the case of Heston Blumenthal, there is a world of difference. His intention in Melbourne is to simply replicate his quirky signature dishes from the Fat Duck, which have remained unchanged for years. The idea is to copy his classic repertoire such as snail porridge, tea which is hot and cold on different sides of the cup and edible sand and fish while you listen to the sound of waves on an iPod. Whereas Redzepi spends the majority of his time working in his kitchen, Blumenthal never cooks at either of his two Michelin starred restaurants in Britain. In both these restaurants, there is a menu that rarely changes from month to month and makes no commitment whatsoever to seasonality or ingredient-led dishes. Heston has well-trained brigades that turn out near identical versions every day that are well received by the customers, year in and year out.

Beyond these two relocations, there is also an entirely different approach by both men. Redzepi closed down his Tokyo restaurant after five weeks and then returned home. He has been offered numerous opportunities to open permanent foreign outposts of Noma but has always refused, as to do so would be a contradiction in terms. Blumenthal, on the other hand, is a highly accomplished celebrity businessman. At the end of his six months stint in the Melbourne casino, he is going to have a permanent presence amongst the gaming tables by opening a Dinner by Heston restaurant, though at this stage, his spokes-people say they don’t know if it will copy the London restaurant, which offers "Hestonised" classic recipes, or add some local dishes to the menu. (Rumblings of discontent are growing - Harden's 2015 London Guide reports diners complaining of dull food for silly prices plus "the number of reporters who feel 'the weird 15th-century presentation idea is a con' is on the rise.") **

Heston's ready meals in Australia

Heston's Waitrose offerings

If a person’s job title was defined by how they earned the bulk of their money, Heston Blumenthal would probably have to be termed a promoter of mass produced supermarket ready meals or perhaps a television entertainer. Redzepi, by contrast, would be called a chef.

Thanks to the Internet and the subsequent growth of Social Media, chefs and restaurants have become far more international in their reach and appeal. With the exception of Japan, it is not uncommon for leading restaurants everywhere on the planet to rely on foreign guests for well over half of their custom. Any chef or guest can post serviceable pictures of dishes on Social Media sites and within milliseconds they can be viewed and appraised by millions of people. As well, there has been a huge growth of food festivals and seminars, where chefs promote their brands by cooking in front of a seated audience, whose participation is limited to viewing the dish on a video screen. Then there is the growth of international restaurant and chef brands, such as Jason Atherton, Robuchon or Zuma. There is nothing wrong with these establishments, but they are hardly the first port of call for anyone interested in creative cuisine. They bear a similar relationship to haute cuisine as the spin-off products of so-called luxury clothing brands do to haute couture.

There are also visionaries, like my friend Andrea Petrini, the co-founder of Cook It Raw before he was unceremoniously airbrushed out by Alessandro Porcelli, his erstwhile partner. Andrea has done more than anyone alive to promote events involving high profile chefs cooking together all over the globe, ranging from the Arctic Circle in Finland, to a hall in Lima adjoining some Inca ruins. 

These events and the dedicated followers, who either attend or live vicariously through the Internet, have broadened the appeal of creative cuisine. As an example of this process, look at Mauro Colagreco, the most highly-rated chef working in France in the 50 Best restaurant Awards. He is half Italian/Argentinian cooking in the Riviera hideaway of Menton, which is slap bang on the Italian border. And naturally, there are several Japanese chefs in his kitchen. 

Is his cuisine French, Argentinian, Italian… or Japanese? Fortunately, labels are redundant in today’s best kitchens – all that counts is the originality and exquisiteness of the flavours. Mauro too, is hoping to open in London for at least two weeks in the summer. 

Another brilliant Swedish chef, Magnus Nilsson, closed his restaurant Faviken this month until July in order to explore other cuisines and countries to find further inspiration. Food lovers are fortunate that not all leading restaurateurs and chefs aspire to make their mark (and profits) in casinos and ready meals.

A version of this story has appeared in Gourmet (Stockholm) in Swedish

* This was the idea of Georg Rafael, one of the greatest hoteliers of his generation, who went on to found Regent Hotels with Adrian Zecha and Bob Burns and then found his own Rafael group before selling it to Mandarin Oriental. His other great innovation was the creation of spacious two basin bathrooms in luxury hotels. Funnily enough, he now says he gains greater pleasure from starting his own boutique winery in Napa Valley, (Rafael Pere et Fils) now run by his son Marc

** Not sure it is exactly a con, but I would be far happier if it were possible to actually see the original recipes from which these reinterpretations allegedly come from... e.g. is the Meat Fruit c1500 based on something along the lines of a Mandarin full of liver pate or what? Frumenty, c. 1390, is a porridge made of wheat, but in Heston's menu it is described as octopus, smoked sea broth, pickled dulse and lovage. Granted, that Henry IV served it at his wedding to Joan of Navarre, but that was with porpoise and venison. Besides, the individual items were all detailed i.e. Frumenty was only the name for the Frumenty, not the accompanying mammals

*** Does anyone else think it is acceptable to charge £310 for a 125mm glass of Haut Brion 01; £6250 for a bottle of Latour 82 or £2450 for a Lafleur 07? Farr Vintners sell it for less than that a case! Ok, OZ import duty would add 29%, but still....

**** Heston has recently been spotted sporting a ginger crew cut, so unless he is under contract to a gentleman's wig manufacturer, perhaps he actually has his own hair after all...