meemalee

It's the morning after the night before and my husband, his brother, his brother's girlfriend and I ooze slowly down from the comfort of the lovely apartment and crumple into a little heap at the bottom of the stairs. "Morning," chirps a jaunty-hatted Mat Follas , in a pinchably cheerful manner, "Don't tell me you've just got up?". "Grhmmmhrth", I say as we sit down at the long wooden table for some reviving coffee and cake. It's not that early to be fair - 9.30am. The restaurant is full of other sprightly looking people - we've all gathered for a foraging course at the Wild Garlic led by expert Theo Langton and Mat himself. "You're wearing city shoes" says Mat about my tough, plain black Clark's boots, "You're going to get mucky". I make another noise of disdain and nurse my cup of coffee. The brother-in-law and girlfriend are a good bit younger than the husband and me and, thoroughly perked up, t...

I first heard of Rene Redzepi and his restaurant Noma early last year, as the gentleman who had won MasterChef in 2009 had undertaken one of his final challenges at Noma in Denmark. At the time, I thought Redzepi seemed a breath of fresh air, simply because he seemed kind and understated, yet at the same time joyful about food (and his looked incredible). What was even more incredible was that Noma uses only food from Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Denmark and Finland, and employs a network of foragers to achieve as comprehensive a culinary canvas as possible. Right then, I decided that at the earliest opportunity I would save some pennies and visit Denmark to see for myself. And then Redzepi's Noma was awarded first place in the World's 50 Best Restaurant Awards this year, toppling Ferran Adria's El Bulli, and I wistfully thought, "Oh, I'm never going to get to eat there now - it'll be booked up for ever". But both Noma and Rene Redzepi became a little bit ...