The Noma Guide to Fermentation

If you buy only one cookbook this year, I implore you to snatch up The Noma Guide to Fermentation. Written by the chefs behind Copenhagen’s world-famous restaurant, this incredible resource will teach you how to use the ancient art of fermentation in ways you never could have imagined. Recommended By Lucinda G., Powells.com

At Noma — four times named the world’s best restaurant — every dish includes some form of fermentation, whether it’s a bright hit of vinegar, a deeply savory miso, an electrifying drop of garum, or the sweet intensity of black garlic. Fermentation is one of the foundations behind Noma’s extraordinary flavor profiles.

Now René Redzepi, chef and co-owner of Noma, and David Zilber, the chef who runs the restaurant’s acclaimed fermentation lab, share never-before-revealed techniques to creating Noma’s extensive pantry of ferments. And they do so with a book conceived specifically to share their knowledge and techniques with home cooks. With more than 500 step-by-step photographs and illustrations, and with every recipe approachably written and meticulously tested, The Noma Guide to Fermentation takes readers far beyond the typical kimchi and sauerkraut to include koji, kombuchas, shoyus, misos, lacto-ferments, vinegars, garums, and black fruits and vegetables. And — perhaps even more important — it shows how to use these game-changing pantry ingredients in more than 100 original recipes.

Fermentation is already building as the most significant new direction in food (and health). With The Noma Guide to Fermentation, it’s about to be taken to a whole new level.

“A significant [marker of] culinary culture....A fresh set of transformative cooking fundamentals...[that] make ferments something cooks reach for as readily as salt.” The New York Times, Fall’s Best Cookbooks

“Cure kitchen boredom with Noma’s primer on fermented foods....Prepare to be amazed.” Wired

“[A] window into the magic...of what is arguably the most famous restaurant in the world.” Food & Wine, The Best Cookbooks Coming Out This Fall

“A wildly practical and fascinating examination of one of the world’s oldest methods of food preservation.” Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

René Redzepi is the chef and co-owner of Noma in Copenhagen, four times recognized as the world’s best by the World’s 50 Best Restaurants. Redzepi has twice appeared on the cover of Time magazine (and been named one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People in the World); been featured in publications from The New York Times to Wired; and been profiled in two feature-length documentaries and countless national and international media outlets. His first book, Noma: Time and Place in Nordic Cuisine, was an IACP and James Beard Award winner. He is also the author of A Work in Progress. He lives with his wife, Nadine Levy Redzepi, and their three children. Find him on Instagram @reneredzepinoma and @nomacph.

David Zilber is a chef and photographer who hails from Toronto, Canada. He has cooked from coast to coast across North America, most notably as a sous-chef at Hawksworth Restaurant in Vancouver. He has worked at Noma since 2014 and has served as director of its fermentation lab since 2016. He enjoys Jamaican patties and quantum physics. Find him on Instagram @david_zilber.

It was a sleepy morning in February when I arrived at work and was greeted with my colleague’s knowing smile and the words, You need to go see Kathi now. My heart jumped into my throat while my jaw dropped to my knees. I knew immediately it meant that out of all the staff at Powell’s, I was going to Noma....

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