Noma: My Perfect Storm

Not just for foodies, this documentary serves up an intriguing portrait of the mastermind chef behind Noma, the celebrated restaurant in Copenhagen that was named best in the world. Noma tells the story of a self-described outsider in Scandinavian culture who championed the exclusive use of Nordic ingredients in haute cuisine. Thirtysomething René Redzepi is a mercurial figure with a barely-suppressed grudge driving his ambition. The son of a Danish mother and Albanian immigrant father, Redzepi recalls instances of discrimination faced by his family that extended well into his own adulthood. While Noma doesn't dwell much on the pleasures and joys of cooking, it is intensely focused on Redzepi's experiments with such unexpected ingredients as rose petals and (gulp) live ants (other culinary elements are found as various farmers and foragers clip mushrooms in a forest, harvest pansies, and drain sap from a tree). A 2013 gap in Noma's streak of top rankings from 2010-14 by Restaurant magazine was the result of tainted seafood, a crisis that is captured here on camera and rectified the following year by the determined chef. Recommended. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include a “Testing the Menu” behind-the-scenes segment (21 min.), deleted scenes (11 min.), the “Noma Cuisine Gallery” (3 min.), and trailers. Bottom line: a solid extras package for this engaging foodie doc.] (T. Keogh)