A serving from "the world's best restaurant"

The appetizer consists of juniper twigs in a flower vase, and a main dish of elk tongue comes to the table with a sheath knife...

[René Redzepi] is 33. Some 800 critics, chefs and restaurant owners have just voted him the world's best chef -- for the second time. This honor was long bestowed on Spaniard Ferran Adrià and his restaurant El Bulli near Barcelona, but in 2010 Redzepi's Copenhagen restaurant Noma moved into first place on a list of the world's 50 top restaurants.

Redzepi tries to remain modest. "Do I believe that I'm the best cook in the world? No. Do I believe that you can determine which restaurant is the best in the world? No. But it was a democratic election and, hey, I'm thrilled to accept the results."

Gourmets from all over the world make pilgrimages to Noma in Copenhagen. The name stands for "Nordic mad," Danish for "Nordic food." The prix fixe lunch menu costs €150 ($218), and the dinner menu is €50 more expensive. Reservation requests are accepted on the website only once every three months. The last time, 24,000 requests were received within a few hours.

The miraculous cuisine at Noma is created exclusively with Scandinavian products, including fish, mussels and meat from the Nordic countries. Most of all, the chefs at Noma work with vegetables and herbs that grow wild in the region...

"Welcome to Noma," says the waiter. Except for two glasses and a vase, the table is empty. The waiter pushes the vase in our direction and says: "Enjoy your first course." There are fresh juniper branches and delicate brown twigs of crispy dough in the vase. Both are dipped in a light mayonnaise. And as we eat the contents of the vase, still incredulous, the next surprise arrives: an earthenware plate with a marinated porcini mushroom and small baked clouds of moss on a bed of moss and stones. The moss tastes slightly dusty. In addition to wine, the waiter serves us water with sweet and nutty overtones, derived from the spring sap of birch trees....

Aha! Birch water!

There are eight so-called "snacks" brought to the table in rapid succession. Most are eaten by hand: a paper-thin square of jellied sea buckthorn juice with marinated rose leaves; a sort of sandwich made of crunchy chicken skin, smoked fromage frais, caviar and herbs; a wafer of aromatic pastry with a dried black cherry filling served in an old cookie tin; a porcelain egg that exudes the smell of hay and contains a smoked quail egg...

After 12 meatless courses, the waiter places a sheath knife on the table. The next dish is elk tongue with variations of apples....

More details at Spiegel Online.)