Brave new palate

Daring to rethink whatmakes food has propelled Noma's chef to the top of his profession, as Lucy Cheung discovers in Copenhagen.

Down by the dock, in an old gray stone warehouse, stands the newly re-crowned "Best Restaurant in the World 2014", tucked among construction sites in the bohemian Christianshavn quarter of Copenhagen. Noma's Danish-Macedonian head chef and co-owner Rene Redzepi, chewing an apple, offers some dark brown sauce for me to try.

"That's grasshopper. We've fermented grasshopper for six months." Sipping the thick barley-mix sauce, my taste buds encounter an organic, strong new flavor that doesn't register with any existing impression I have of insects.