MAD2: An Introduction | René Redzepi, Co-Owner of noma

hello everybody how's everybody doing how was breakfast lovely coffee yeah I would like to tell you that for the last five hours Matt to the hashtag has been the second most trending thing on Twitter in the world that's pretty good for us 500 people here but I guess there's people out there also wanting to be here so my name is Rene Redzepi welcome to Copenhagen welcome to the second edition of the mad symposium before we start I would like to introduce some of the team members well that team members that has basically been working on this to make it happen and you know you're probably well a lot of people ask me how many people were doing this and you know there were speculations where there was 10 or 15 even set and and you know people were up in the 20s but I can assure you that these two fellas right here they made this happen on a shoestring literally walking around town with their hat collection hat and begging from our friends and colleagues and truly because of our friends and colleagues and a few big sponsors this is the reason why this is happening so to all of you sitting there who helped this I really want to thank you so much it wouldn't have been possible if it wasn't for you now here we have been he's our lanky Scotsman Ben has just graduated from the University of gastronomical Sciences yeah and he's amazing next year we have Aliya from Cyprus so Ali story is a bit special because he was actually a regular at the restaurant he had eaten more than 20 times at restaurant Noma he travelled the world for the next great mouthful constantly he was a banker a highly paid banker that is until I made him quit his job move into an apartment full of smelly chefs I become a lowly paid restaurant worker like the rest of us the my hand please now for those of you who are here last year I wanted to that even though we loved it and maybe some of you have been missing it we've canceled the mudbath for this no I don't know there's if somebody wants to debate or get dirty but instead we made sure that there is well you may or may not have noticed that there's plenty of wild goose [ __ ] everywhere yeah so when I first saw this goose [ __ ] I got super nervous three weeks ago really I do went back to the kitchen say hey guys we have to remove all these turds you know I was envisioning cascades of people slipping and sliding in goose [ __ ] you know having to not pick up mud of their boots but you know goose droppings and because there was so [ __ ] much of it I actually dug in and did a bit of research on this goose [ __ ] and surprisingly there was some very interesting facts which I'm gonna read to you now did you know that a wild goose is estimated to produce at least 150 droppings a day that's a lot of times to [ __ ] and when these are dry they each weigh approximately 0.72 one gram each this made me realize that's a person out there actually doing the job which then made me realize that even geese scientists have stars I also found out that it's an excellent fertilizer but the most surprising thing was that goose dropping still contains so much recoverable nutriments that some mammals can meet the dietary needs by eating nothing but goose [ __ ] which made me very happy because it solved our lunch issues so why are we here you know fertilized by goose guano in a candy colored circus tent that also happens to be the national colours of Sweden we tried to make it differently but we had to suck it in a journalist chicken you asked me isn't this just about you chefs meeting up and talking [ __ ] about food critics and I said no that's what we do want all the other 363 days of the year so so we don't need to that now the truth is that we hope this symposium can grow into an annual meeting of mindful chefs that are eager to learn more and understand better this complex profession that we've all chosen to be a part of we hope that we can play a part of a community of chefs farmers food scientists fishermen and foragers that are willing to invest so much energy in making our profession better and above all more delicious to actively aknowledge what our hands and fingers appreciate extincted Lee after years of labour to explore the hunger that is the source of our inspiration we need appetite to therefore better to think bitter bigger a great quote comes to my mind by a brilliant man that you will actually see momentarily he writes in his new book which I read him after our service a whole night I came back to work the day after unrest a--the and which is not a good thing but it was an amazing thing and he writes a book about communities and he says you know I think the meaning of your book is if you truly want to progress and make yourself happy with the things you do then work for and with your community or set in other words the more that we work with each other the more we'll all get better at the things that we do and want to achieve and this is what we're here for I started in this fashion when I was fifteen one of the first jobs I ever did in the kitchen was picking down 20 bunches of chervil each in small individual leaves sized out in five different sizes it was really you know I thought holy [ __ ] after six hours of that a year later I was opening 50 lobsters by in an hour my hands were tore open the next year I was carving out whole animals and in the last year of my apprenticeship I would do stalks make sources with Banyuls vinegar clean clean one loaf of Waga after the other by the way today is the last day of foie gras in California so I thought it was fitting to put in and I can tell you that number number 2 3 most trending in the world is foie gras so I was learning how to cook and now 20 years later I'm here on a stage talking to you people something that I've never been taught to do and I can tell you it's really [ __ ] it really really is but you know once you feel the support from people it makes everything so much more easier and I would imagine that for many of the other speakers it's the same thing you know we are not trained in this I started when I was 15 in the profession I basically am totally illiterate a stupid cook like most of the ones that are out there in the world so one last thing that I would like to do before I clear the stage is a few years ago I was at a Jewish wedding and they had this exercise was brilliant and it was the toast master he had a sign and each time he stepped up and made this sign then people just went freakingly mad you know they clapped they stomped they shouted they screamed they jumped until he said stop and in one moment they stopped so I would like us to do that so we warm up so we really warm up our clapping muscles and our smiling muscles so that with each speaker we're ready to welcome them and feel make them feel comfortable and as hopefully they leave happy you will also be happy and then let them leave with the roar so when I count to three I can have everybody just go [ __ ] mental like mental as loud dirty nasty as you can possibly get until I make the signs like that and then it stops okay are you ready okay one two three go