René Redzepi

René Redzepi is head chef/owner of the 2-star Michelin restaurant Noma in Copenhagen, specializing in Nordic cuisine, sourcing ingredients exclusively from Scandinavia. Noma has taken the number one spot in the World's 50 Best Restaurants Awards in 2010, 2011, and 2012. In 2008, Redzepi established the Nordic Food Lab, a non-profit, self-governed institution established with the purpose of exploring Nordic Cuisine. He also founded the MAD symposium, an annual forum 'by chefs, for chefs' which delves into the issues facing the changing restaurant trade. His first major cookbook, Noma: Time and Place in Nordic Cuisine (Phaidon, 2010), was hailed by the Wall Street Journal as, "the most important cookbook of the year." It was the winner of both an IACP and James Beard award for best cookbook in the professional and photography categories. Redzepi has been featured in such publications as The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and was named one of Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People in the World.