In 'Omnivore' on Apple TV, Noma's René Redzepi Unlocks the Stories Behind Foods That Define Us

13.07.2024 - 05:25 / cntraveler.com

If we are what we eat, then what does our food say about us, our lives, and our world? In a new docuseries called Omnivore, René Redzepi of Copenhagen's Noma unpacks that question as he travels to learn more about the foods that nourish and define us. “Ingredients do more than feed: they fuel economies, power politics, and unlock hidden truths about who we are and where we are going,” narrates Redzepi at the start of the first episode. That episode is dedicated to chili, and it transports us, in the cinematic richness that executive producer Matt Goulding, of Parts Unknown, is known for—from a tiny village in Serbia where every home is sheathed in curtains of bright red string pepper to the Tabasco factory in Louisiana and the night markets of Bangkok—all the while marveling at the heft of an everyday ingredient that has the power to suspend us between pleasure and pain.

Subsequent episodes, each dedicated to a different ingredient, are just as itinerant, zigzagging from the salt flats of Djibouti to the rice fields of Northern Kerala and the tuna-rich coast of Southern Spain—and celebrating all the ways in which we grow, transform, and consume them. It’s not a travel show, though, nor is it about food alone—think of it as a sociological inquiry into the culture of what and how we eat. “Food is the most important thing we have. It makes us who we are,” says Redzepi, on a Zoom call from his test kitchen in Copenhagen. While that’s not surprising coming from the creator of a gastronomic mecca that for 20 years has topped best restaurant lists, the difference is the shift of attention from the end-product—an impossibly conceived, precisely plated dish—to the less-seen, wider ecosystem of farmers, growers, and cooks around the world. “People need to understand how much crazy passion and dedication there is in the world of food. For them it’s much more than just work," he adds.

Redzepi himself leaves a relatively light footprint on the show, narrating just enough to weave the threads that bind global food systems, and making brief appearances in his kitchen or garden at Noma. “I did not want this to be a show about me,” he says. What he does want is for people to think deeper about the choices they make and perhaps appreciate more food in general—so the next time they enjoy bluefin tuna in New York they might ask where it came from. And in understanding the complex journey that tuna took from the Strait of Gibraltar through the auctions in Tokyo's Toyosu fish market and out into the world, they might also understand a little more about themselves.

An episode of Omnivore visits Abaneesh Sahadevan Nair on his family’s banana farm in Kerala, India—Nair is just one of several people spotlighted in the show