Sketches from Cook it Raw: Trees

Rene Redzepi sat at a table surrounded by journalists. Six people were helping him snip the thousands of pine needles necessary to make the oil he was considering using in his dish.


“Spruce,” he corrected. “Spruce oil.”

Redzepi has a relaxed, easy manner, but he’s also eagle-eyed and exacting. Perhaps that’s why his restaurant is number one in the world.

“What are these doing in here?” he asked, pointing to a few flecks of brown in the bowl of green needles.

I ran my fingers through the needles. They were cool and dry, smooth and prickly at the same time. I fished out three of the offending brown ones and wondered how many branches had gone into that bowl.

Earlier that day, Redzepi had collected the tender inner layer of bark from birch trees. He peeled it away in long, circular strips.

“We’re going to do a cold infusion with this,” he said, passing around a sliver of bark. It was supple and sweet smelling, reminiscent of youth.


On the night of the final dinner, Redzepi walked me through the dish he’d prepared together with Claude Bosi and Magnus Nilsson. It was based on the idea of a family dinner, and everyone was to serve himself from the three heavy pots the chefs brought to the table. The dish consisted of white carrots braised until perfectly sweet and tender, flavored with the sap and resin of branches; potatoes wrapped in lichen and buried in salt before baking; and a mushroom and tree bark consommé resonant of the autumn woods.


“What about the spruce oil?” I asked.

“We’re not sure if we’re even going to use it,” he replied.

I like the way that Redzepi tells you exactly what he’s thinking at the time. He’s outspoken and candid, at times egregiously so.

“We’re all of us a bit weird,” he said, pulling apart raw mushroom tops. “You’re a little weird, too.”

The observation caught me off guard.

“You said before that you can’t figure yourself out,” he continued.

Did I say that?

“Have you figured yourself out?” I asked.

“No, I haven’t,” he answered.

In the end, he used the spruce oil.