When you share a home kitchen with one of the best chefs in the world, you learn to hold your own. No one knows this better than Nadine Levy Redzepi, whose husband is Danish culinary innovator, René Redzepi of Noma fame. While his hyper-local food tends to impress even the most jaded foodie, it’s her cooking drawing our attention this spring.
Nadine’s debut cookbook, Downtime: Deliciousness At Home, is a recipe capsule of her cozy and intuitive cooking style. While on maternity leave from Noma — where she met her hub — Nadine started posting photos of her homecooked meals on Instagram. The habit turned into a hobby and eventually a beautifully-bound compilation of recipes, including everything from a chicken curry inspired by her mother’s to a frozen avocado cake.
While normally it’s René in the spotlight, in the 2018 Netflix series, Ugly Delicious, we’re invited into the Redzepi’s home kitchen in Copenhagen where Nadine is the one running the show. The episode gives us a taste of her talent, painting an intimate portrait of her passion for food and the connection it can facilitate. We can’t help but feel inspired — discover why with Nadine’s answers to our In The Kitchen interview…
In my kitchen you’ll find plenty of:
Seasonal fruits and vegetables, eggs and butter.
Recipe staples always on hand:
Anything with eggs, and something I can bread (panko crumbs).
Ingredient that makes everything taste better:
Butter.
Best food memory:
Eating sun-warm pomegranates off the tree when I was little in Portugal.
Essential cookbooks:
My mother didn’t have any cookbooks when I was growing up, so I was completely hooked on watching food programs like Antonio Carluccio, Nigella and Jamie Oliver.
Food philosophy in one sentence:
Don’t be afraid of butter.
Fave ingredient lately:
Dried white beans.
Midnight snack perfection:
Really good cold cuts, such as Iberico ham, and rich nutty cheese.
Food you love to eat with zero prep/additions:
Cheese.
Most impressive dish:
Perfectly cooked food, whether meat, fish, baked goods, eggs or vegetables… even pasta.
Healthiest habit in the kitchen:
Seasonal produce, always lots of greens.
Fave condiments:
Chili oils and chili paste.
Best bargain tip:
Off-cuts of meat.
Fave veggie + what you make with it:
Mushrooms because they are so quick to cook and so versatile. Can make and put on toast, fry up and put on grains or rice, with eggs, with pasta.
Must-have munchies:
I don’t smoke hahahaha. Depends. Crispy and salty. Cheese and potato chips.
Craziest thing I buy at the market:
King crab.
Favorite splurge:
Caviar and truffles.
Your idea of an ideal dinner setting…
Delicious food, wine, music, especially for the cooking part, good friends and family.
Explore our full In The Kitchen series here.
