Rene Redzepi at Claridges on Saturday

Noma at Claridges - the first review

Bloomberg's Richard Vines was among the first people to dine on ants with creme fraiche on Saturday night

Live ants with creme fraiche was one of the more notable menu items on the opening night of Noma at Claridges on Saturday. Notable guests included professor Stephen Hawking and Bloomberg food critic Richard Vines who's just posted the following review.

"It’s disconcerting to watch the main ingredient making its way across a cabbage leaf as you prepare to pop it into your mouth. Claridge’s says the ants are chilled, so anaesthetised. I’m not so sure about the suggestion that the 22,000 who have traveled here from Denmark stay in a suite at the London hotel, which has many guests for the Olympics.

"When you bite into the ants, they release the flavour of lemongrass; what you taste is light and citrusy, in contrast to the edible soil you have just consumed. That dish contains radishes buried in a mix of hazelnuts, rye, malt, beer and butter atop a layer of creme fraiche, all in a plant pot." You can read Vines's full review here. 

A Taste of Noma at Claridge’s is the third celebrity pop-up in London, following Pierre Koffmann at Selfridges and Thomas Keller at Harrods.  According to Vines, "Claridge’s has done a good job (the best of the three) in transforming the ballroom, which looks less like a function space than you might expect. Staffers have adopted an informal style that suits Noma’s Nordic ethos. There are no tablecloths, and cutlery doesn’t appear for the first hour or so."