Show Notes
Our guest is Thomas Frebel who is the creative director at Noma https://noma.dk/. Noma is the famed restaurant in Copenhagen with numerous accolades, including three Michelin stars and The World’s 50 Best Restaurants’ No.1 spot. Since its opening in 2003, Noma’s chef/owner René Redzepi has been inspiring the world through his strong philosophy of cooking with Nordic traditions and his never-ending pursuit of creativity. Noma’s landscape has reached far beyond Nordic countries and Redzepi and his team have been actively exploring various food cultures in the world, including Japan. Since Thomas joined Noma in 2009, he has been working closely with Chef Redzepi and served as the executive chef at Noma’s restaurant project in Tokyo called INUA. He joined us in Episode #338 and discussed his experience at INUA, Noma’s pop-up dinners in Kyoto in spring 2023 and many other topics. In this episode, Thomas is back to talk about Noma’s latest pop-up dinner in Kyoto that ran for 10 weeks from September to December 2024. He will share with us the new discoveries and flavor development by the Noma team in Kyoto, this time in the fall, and also what is the future of Noma going to be after the pop-up up and much, much more!!! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
More from Japan Eats!
Our guest is Kazuya Kubota, who is the Global Brand Director of Pizza 4P’s https://pizza4ps.com/. Pizza 4P's is truly a unique concept. It goes far beyond serving pizza, with the vision of “Make the World Smile for Peace”.
Our guests are A-K Hada and Christian Suzuki-Orellana, who opened a fascinating cocktail bar Dokidoki https://www.dokidokinyc.com/ in Brooklyn, New York in July 2026.
Our guest is Genki Ito, who founded the unique online sake shop Tippsy Sake in 2018. He joined us in Episode #254 in February 2022 and discussed its innovative concept. Tippsy Sake’s business has grown successfully, alongside a community of sake lovers, and in May 2026, Genki renamed it Palate Project https://palateproject.co/ to reflect the company’s new mission to make sake more accessible to American consumers.
Our guest is Nick Rowan, author of Japanese Wine, a fantastic, comprehensive book on Japanese wine. The Japanese wine industry and culture have been developing very rapidly since the 1990s, and Nick’s book, which came out in 2025, is so timely.
Our guest is Silvia Mella who is the owner of Sorate in New York. Sorate is a unique Japanese green tea company, which sells premium Japanese tea through online and operates beautiful tea houses in Manhattan. Japanese tea has been gaining attention in the global markets, fueled by rising health consciousness and growing interest in Japanese food. According to the Japanese government, Japanese tea exports in 2025 reached record highs, and the key driving factor was Matcha. The U.S. accounts for approximately 40% of total export volume, 80% of which was Matcha. And it is mostly used for iced or hot lattes and smoothies. But in Japan, people don’t drink Matcha on a daily basis. There are many other types of delicately produced, highly flavorful Japanese tea. Silvia knows the profoundness of Japanese tea culture very well, and is passionate about introducing its charm to a global audience. In this episode, we will discuss how Silvia got into Japanese tea, how she convinced a traditional tea farm to work with her, the types of tea she recommends you try, the tea ceremony sessions that she offers with a Japanese tea master, and much, much more!!! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.