When Danish chef René Redzepi announced he would be moving his famous restaurant Noma to Sydney for a 10-week stint next year it was big news. The wildly popular – and oversubscribed – Noma residency in Tokyo at the beginning of this year hosted around 3,500 diners in five weeks, but another 60,000 were still on the waiting list at the end. The pop up in Sydney’s Barangaroo waterfront location was always going to be a tough ticket to get.
And diners did find themselves buying tickets as Redzepi and his team used the online ticketing system Tock, developed by Nick Kokonas, co-founder of Alinea in Chicago. The two-minute sell out of the tickets, priced at AUD $485, was a record for Tock.
Redzepi has already spent months in preparation of the Sydney pop up. Rather than trying to replicate the food served in the Copenhagen restaurant, famous for serving unusual ingredients foraged in the Nordic regions, he will focus on showcasing Australian ingredients.
“Australia has always drawn me in, its great cities, its generous people, and of course its ever present sun. But what really boggles my mind is the differences you find in its landscapes and ingredients, because I have never seen anything like it,” he at the Australia announcement.
The Noma pop up will take place for ten weeks from 26 January. Those hoping for a cancellation booking can add their name to a waiting list here.
Tina Nielsen
Read more about Noma in Australia and other top chefs staging global pop ups of their restaurants, or about the Tock ticketing system in the latest edition of Foodservice Consultant.
