From a humble background, the son of a poor immigrant, Danish masterchef Rene Redzepi rose to establish the best restaurant on the planet and become one of the world’s most influential chefs. Founded by Rene and Marc J. Blazer in 2003, the two-star Michelin restaurant NOMA had its origins in an old warehouse on the waterfront in central Copenhagen. It is a linguistic blend of the words NOrdisk (Nordic) and MAd (food), and has become responsible for the reinvention and refinement of new Nordic cuisine. It’s so popular and extremely difficult to get a booking, even the great Rick Stein couldn’t get a reservation when he was doing his TV doco on Copenhagen culinary delights.

“For me cooking is something that is completely transparent and without pretence that is honest and generous and has something true and original about it,” Rene said. In 2012 TIME magazine listed him as one of the 100 most influential people in the world and he appeared on its cover, citing the Dane as the ‘local produce hero’.

For Rene cooking is all about a sense of time and place. NOMA is not in London, Paris or New York, it’s in Copenhagen in Southern Scandinavia where most ingredients are from Sealand and Southern Sweden and follows the seasons. Initially NOMA was not a success as the food industry and critics ridiculed the unconvential dishes and ingredients.

Eventually that all changed. It become the decades greatest restaurant, winning the World’s Best Restaurant Award three years in a fow from 2010-2012 and again in 2014. NOMA served it ‘last supper’ on the original site in September 2016 and will reopen and reinvent itself as an urban farm on the out-skirts of the city later this year. In the meantime, Rene and his full team have gone NOMAdic, travelling the globe, creating pop-ups in places such as Sydney, Tokyo and Tulum Beach in Mexico, preaching the gospel of using local produce. I sent my sketch to the old address earlier this year, not realising NOMA had closed, but it must have eventually got to him, arriving back last week, signed and dedicated.