MAD4 Details Announced
Details about MAD4, the annual carnival of food produced by Danish chef Rene Redzepi of the highly-lauded Copenhagen restaurant Noma, have been released via the event’s website. The 2014 gathering, which is best described as TED talks for foodies, will be held from August 24 – 25 in Copenhagen. The event will be themed “What is Cooking?” and will be co-curated by Brazilian chef Alex Atala. Ticket sales have not yet been announced.
MAD4
According to the event’s website, the theme this year seeks to refocus the spirit of being a chef. Recent years have been marked by the arrival of the “celebrity chef.” While the notion of a celebrity chef is certainly nothing new, more and more the line between where the celebrity ends and the chef begins is being blurred. MAD4 is a back-to-basics reevaluation of what it means to cook for a profession. While speakers have yet to be announced, it seems as though their talks will focus on what is being cooked and how that will change in the future.
This year’s co-curator, Alex Atala, is head chef of the internationally acclaimed restaurant D.O.M. in Brazil. His talk at MAD3, called “Death Happens,” focused on the undeniable link between death and food. The grand finale of his talk was the live beheading of a chicken as a demonstration of his talk’s theme.
Past MADs
MAD was founded in 2011 and has put on three symposiums since that year. Those symposiums have had the themes of Vegetation, Appetite and Guts. For those students of online culinary courses unable to make it out to Copenhagen this summer, videos of past speakers are available streaming online. Interested students can also check out the MAD Mondays feature on the website, which presents conversations throughout the year on diverse subjects of interest to aspiring chefs.
