Step Inside a Fermentation Expert’s Fridge

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Photograph by Tobias Nicolai

Scroll through David Zilber’s Instagram feed and you’ll get fashion inspo, cute pictures of his girlfriend and one-year-old son, tantalizing food photos, and microscopic images of what’s perhaps his favorite ingredient: bacteria. His refrigerator mirrors the same eclectic spirit: Next to the store-bought hot sauce and mayo, you’ll find yogurt made with traditional Bulgarian cultures, samples of his earliest professional fermentation experiments, and, always, a two-liter glass jar of homemade pickled jalapeños.

The Toronto-born chef and food scientist is endlessly fascinated by how microbes transform raw ingredients. His curiosities led him to Noma in Copenhagen, where he led the famed restaurant’s fermentation lab for four years and cowrote The Noma Guide to Fermentation before joining global bioscience company Chr. Hansen in 2020. Here we take a peek into Zilber’s mini home lab.

1. PROCESSED CHEESE SLICES

Kraft isn’t available here, so I have some generic Danish version of American cheese. I only ever buy it for burgers. I’m not even going to apologize—I made smashburgers the other night, and they don’t taste right if you use fancy cheese; it needs to melt instantly. I only ever buy it for burgers.

2. TWO PACKS OF POLAROID FILM

I started dabbling in photography back in 2008 with a crappy point-and-shoot digital camera (which I broke one night in a mosh pit). Nowadays I moonlight as a professional photographer, but I still take Polaroids, and storing film in the fridge keeps it fresh. I love film photography because you really have to think in order to create an image.

3. VINTAGE FERMENTS

I still have some early samples of things I made while running the Noma fermentation lab. We’d do these pilot trials for people to try out; the pine cone vinegar and the kidney bean miso are at least three years old, and they’re still great. The kidney bean miso is gangbusters in chili—like, game changer.

4. LEFTOVER WONTON FILLING

Last night I made eggplant wontons. For the stuffing I baked the eggplants, scooped out all the flesh, and seasoned it with soy sauce, chili crisp, and an Asian sofrito (chile, garlic, ginger, and scallion whites). Then I just wrapped and boiled the wontons and served with a really simple miso soup. My son eats what we eat, so I put the miso soup in a baby bottle, and he was just sucking out the wonton filling and then eating the wrappers.

5. KIMCHI BRINE

When I’m done with a batch of homemade kimchi, I always find ways to use up the brine. It’s acidic, salty, and just amazing when used as a seasoning—in fried rice, as a meat marinade, and tossed with vegetables before roasting to create an incredible sticky glaze.

6. VALENTINA MEXICAN HOT SAUCE

Surprisingly, I can get this hot sauce in Danish grocery stores and that makes me very happy. Whenever I’m making tacos, rice and beans, or quesadillas, it’ll be on there. Same with an egg sandwich in the morning. Valentina has amazing acidity. It’s just the best hot sauce. I will fight people over this.

7. PICKLED JALAPEÑOS

I ferment two liter batches at a time, and I get stressed out when I don’t have them in the fridge. Pickled jalapeños go on everything. They’re juicy, crunchy, and spicy. I just love them. I’ll throw them on hot dogs or nachos. And I reach for them literally any time I make a sandwich. Whether it’s deli meat or broiled zucchini and eggplant, pickled jalapeños are going between that bread.

8. HOMEMADE YOGURT

I was on a dairy research trip to Bulgaria earlier this year, and the grandmother we were staying with gave me a little vial of yogurt culture to take back to Copenhagen. I use it to make two liters of yogurt at a time, which lasts about a week. If I’m having breakfast at home, I’ll usually eat it with granola and berries or use it to make really fluffy pancakes.

9. MURI PASSING CLOUDS

After having a kid and a year of bad sleep, I’m a lightweight—one drink and I’m drunk. My girlfriend and I have been loving this non-alcoholic sparkling drink made from gooseberries, quince, kefir, jasmine tea, woodruff, and geranium kvass. Two ex-Noma fermenters started the brand. I buy it a lot. This is as enjoyable as an amazing pét-nat. You can buy it from select stores in California and New York.

10. TWO TYPES OF MAYONNAISE

I have two types of mayonnaise in my fridge at all times: Kewpie and Hellmann’s. No substitutes—you need both. It’s East and West, and there’s an ocean between them. The only place where I’ll cross cultural contexts is if I’m making a kimchi grilled cheese: I’ll make gochujang butter to spread on the inside and then put Kewpie on the outside, which caramelizes better than anything else.

Originally Appeared on Bon Appétit