What happens when the restaurant widely believed to be the best in the world implodes? Seems like we’re about to find out.
Noma, which opened in 2003 and has earned a generous sprinkling of Michelin stars since 2011, opened its long anticipated Los Angeles residency on March 11. In the weeks leading up to opening night, discourse burbled along healthily. Angelenos’ eyes bulged at the $1,500-a-head price tag. They gossiped about the private school at which Noma might enroll its relocated chef’s children. Critics wondered how successful this next iteration of Noma might be. Simultaneously, a much more serious conversation came to a boil on Instagram as former chefs and interns at Noma posted allegations of abuse against founder René Redzepi.
This week, we’re getting into the ins and outs of the Noma controversy. How did we get here, and where do things stand amid the public outcry against its founder and figurehead? —Sam Stone, staff writer
Noma announces an LA residency, to mixed reactions
The near-instantaneous sellout of tickets to Noma’s LA residency, where the team plans to transport its Copenhagen-borne ethos to Silver Lake for four months, might suggest unanimous enthusiasm—in a vacuum. On the contrary, LA-based chefs expressed mixed feelings: optimism that the pop-up would bring visibility to the local dining scene, and apprehension that it could siphon reservations away from their restaurants.
Chefs who formerly worked under Redzepi took to social media with more troubled reactions.
Former workers allege abuse from chef René Redzepi, culminating in a New York Times investigation
The Instagram page of Jason Ignacio White, a former head of Noma’s fermentation lab, is plastered with screenshots of anonymous DMs, all allegedly from former Noma chefs who experienced abuse and exploitation at the hands of Redzepi. They began to flow in after White began sharing criticism of Noma and its head chef on his account in early February.
The New York Times followed the trail, publishing an investigation on March 7 (just four days before the pop-up’s opening) that “independently [interviewed] 35 former employees, whose accounts trace a pattern of physical punishment Mr. Redzepi inflicted on his staff,” writes reporter Julia Moskin. “Between 2009 and 2017, they said, he punched employees in the face, jabbed them with kitchen implements, and slammed them against walls. They described lasting trauma from layers of psychological abuse, including intimidation, body shaming and public ridicule. Mr. Redzepi, they said, threatened to use his influence to get them blacklisted from restaurants around the world, to have their families deported, or to get their wives fired from their jobs at other businesses.”
Redzepi responded in a statement to the Times, writing: “Although I don’t recognize all details in these stories, I can see enough of my past behavior reflected in them to understand that my actions were harmful to people who worked with me. To those who have suffered under my leadership, my bad judgment, or my anger, I am deeply sorry and I have worked to change.”
Sponsors pull out, protesters congregate in LA
As Noma criticism gained traction, many sponsors underwriting its pop-up took notice. Both American Express and Blackbird pulled their support after previously buying up blocks of tickets to sell exclusively to their cardholders and members. Blackbird explicitly expressed moral qualms with Redzepi’s reported behavior in a statement to the Times.
“René’s past practices, by his own admission, were unacceptable and abhorrent,” wrote Blackbird’s founder Ben Leventhal. “We cannot lean on time elapsed and rehabilitation claims when these things resurface.”
Amex said customers who had already purchased tickets could request refunds, and the company would “reinvest the proceeds” of any remaining, un-refunded tickets toward hospitality workers in the area. The other three nights of the pop-up, which American Express had purchased but not yet released, will be “given back to Noma,” a spokesperson told the Times.
