Many of you would have read the NYT's new hit piece. Here's some add-on from Eater.com:
What happens after the Noma report?
Over the weekend, the New York Times’s Julia Moskin published a major new report detailing years of alleged physical and psychological violence at Noma, the René Redzepi-led restaurant that has repeatedly attained the industry’s highest accolades. Moskin interviewed more than 35 former Noma employees who worked at the restaurant between 2009 and 2017, who shared experiences like stories of being subjected to physical violence by Redzepi — including claims of being jabbed with barbecue forks, punched in the face and ribs, and slammed into walls — as well as public shaming rituals in which Redzepi reportedly ridiculed cooks and made threats of blacklisting, deportation, and other forms of retaliation.
After years of swirling rumors, many people in the industry feel the report is long overdue. It’s not the first time that similar allegations have been levied against Redzepi, who in 2015 admitted to Lucky Peach that he’d been “a bully for a large part of my career.” (“I’ve yelled and pushed people. I’ve been a terrible boss at times,” he said at the time.) In another Noma story from 2023, Moskin described the chef as “famously rageful [and] mercurial” in his younger years. Noma has been forced to address its workplace issues several times in the past, including in 2013, when the restaurant faced backlash after allegations that it had blacklisted former workers, and in 2022, following outcry for its massive use of unpaid labor. (The restaurant began paying its interns in 2023.)
But Noma’s pricey forthcoming residency in Los Angeles, opening this Wednesday at $1,500 a ticket, has led to renewed scrutiny of Noma and what it represents in the dining world, as well as calls for accountability from Redzepi. Most notably in recent months, that’s come from Jason Ignacio White, the former head of Noma’s fermentation lab, who has been sharing stories of his own experiences at Noma and collecting others’ since early February, culminating in the website noma-abuse.com.
Redzepi issued a statement on Instagram this weekend, writing in part: “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.” He addressed having used physical aggression, “where I shouted and pushed people, acting in ways that are unacceptable.” He cites the ingrained culture of “shouting, humiliation, and fear” in kitchens when he started cooking, and said he turned to therapy over the past decade to manage his anger. This narrative has been central to Redzepi’s image in recent years: A 2022 Times of London feature described the chef as having “conquered his rage” with therapy. In that story, Redzepi claimed that his temper had been limited to “shouting and screaming” and that he had never hit any of his workers.
While Redzepi’s supporters, who can be found in the comments of his statement, commend the chef for his “courage” to “reflect” — referencing the “ghosts” of the past, the intensity of kitchens, and the pressures of high standards — many members of the industry aren’t buying Redzepi’s apology, which was published prior to Moskin’s report. “The statement is nothing more than a strategically timed act aimed at managing reputation, and protecting brand and financial sponsorial funnels,” wrote Lisa Dunbar, who writes about hospitality work culture on social media. (Her call-out of exploitative structures in fine dining recently prompted a public rebuttal from Noma alum Christian Puglisi.)
The pandemic period, which revealed many similar cases of workplace violations and abuse, led to a reassessment of the chef-auteur narrative and greater skepticism about putting chefs on public pedestals, as many chefs once lauded as geniuses have also been outed as problematic figures. Redezpi himself has remained relatively unscathed until now: Noma’s months-long LA residency sold out in just three minutes in January.
The website noma-abuse.com currently claims “9.2 million views” and yet “0 held accountable.” That’s the question that remains after Moskin’s report: What does accountability mean here, especially when Redzepi’s influence persists across the industry in so many ways? Noma’s residency is still booked solid, and the restaurant will no doubt remain a paragon for a particular type of young chef. As Mehmet Çekirge, a former Noma intern, told Moskin, the culture of violence extended beyond Redzepi alone: “René raised a generation of bullies, and they bullied us.”
This definitely isn’t the end of the current Noma reckoning: On Wednesday, March 11, White’s protests at Noma’s LA residency will begin.