COPENHAGEN, Denmark: Following allegations of abuse and assault at the iconic Danish restaurant Noma, its founder and celebrity chef René Redzepi has stepped down.
Noma had won three Michelin stars and other international accolades for its innovative "New Nordic" cuisine.
For years, there had been reports of Redzepi mistreating his staff and using unpaid interns to staff the expensive restaurant, which was ranked first on the World's 50 Best Restaurants List five times. However, issues hit the headlines on social media recently, when an article in The New York Times detailed former employees' accounts of abuse just days ahead of the opening of a Noma pop-up in Los Angeles.
Sponsors have withdrawn funding for Noma's Southern California residency, which opened on March 11 with a small group of protesters outside. A meal at the event costs about US$1,500. Soon after, chef René Redzepi announced his resignation in an emotional video posted on Instagram.
In the caption of the March 12 post, Redzepi wrote that he had tried to become a better leader and that Noma had made many efforts over the years to change its workplace culture. He said he understood that those changes could not fix what happened in the past. Redzepi added that an apology alone was not enough and that he accepted responsibility for his own actions.
Jason Ignacio White, who previously led Noma's fermentation lab, gathered anonymous testimonies about alleged abuse at the restaurant and shared them on his Instagram page. The stories, which describe incidents ranging from verbal abuse to physical assault by Redzepi and some of his deputies, quickly spread widely online.
One unidentified person told White that they had been punched in the face while working during service at the restaurant.
Another person said working at Noma ruined their passion for the food industry. The person said they later struggled with severe anxiety and even experienced panic attacks at night. They added that the trauma and abuse, along with the feeling that nothing would ever improve, eventually made them leave the profession.
Redzepi has spoken publicly in the past decade about his aggressive behavior. After the New York Times report that included interviews with 35 former employees who worked at Noma between 2009 and 2017, he apologized again on Instagram, saying he had tried to change his behavior.
In 2016, Redzepi was knighted into the Order of the Dannebrog by Margrethe II.
Noma, Redzepi, and the Danish royal family's press office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Kristoffer Dahy Ernst, editor-in-chief of the Danish food magazine Gastro, said Redzepi needed to step down if the restaurant wanted any chance of surviving. Dahy Ernst told The Associated Press that Redzepi was the public face of Noma and essentially represented the restaurant itself. He added that if Noma wanted to solve its serious problems, it had to remove their source.
He said that before Noma became famous, Danish food culture was considered quite traditional. People mainly ate simple dishes such as open-faced rye-bread sandwiches and were not especially proud of their national cuisine.
The Copenhagen restaurant closed on March 12 as planned for the Los Angeles pop-up event. However, the nearby Noma café remained open, and visitors continued to stop by to buy coffee and specialty sauces.
