Noma

Chef Rene Redzepi of Copenhagen's three-Michelin-starred, "world's best" restaurant Noma, says the fine dining service model is now unsustainable after 20 ...

The modern fine-dining model that he helped create was no longer viable, Redzepi told the New York Times. [reported](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/09/dining/noma-closing-rene-redzepi.html) by the New York Times, the restaurant which pioneered the idea of New Nordic dining, and which has been responsible for the locavore, hyper-seasonal, high-acid cooking and Scandinavian minimalism that has dominated Western fine dining in the last decade and a half, “will become a full-time food laboratory.” [Noma](https://www.eater.com/noma), the serial “world’s best restaurant” and three-Michelin-starred venue in Copenhagen run by chef René Redzepi, has announced that it will permanently close in 2024.

Noma said it would transform into a food laboratory starting in 2025. · Chef Rene Redzepi has been hailed for reinventing Nordic cuisine, serving dishes such as ...

"To continue being noma, we must change... "In 2025, our restaurant is transforming into a giant lab -- a pioneering test kitchen dedicated to the work of food innovation and the development of new flavours, one that will share the fruits of our efforts more widely than ever before." Winter 2024 will be the last season of noma as we know it", the restaurant, wrote in a post on Instagram.

René Redzepi says his Copenhagen restaurant will shut at the end of 2024, to become a 'food laboratory'

This is simply too hard, and we have to work in a different way.” Noma has been named the world’s best restaurant a record five times, winning in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014 and 2021. The chef, who has been described as the most brilliant and influential of his era, has

The famed Copenhagen destination has come under scrutiny for its treatment of foreign workers and unpaid interns.

"To continue being Noma, we must change," the restaurant posted on Instagram on Monday. We hope you’ll join us on this new journey." "Therefore, dear guests and friends, we have some exciting news to share. [fine-dining destination Noma](https://www.thenationalnews.com/lifestyle/food/what-noma-did-next-michelin-starred-danish-restaurant-reopens-as-a-burger-bar-1.1020386) has revealed he will be shutting it down at the end of 2024. One former intern referred to Noma as a "toxic work environment" alleging that she was required to work in silence by the junior chefs she assisted and was specifically forbidden to laugh. “This is simply too hard, and we have to work in a different way."

Current version of Danish gastronomical icon will make way for a new food laboratory, according to founder and head chef, Rene Redzepi. Noma to transform ...

Instead, much of our time will be spent exploring new projects and developing many more ideas and products.” “And when we’ve gathered enough new ideas and flavors, we will do a season in Copenhagen. Is there somewhere we must go in the world to learn?

The Copenhagen institution, run by chef René Redzepi, will instead become “a full-time food laboratory”. As such, the team will spend most of their time ...

Since the restaurant opened in 2003 it has been named the world’s best restaurant a total of five times, and only earned its third Michelin star in the autumn of 2021. [As first reported by the New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/09/dining/noma-closing-rene-redzepi.html) [NYT](https://www.forbes.com/companies/new-york-times) [Noma](https://noma.dk/), the three-Michelin-starred and perma-award-winning “world’s best restaurant,” will close its doors in 2024.

Noma will close as a full-time restaurant in 2025, with the $505 per head foodie favourite focusing on pop-ups and innovation instead in order to secure a ...

Register for free to Reuters and know the full story "We will still serve guests in Copenhagen for shorter seasons, and through pop-ups, but the details are still to be worked out," a spokesperson for Noma told Reuters. "In 2025, our restaurant is transforming into a giant lab - a pioneering test kitchen dedicated to the work of food innovation and the development of new flavors," Noma said in a posting announcing the move on its website.

Chef René Redzepi said the modern fine-dining model is “unsustainable.”

“It’s unsustainable,” Redzepi said of the modern fine-dining model. “To continue being noma, we must change,” a post shared on the restaurant’s Instagram page on Monday read. [Noma](https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-noma-alumni-have-taken-over-copenhagen), the Copenhagen fine-dining institution widely considered the best restaurant in the world, is set to close for regular food service in 2024.

Owner of the Danish restaurant said it would shut its doors to regular service in winter of 2024 but would later reopen as a test kitchen.

It also [attracts diners who make pilgrimages from all around the world](https://www.wsj.com/articles/BL-SEB-81156?mod=article_inline) to try its multicourse menus. After Noma was first named the world’s best restaurant in 2010 on Restaurant magazine’s influential list, it received about 100,000 reservation requests a month for its 40-seat dining space. Redzepi opened Noma in Copenhagen in 2003, eventually becoming the crown jewel in a booming food scene. Redzepi said that starting in 2025, Noma would become a test kitchen and would sell products online. He said Noma would also have pop-ups around the world. Fine-dining establishments in particular have had trouble hawking expensive menus to patrons.

Founder René Redzepi says it is hard to make ends meet despite diners paying $760 for some dishes.

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"We have to completely rethink the industry. This is simply too hard," said Chef René Redzepi.

Redzepi, who has been hailed as one of the great innovators of the culinary industry for years, has previously acknowledged the challenges of maintaining Noma's high standards, while being able to give workers fair wages and working hours. "This is simply too hard, and we have to work in a different way." Meanwhile Ralph Fiennes and Anya Taylor-Joy are currently both [nominated for Golden Globes](https://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/arts-and-culture/a42218184/golden-globe-nominees-2023/) for their roles in The Menu, a horror take about an embittered chef at an ultra-exclusive restaurant who decides to kill all of the wealthy guests as his culinary swansong.

But after years of serving dishes based on locally foraged ingredients -- from reindeer brain custard with bee pollen to a quince and fermented rice ice cream ...

We're going to go build it now." The following year it will be reborn as a "giant lab," dubbed Noma 3.0. "(It will be) a pioneering test kitchen dedicated to the work of food innovation and the development of new flavors, one that will share the fruits of our efforts more widely than ever before," the restaurant said in a statement on its website.

Chef Rene Redzepi's house of Nordic gastronomy will close by the winter 2024 and re-emerge as Noma 3.0, the Copenhagen eatery said on its webpage. “In 2025, our ...

Instead, much of our time will be spent on exploring new projects and developing many more ideas and products.” Noma — a contraction of the Danish words for Nordisk and Mad, meaning Nordic and food, opened in 2003. After the sojourn, “we will do a season in Copenhagen."

Copenhagen eatery, regularly ranked as one of world's best, will become a test kitchen, billed as a food laboratory.

The restaurant announced last year that it would open for a stint in Kyoto for two months this year, from 15 March to 20 May. “To continue being Noma, we must change … “Serving guests will still be a part of who we are, but being a restaurant will no longer define us.

While the restaurant will soon accept its final reservation, chef Rene Redzepi said this is not the end of its story.

In announcing the rebrand, Redzepi said he would continue to travel to learn and potentially open Noma pop-ups in different places. After its previous re-branding, [it ranked No, 1 again](https://www.theworlds50best.com/the-list/1-10/Noma.html) in 2021. This is not the first time Noma has closed and re-branded. The However, the iconic Copenhagen, Denmark restaurant is expected to reopen in a new capacity. "Noma as you know it is closing as we begin a new chapter.

The Copenhagen restaurant that defined an era of fine dining announced that it will close its doors in 2024.

In the world of fine dining, interns are rarely paid, and routinely asked to maintain grueling work hours in exchange for the invaluable “experience” of working at a top restaurant. As Noma prepares to close, here are six allegations about working conditions that some interns faced at Noma. “Winter 2024 will be the last season of noma as we know it.” The restaurant is known for fantastical and sometimes eye roll–worthy dishes like Moldy Egg Tart and Reindeer Heart Tartare and garnered three Michelin stars in 2021, as well as several first-place rankings on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list. Once the restaurant closes its doors this final time, Noma will transform into a full-time food lab, which essentially means the newest player in the world of direct-to-consumer food products (like [Wild Rose Vinegar](https://nomaprojects.com/products/wild-rose-vinegar) and [Smoked Mushroom Garum](https://nomaprojects.com/products/smoked-mushroom-garum)) is the world’s most famous restaurant. “Financially and emotionally, as an employer and as a human being, it just doesn’t work.” No, really: After several announcements over the years that Noma was [temporarily closing](https://www.eater.com/2015/9/14/9324311/rene-redzepi-closes-noma-urban-garden), opening up pop-up locations in [Mexico](https://www.eater.com/2017/4/11/15259192/rene-redzepi-noma-mexico-tulum-open), [Japan](https://www.eater.com/2015/1/9/7520049/inside-noma-japan-ants-chocolate-covered-mushrooms-tokyo), or [Australia](https://www.eater.com/2016/1/28/10860246/noma-australia-menu-photos), becoming a [pandemic-era burger joint](https://www.theguardian.com/food/2020/nov/22/hold-the-18-course-dinners-noma-chef-opens-up-a-burger-joint) or otherwise reinventing itself, the renowned restaurant is shutting down.

Sea snails on Noma's first seafood menu. A yellow ramekin of sea snails on a gray plate. Jason Loucas/Noma. Like many whose Google News ...

And I hope that the next time a place exists that influences global cuisine so much, it is not because of fanaticism around a singular supposed genius, or the [rigidity of its philosophy](https://www.eater.com/2018/3/13/17102098/rene-redzepi-noma-restaurant-culinary-philosophy-conservative) (which [one Danish newspaper described](https://theworld.org/stories/2012-04-08/fascist-food-fight) as “fascism in avant-garde clothing”), but because it models some sort of real sustainability, both environmentally and in labor. Outside the cost and the schlep, Noma always seemed like it was built on the assumption of a diner’s reverence. There are enough Noma alums — and alums of restaurants opened by Noma alums — that Noma is all around us. [closing next year](https://london.eater.com/23546160/worlds-best-restaurant-noma-closing-rene-redzepi-copenhagen?_gl=1*7lp0od*) (to focus on e-commerce and the occasional pop-up). Dinner with a wine pairing [is 5,500](https://noma.dk/reservations/) krone (currently nearly $800), which amazingly is not as expensive as [some tasting menus in New York](https://ny.eater.com/2023/1/5/23539650/per-se-thomas-keller-tasting-menu-inflation-2023-nyc-restaurants), but is still a lot. Maybe I should have saved my money and used every connection possible to get a reservation and it would have been a singularly transcendent experience.

The famed Copenhagen restaurant Noma, voted the World's Best Restaurant multiple times, is closing its doors. Chef René Redzepi's fine-dining destination ...

The home gourmand e-commerce route is certainly one way to give a legendary restaurant with a difficult chef a dignified ending; [The Menu’s](https://www.vulture.com/article/the-menu-movie-restaurants-adam-platt.html) s’mores approach is another. These conditions, paired with the fastidious nature of the restaurant experience for customers, were one source of inspiration for Mark Mylod’s 2022 fine-dining satire [The Menu](https://www.vulture.com/article/the-menu-review-a-deliciously-mean-satire.html). In an interview with Thrillist, production designer Ethan Tobman [cited Noma](https://www.thrillist.com/eat/nation/the-menu-movie-behind-the-scenes-food) as an inspiration for the film’s fictional hyperlocal, hyperexpensive restaurant, Hawthorn. [Blue Hill at Stone Barns](https://www.eater.com/22996588/blue-hill-stone-barns-dan-barber-restaurant-work-environment-ingredients). “This is simply too hard, and we have to work in a different way.” Noma charges over $400 a seating before wine pairings, but it only began paying interns this past October. This news comes months after conductor Lydia Tár quipped in the hit film Tár that a nervous student’s music “sounds like René Redzepi’s recipe for reindeer.” Whether Redzepi is shuttering his successful culinary destination in direct response to getting epically owned by Lydia Tár has not been confirmed, but we mustn’t dismiss the possibility.

Chef Rene Redzepi's house of Nordic gastronomy will close by the winter of 2024 and re-emerge as Noma 3.0, the Copenhagen eatery said on its webpage.

Noma — a contraction of the Danish words for Nordisk and Mad, meaning Nordic and food, opened in 2003. Instead, much of our time will be spent on exploring new projects and developing many more ideas and products." After the sojourn, "we will do a season in Copenhagen."

Chef Rene Redzepi's house of Nordic gastronomy will close by the winter of 2024 and re-emerge as Noma 3.0, the Copenhagen eatery said on its webpage.

Noma — a contraction of the Danish words for Nordisk and Mad, meaning Nordic and food, opened in 2003. Instead, much of our time will be spent on exploring new projects and developing many more ideas and products." After the sojourn, "we will do a season in Copenhagen."

Chef Rene Redzepi's house of Nordic gastronomy will close by the winter of 2024 and re-emerge as Noma 3.0, the Copenhagen eatery said on its webpage.

Noma — a contraction of the Danish words for Nordisk and Mad, meaning Nordic and food, opened in 2003. Instead, much of our time will be spent on exploring new projects and developing many more ideas and products." After the sojourn, "we will do a season in Copenhagen."

Ferran was the trailblazing wizard of El Bulli on the Costa Brava— a supremely innovative kitchen that made culinary history. Rene had worked there briefly and ...

While Jose has built a successful business of several restaurants around the US, he has also become a secular saint. Munk is too young to have eaten at Ferran’s restaurant but he was enraptured by the presence of the master. It’s great to be part of history — but not really comforting to know you have become part of the past. In the interim, he took his operation overseas for elaborate pop-ups. However successful the endeavor, the next chapter will be very different from being the acclaimed chef of the best restaurant in the world. He had been working hard to turn the site of El Bulli into a center for innovation in all endeavors. I’d been following the evolution of the post-restaurant El Bulli and was aware that Ferran had so many ideas for the project that shaping it had become a monumental task in itself. I could see how he beamed when we ate at Rasmus Munk’s acclaimed Alchemist, where the cuisine is, in many ways, a living tribute to El Bulli. Rene had worked there briefly and credits Ferran with freeing the imagination of cooks around the world from the dominance of French gastronomy. That ambition had gotten a lot of attention but most of it derived from Ferran’s own compelling personality and his historic role in making Spain a mecca for the culinary avant-garde — or as he prefers to say in Spanish, la vanguardia. The news that he will close its doors as a restaurant at the end of 2024 brought me back to the afternoon of Sept. Ferran was the trailblazing wizard of El Bulli on the Costa Brava— a supremely innovative kitchen that made culinary history.

When chef René Redzepi opened Noma restaurant in Copenhagen in 2003, some critics jeered at his ambitious plan. How could one possibly offer a menu of only ...

The chef himself admitted in a 2015 essay that he had been a bully of a boss who had yelled and “pushed people,” and since then has said that he has done therapy to deal with his anger. “So I brought that back and applied it to my own environment, to Charleston.” “This is a crisis of the chef as artist.” “He’s so well-known now, he can just do private events, cook for billionaires, special weddings and work two months a year or whatever and make more than he’s making in the restaurant,” Cowen says. Dining there was as much about the experience as the food, which included reindeer and foraged greens. Paul Freeman, a history professor at Yale and the author of “Why Food Matters,” said that the labor issue was just one challenge to Redzepi’s model. At the end, the astronomical ambitions in the kitchen resulted in Noma growing into a monster that was impossible to master, even by its own creator.” in a restaurant when you can set your own schedule and price discriminate, charging the super wealthy?” For decades, chefs — even the celebrities considered to be at the height of their profession — weren’t expected to constantly and totally reinvent the culinary wheel. His creation of what came to be known as the “New Nordic” cuisine prompted imitators around the globe. “Serving guests will still be a part of who we are, but being a restaurant will no longer define us,” read a note to customers on the restaurant’s website hailing the new incarnation as Noma 3.0. The restaurant in 2025 will morph into a “giant lab” that will host pop-ups and/or temporarily open for a season, as well as develop products for the company’s e-commerce arm.

Noma's chef René Redzeppi called the business model "unsustainable"

"In 2025, our restaurant is transforming into a giant lab – a pioneering test kitchen dedicated to the work of food innovation and the development of new flavors." Additionally, throughout the show's first season, the restaurant's pastry cook Marcus, who's played by Lionel Boyce, is seen closely studying and replicating some of the techniques found in The Noma Guide to Fermentation. Alongside the reindeer's penis, the cooks at Noma made use of the heart, blood, and even the brain. The Copenhagen restaurant's chef and creator, [René Redzeppi told The New York Times the establishment would shut down](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/09/dining/noma-closing-rene-redzepi.html) regular service at the end of 2024, citing the "unsustainable" business model found in fine dining. "Today in school your son shared with his classmates that you are in Copenhagen on an adult trip and have been eating (pardon my language) 'tons of penis,'" the email read. The picture of the Noma menu had the restaurant's reindeer penis ragout circled among the 15 courses.

The Copenhagen restaurant that defined an era of fine dining announced that it will close its doors in 2024.

In the world of fine dining, interns are rarely paid, and routinely asked to maintain gruelling work hours in exchange for the invaluable “experience” of working at a top restaurant. [Noma](https://www.cntraveller.com/gallery/noma-copenhagen), the [Copenhagen](https://www.cntraveller.com/gallery/best-restaurants-copenhagen) restaurant that helped to define a genre of ultra high-end, locally foraged, and culinarily groundbreaking cuisine, announced that it will [close its doors in 2024](https://noma.dk/nomathreepointzero/). As Noma prepares to close, here are six allegations about working conditions that some interns faced at Noma. [a statement on the restaurant’s website](https://noma.dk/nomathreepointzero/). “Financially and emotionally, as an employer and as a human being, it just doesn’t work.” Once the restaurant closes its doors this final time, Noma will transform into a full-time food lab, which essentially means the newest player in the world of direct-to-consumer food products (like [Wild Rose Vinegar](https://nomaprojects.com/products/wild-rose-vinegar) and [Smoked Mushroom Garum](https://nomaprojects.com/products/smoked-mushroom-garum)) is the world’s most famous restaurant.

“What this news signifies to me is a flashing warning sign for the end of global fine dining,” says Dana Cowin, the New York City-based founder of Speaking ...

Yet, despite his best efforts [to shift his approach at Noma](https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/rene-redzepi-noma-bully-therapy-b2234367.html), Redzepi told the Times the model is unsustainable: “Financially and emotionally, as an employer and as a human being, it just doesn’t work.” Some saw it as a bad omen for the restaurant industry at large; if Noma, buoyed by prestige and $800 tasting menus, couldn’t make it work, where does that leave regular restaurants? Diners have been wising up to the grueling realities that underpin fine dining, thanks to shows and movies such as [The Menu](https://www.bonappetit.com/story/the-menu-movie-creators-interview), [Boiling Point](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/23/movies/boiling-point-review.html), and [The Bear](https://www.bonappetit.com/story/the-bear-hulu-toxic-restaurant-culture). Whether this is just classic Noma innovation—or an indication that fine dining is about to drastically change—still remains to be seen. Who will?

Noma, one of the world's most influential restaurants, is closing (again). The Copenhagen-based restaurant announced it will convert to a full-time ...

In May 2020, at the start of the pandemic, Noma pivoted to a [wine and burger bar](https://noma.dk/were-opening-a-wine-bar/) with takeaway options. But chef and founder Rene Redzepi told The New York Times that his pricey restaurant [never made him a wealthy man](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/09/dining/noma-closing-rene-redzepi.html), largely due to the costs of running a high-end restaurant committed to using high-quality ingredients It is this kind of math that has essentially sustained the fine-dining industry across the world. But even before the pandemic, restaurant workers were beginning to demand higher wages and better working conditions. Redzepi said that he’s come to believe that the fine-dining model is unsustainable. The Copenhagen-based restaurant announced it will convert to a full-time laboratory in 2025, dedicated to creating new products and flavors.