Back in June, René Redzepi, the founder of Noma who has faced a litany of allegations of workplace abuse, announced that he would be returning to Noma. The chef “stepped back” after more than 35 former employees alleged abuses including punching and stabbing people with forks. But after fewer than five months, Redzepi will step right back into the restaurant he founded as a creative director. Redzepi says he’s gone to therapy and that his abuses are all in the past, but as the New York Times reported, many former employees feel he’s never been held properly to account.
Last week, Matt Rodbard, editor of Taste, was asked on the LA Food Podcast’s “Chef’s Kiss or Big Miss” segment what he thought about Redzepi’s return [Disclosure: I know Rodbard and I occasionally write newsletters for Taste]. “I think what he did was horrible, it’s shameful,” he said, which could have stayed a complete sentence. But he went on to say Noma staying open with Redzepi on the team is a positive thing. “I think René Redzepi is important, and him having a restaurant open is important to food culture.” Rodbard noted Noma’s influential alumni network, and said he imagines Redzepi has learned a lot in the past year. For him, having Redzepi at Noma is a good thing for food culture writ large.
His comments, which many other food media personalities vocally disagreed with in the comments on LA Food Podcast’s Instagram [Editor's Note: The LA Food Podcast Instagram post in question was removed on the morning of Wednesday, August 19 without explanation, but the podcast remains], got me thinking about the idea of importance. Rodbard is not wrong about Noma’s clout. Chefs who worked at Noma have gone on to open other celebrated restaurants, and the restaurant’s acclaim influenced much of the fine dining world to adopt bits of its New Nordic style and ethos, whether that was an emphasis on fermentation or foraged, seasonal ingredients. Redzepi has appeared on numerous food shows like Ugly Delicious and The Mind of a Chef, and created Omnivore for Apple TV+. There was a whole plotline on The Bear about Noma, and it’s likely we wouldn’t have the movie The Menu without it. Fine dining, and to an extent pop culture, would not look the way it does today without Noma.
So what?
I do not know what is in Redzepi’s heart and I’ve never dined at Noma, so it is not for me to decide whether or not Redzepi has properly atoned or if the restaurant is good. But “importance” isn’t a justification for abuse, or really for anything. Just because a restaurant, or a chef, has had an influence doesn’t mean it needs to keep doing so forever, regardless of other considerations. That Noma or Redzepi have shaped food culture is irrelevant to any discussion of whether or not Redzepi should continue to profit off of it, whether he should be in a position of power over people he allegedly abused, or whether Noma should exist at all.
Yes, Noma was important. But saying it’s important for Redzepi to continue in a leadership position at this restaurant reinforces the idea that the abusive culture documented at Noma, or any other restaurant, is somehow acceptable. Noma is obviously not the only kitchen in which abuse has thrived, but the high-stress environment and pressure to endure abuse in the kitchen can lead to things like substance abuse and mental health issues. Redzepi’s behavior reportedly emboldened his subordinates to mimic his behavior. “René raised a generation of bullies, and they bullied us,” Mehmet Çekirge, a former Noma intern, told the New York Times. Noma and Redzepi’s career accolades were built on that “bullying,” so to say he is a great man who should retain his power supports the notion that the abuse was excusable in service to his greatness or food culture at large.
If Noma didn’t exist, those acclaimed alumni would have come from elsewhere and been inspired by other people. It’s not like Redzepi invented fermentation or foraging. And Noma has been open for 23 years, a long tenure for any restaurant. Even if you love what Noma has brought to food culture, it’s already done that. It could close tomorrow and have made its mark.
I don’t particularly care what happens to Noma. If it’s going to stay open with Redzepi on board in some way, then I do hope that the abuses have stopped, that Redzepi has made personal amends, and that everyone working there feels safe and supported. But it doesn’t need to exist. No restaurant, no matter its influence, does.
If you or anyone you know is suffering from a mental health crisis, needs counseling, or needs help with addiction, contact the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration hotline 24-hours a day at 1-800-622-HELP (4357).
Luckily, we don't have to worry about a rich VC bro who has been to Noma 11 times getting mad at our coverage. Ravenous is funded by readers like you, so subscribe today!
New on Ravenous This Week
Ashok Selvam
Amy McCarthy
🐦⬛ Bird Droppings
- Alison Cook, the former restaurant critic at the Houston Chronicle, wrote about how she’s less forgiving of bad restaurant dishes now that she no longer has a corporate budget. “So I go out, but less impulsively. More judgmentally. More frugally, attuned to cost in a way I wish I had been when I was reviewing.” Keeping up with food culture is expensive, which is why maybe it's no surprise so many publications have pulled back on it.
- Will you please look at all the costumes at the Telluride Mushroom Festival.
- You should also look at all these photos of Bad Bunny eating with his pet beagle, part of Vogue's "Dogue" issue.
- In the middle of a divorce, who keeps the Rancho Gordo Bean Club? Coyote investigates.
