Renowned for its meticulous and highly innovative dishes, the Copenhagen restaurant Noma, won’t continue its fine dining service from 2025 onwards. Reputable chef René Redzepi will be shifting his role from chef to creative officer, namely for Noma Projects, their very own e-commerce operation, focusing on the sale of special pantry products among other endeavours.
Chef René Redzepi owes his highly esteemed reputation to his ingenious plates, topped with grilled reindeer heart accompanied by fresh pine or the exquisite saffron ice cream in beeswax bowl, for instance. A multi-course tasting menu experience usually worth $500. The chef is internationally recognised for challenging fine-dining conventions, disregarding completely French foie gras or Italian truffles and favouring locally sourced spruce tips, two-year-old carrots and duck brains. The cooking genre has been labelled as “New Nordic”, which has seen Scandinavia become an elite destination for haute cuisine.
Noma was awarded three Michelin stars as well as a Michelin Green star, which is given for sustainability. The restaurant was also voted “best restaurant in the world” in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014 and 2021 on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list.
However, the gastronomic restaurant will come to an end after the chef himself deemed the demanding work hours as well as intense workplace culture as “unsustainable”. Multiple chefs as well as employees have come forward about the behind-the-scenes in the gastronomy industry, where poor salaries, tremendous stress and pressure affect workers. Nonetheless, numerous cooking students or graduates will still tolerate the working conditions as long as they can have some professional experience at one of the top restaurants worldwide.
Although the restaurants will be closed from 2025 onwards, dining rooms will become available for temporary pop-ups. The Chef will work as a creative officer for Noma Projects, which will become a pioneering test kitchen dedicated to the work of food innovation and the development of new flavors. For now, Redzepi is currently in Kyoto, Japan to study kaiseki cuisine – a traditional multi-course Japanese dinner, and will be returning this spring.
Source: New York Times
More information: www.noma.dk