René Redzepi, founder and celebrity chef at iconic Danish restaurant Noma, has stepped down from his post after being accused of abuse and assault at the Copenhagen landmark.
Copenhagen, Denmark — René Redzepi, the founder and celebrity chef of iconic Danish restaurant Noma, which has won three Michelin stars and other international awards for its innovative “New Nordic” cuisine, has stepped down from his post after being accused of abuse and assault at the Copenhagen landmark.
Redzepi has been frustrated by reports of misbehavior by his staff and years of using unpaid interns to staff the pricey restaurant, which has been ranked first in the world’s 50 best restaurants five times. But criticism recently came to a head on social media, and an article in the New York Times detailed accounts of abuse from former employees just days before Noma’s pop-up opened in Los Angeles.
Sponsors have withdrawn their funding for the Southern California residency, which opened Wednesday to a small gathering of protesters and where meals cost $1,500. Redzepi soon announced his resignation with a tearful video on Instagram.
“I have worked to become a better leader and have taken big steps to transform the culture at Noma over the years,” he wrote in the post’s caption Thursday. “I recognize that these changes do not make up for the past. An apology is not enough; I take responsibility for my own actions.”
Jason Ignacio White, former head of Noma’s fermentation lab, collected anonymous testimonies of alleged abuse at the restaurant and posted them to his Instagram page. Accounts of verbal abuse to physical assault at the hands of Redzepi and his representatives have gone viral.
“I got punched in the face during the service there,” an unnamed person wrote to White.
Another said: “Noma destroyed my passion for the industry. I struggled with severe anxiety, bad enough to give me panic attacks in the middle of the night. The trauma, abuse and the idea that nothing would ever change made me walk away from the career.”
Redzepi was knighted in 2016 by the then Queen Margrethe II of Denmark in the Order of the Danebrog.
Noma, Redzepi and the Danish royal family’s press department did not immediately return requests for comment on Thursday. __
Dazio reports from Berlin.
Technology for translation
