The decision of René Redzepi, the worldwide imitated Danish chef and considered a global visionary, has caught us all by surprise. He confessed that his business model has run out and closes No mom at the end of 2024, his restaurant in Copenhagen where the menu costs 470 euros plus drink. “It is unsustainable” and “we must rethink the industry.” It is impossible to fairly reward a hundred employees. In an ideal restaurant they can work four days a week, feel safe and creative. “The problem is how to pay enough to cover your needs,” he confessed to the NYT, the American newspaper.
The journalist Julia Moskin, in addition to reviewing the career of Redzepi, one of the greats of his generation, talks about his chiaroscuro like when he made a public mea culpa years ago when he recognized his angry attacks against his employees for which he did therapy and meditation. She also speculates that the decision may be due to the fact that it has been at the top of the gastronomic lists for a long time and cannot go any further, and that when paying the fellows, the losses have skyrocketed since the monthly expense is 50 thousand euros.
Likewise, Moskin, specialized in culinary and gastronomic trends, awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 2018 for research work on sexual abuse in the workplace, recalls that exploitation and abuse in kitchens still persists in a society like Denmark, which has It has been analyzed by an activist, who, like many others, talks about the codes of loyalty towards Redzepi among students, workers and colleagues in Copenhagen, which prevent them from talking about working conditions, sexual abuse and other problems.
She recounts that a practitioner spent three months in Noma during which, in addition to paying for her stay, without receiving remuneration, she worked grueling hours, sixteen hours on average, lived with high doses of stress, and worked in silence because it was forbidden to laugh. All she did was assemble fruit skin beetles without ever having any interaction with Redzepi. The press spokesperson responded that her inmates have repetitive experiences but the one reported does not reflect reality.
Starting in 2025, Noma, with twenty years of history, will be a giant laboratory in which new flavors will be created. Redzepi is an expert in fermented foods, foods transformed by microorganisms. There are everything from breads, misos, dairy products to fruits and vegetables.
Among the first products launched to the general public online, and which sold out before going on sale, are smoked mushroom garum and wild rose vinegar from Danish beaches, an invasive species brought from Japan seventy years ago to counter the winds and the erosion of the coastline.
Another bet will be the pop ups or ephemeral restaurants like those made in Japan where he went after umami, Australia meant an immersion in sea food and in Mexico, Tulum, in addition to having been a trip to the universe of spicy, he met the enigmatic taste of suckling pig that fascinated him.
I have never been to Noma, but Ignacio Medina, gastronomic journalist and editor of the online magazine 7 Caníbales, has been there for years. He defines it as “a kitchen without emotions; very nordic, very cold”. Regarding Redzepi’s decision, he believes that “it is his right, but it seems that he no longer cares so much about sustainability. Pop up all over the world, to leave a carbon footprint. Some cooks undress themselves ”, he tells me and leaves me with more questions. Is haute cuisine cracking? Will online business be a trend? Will the interns be paid? Will the schedules stop being wild?
see more
#haute #cuisine #cracking