Celebrity chef Rene Redzepi, co-founder of Copenhagen’s Noma, steps down

[NEW YORK] Chef Rene Redzepi resigned on Wednesday (Mar 11) from Noma, the restaurant he co-founded in 2003 and led to international acclaim.

The move came after recent reports in The New York Times and on social media about his abuse of employees at Noma in the 2000s and 2010s. The allegations overshadowed the debut of Noma’s 16-week pop-up in Los Angeles, where protesters gathered on Wednesday, waving signs and chanting.

In a statement on Instagram, he wrote: “The recent weeks have brought attention and important conversations about our restaurant, industry and my past leadership...

“I have worked to be a better leader, and Noma has taken big steps to transform the culture over many years. I recognise these changes do not repair the past. An apology is not enough; I take responsibility for my own actions...

“After more than two decades of building and leading this restaurant, I’ve decided to step away and allow our extraordinary leaders to now guide the restaurant into its next chapter. I have also resigned from the board of MAD, the non-profit organisation I founded in 2011.”

Redzepi also posted a tearful video of himself apologising to his staff.

The decision came days after the Times published a report based on independent interviews with some 35 former employees who said that Redzepi had engaged in workplace abuse from 2009 to 2017, when the restaurant in Copenhagen, Denmark, was building its reputation for innovative, artfully arranged dishes composed of ingredients harvested from the Scandinavian landscape.

In the preceding weeks, Jason Ignacio White, a former Noma employee, had been gathering allegations of workplace abuse sent to him by numerous other Noma alumni and posting them on Instagram. Those posts have been viewed more than 17 million times.

Between 2009 and 2017, the employees told the Times, Redzepi punched members of the staff, jabbed them with kitchen implements and slammed them against walls. They described lasting trauma from layers of psychological abuse, including intimidation, body shaming and public ridicule.

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Redzepi, they said, threatened to use his influence to get them blacklisted from restaurants around the world, to have their families deported, or to get their wives fired from their jobs at other businesses.

Prominent corporate sponsors of the pop-up, including Cadillac, Resy American Express and the restaurant loyalty platform Blackbird, had pulled back from the Los Angeles event in recent days.

Redzepi had previously acknowledged being a bully and verbally abusing employees. He apologised for the physical abuse on Saturday, but that statement did not promise any specific actions that would have demonstrated accountability to victims and the public.

As for what Wednesday’s decision means for Noma, in his resignation post, Redzepi wrote: “For anyone wondering what this means for the restaurant, let me say it clearly: the Noma team today is the strongest and most inspiring it has ever been. We’ve been open for 23 years, and I’m incredibly proud of our people, our creativity and the direction Noma is heading. This team will carry forward together into our LA residency.”

He did not name a successor. NYTIMES