Noma chef responds to abuse allegations ahead of pricey L.A. pop-up

The celebrity chef of Noma, one of the most influential restaurants in the world, responded Saturday to abuse allegations that resurfaced ahead of the launch of his sold-out Los Angeles pop-up, igniting discussions about working conditions and exploitation in the high-end dining industry.

Former employees and interns detailed physical and verbal abuse allegations by Danish chef René Redzepi in an article published by the New York Times. Redzepi became a figurehead for the Copenhagen restaurant as well as a global authority on fine dining, fermentation and foraging since Noma’s founding in 2003.

The report comes after former Noma employee Jason Ignacio White, who previously headed its fermentation lab, last month began posting abuse allegations on Instagram from others who had also worked at the restaurant. White is organizing a protest of the L.A. pop-up, which begins in Silver Lake on Wednesday.

The New York Times story centered on accounts from 35 former staff, including alleged instances of “psychological abuse, including intimidation, body shaming and public ridicule” in addition to stabbing, punching, kicking and employment retaliation that occurred between 2009 and 2017.

Many of the allegations were known from previously published accounts.

Both Redzepi and representatives for Noma say that these allegations reflect the restaurant’s past and not its current state, and that the organization installed multiple systems — including new human resources practices, payment of interns, and “improved hours and time off” — when allegations arose years prior.

On Saturday morning the chef responded to the article with a post online, apologizing to those affected. He noted he has been open about his abusive history in the past, and has since sought therapy and stepped away from Noma’s “day-to-day service.”

In a 2015 essay he wrote, “I’ve been a bully for a large part of my career. I’ve yelled and pushed people. I’ve been a terrible boss at times.”

A representative for Noma said in an email on Saturday that the restaurant has “improved the process to address concerns” and is conducting an ongoing independent audit of its practices.

“I knew I needed to change, and I wanted to change,” Redzepi wrote Saturday on Instagram. “Since then, I have been determined to understand my anger and deal with it differently. … The organization we are today is very different from the one we started with. I’m grateful for our team and the way they have helped transform our kitchen culture and their dedication to move the industry forward.”

He added: “I cannot change who I was then. But I take responsibility for it and will keep doing the work to be better.”

The investigative story appeared days before Noma is set to begin a 16-week pop-up in Silver Lake, with tickets priced at $1,500. The tickets sold out nearly instantly, with Redzepi posting on Instagram in January that they were “gone in 60 seconds.”

A pop-up shop for Noma products such as coffee and hot sauce is also planned in L.A. Noma has also held two collaborative pop-ups, first at Courage Bagels, then at Holbox, aimed at making its cooking more accessible for Angelenos.

White plans to lead a protest against the pop-up co-organized with wage-advocacy nonprofit One Fair Wage. According to an email from One Fair Wage, organizers will issue a letter to Redzepi “calling for dialogue, reparations for harmed workers, and structural changes to address exploitative labor practices that advocates say are widespread across the restaurant industry.”

White declined to comment on the protests or allegations prior to the New York Times article’s publication and could not be reached for comment on Saturday after its release.

He later posted to his personal Instagram stories: “History will be made in Silver Lake. … Together we will stand against violence and exploitation. This is just the beginning. We will take our whole industry back.”