One of the best restaurants in the world, Noma, will close in 2024 due to overwork and employee complaints about working conditions

The Noma restaurant in Copenhagen, named the best restaurant in the world in 2021, will no longer receive visitors from 2024. Its chef, René Redzepi, explained that the decision was made due to regular overtime of employees and poor working conditions. After closing, the restaurant will be converted into a food laboratory.

“I hope that we can prove to the world that it is possible to grow old, be creative and have fun in the gastronomy industry instead of hard, exhausting and low-paid work with bad management that exhausts people,” said René Redzepi in an interview. The New York Times (NYT).

After the closure, the restaurant will be developing new dishes and products for its Noma Projects online store, he said. From time to time visitors will be received at the restaurant. René Redzepi will be doing the job more of a creative director than a chef, he explained.

According to Mr. Redzepe, the principle of fair compensation to employees for grueling hours of work to maintain high standards of work at Noma does not work. In an interview with NYT, René Redzepi notes that the restaurant industry needs to be “completely rethought.”

The restaurant employs dozens of people, while 20 to 30 of them are interns, they began to pay only in November 2022. Restaurant employees told the media that 16-hour shifts, including for unpaid interns, were commonplace for Noma.

Noma opened in Copenhagen in 2003 and specializes in Scandinavian cuisine. The restaurant was recognized as the best in the world in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014 and 2021. It also has three Michelin stars.

Olesya Pavlenko