Does fine dining have a toxic chef problem? |
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Does fine dining have a toxic chef problem?
Why new allegations against a high-profile chef are prompting a reckoning in the world of haute cuisine.
One of the most acclaimed restaurants in the world, Noma, opened a pop-up in Los Angeles on March 11.
It was supposed to be a joyous occasion for Noma head chef and co-founder René Redzepi and the staff, who relocated from Copenhagen, Denmark, for the sold-out 16-week stint.
But Noma LA’s opening has been mired in controversy — not only because it costs $1,500 for a meal, but because of new allegations that Redzepi physically and psychologically abused staff members and interns for years.
The accusations were first posted on Instagram in February by Jason Ignacio White, a former head of Noma’s fermentation lab. Further reporting by the New York Times’s Julia Moskin included accounts by 35 former Noma staffers of Redzepi punching, jabbing, and berating employees between 2009 and 2017.
Some of these accounts have been known for years, with clips from the 2008 documentary Noma at Boiling Point circulating on social media that show Redzepi screaming and cursing at employees.
Redzepi himself acknowledged his bad behavior in a 2015 column in Lucky Peach magazine. He says that the culture at the restaurant has changed since these alleged abuses took place.
But the latest charges are prompting another round of soul-searching in the fine dining world, and raise questions of what it will take to dismantle the toxic culture that has permeated so many kitchens.
To understand what might come out of this reckoning, Today, Explained co-host Sean Rameswaram spoke with Helen Rosner. She’s a staff writer and restaurant critic at the New Yorker and author of their weekly column The Food Scene.
Below is an excerpt of their conversation, edited for length and clarity. There’s much more in the full podcast, so listen to Today, Explained wherever you get podcasts, including Apple Podcasts, Pandora, and Spotify.
Why do you think this story about René Redzepi is getting such a big reaction? We know that chefs like him, and even him, have been accused of very bad behavior before.
Noma is quite simply the most important restaurant in the world, which sounds like a big hyperbolic thing to say, but it is the truth. I think that there is no single restaurant on the planet that is as influential for the fine dining scene, that is as contributive to this sort of trickle-down of trend and philosophy and the way of thinking and the way of doing business.
René Redzepi is........