After stories of René Redzepi’s abuse of staff resurfaced, protests and sponsorship cancellations eclipsed the restaurant’s pop-up
I
t was always going to be an indulgence for René Redzepi, the Danish-Albanian chef of Noma fame, to bring his exacting, innovative vision of haute cuisine to Los Angeles and spend several weeks tickling the palates of well-heeled diners at a hilltop estate once dubbed “the most beautiful home in Hollywood”.
The timing has certainly been unfortunate, since the US is now fighting a destabilizing war in the Middle East and food prices are climbing so steeply that many ordinary Americans can no longer afford to eat at McDonald’s, much less contemplate the counterintuitive delights of tacinga cactus, bougainvillea petals, mealworms and giant tuna eyes.
Now, though, with old stories resurfacing from what Redzepi himself has acknowledged to be a shameful history of physical and verbal abuse in the kitchen, the Noma residency in southern California is facing a full-blown public relations emergency. Protests and a rash of last-minute sponsorship cancellations overshadowed Wednesday’s opening, and with the entire 16-week residency suddenly in peril, Redzepi announced that he was stepping down from Noma after more than two decades at the helm.
