A decision that comes on the grounds of the fine dining model being 'unsustainable', Noma will close its dine-in doors and go global
Chef Rene Redzepi's Nordic legacy will be entering a new phase, as his Copenhagen restaurant Noma awarded the title of being the world's best restaurant multiple times, will be shutting down in 2024 to move away from the restaurant model on to a new journey – to transform into a full-time food lab.
Calling it Noma 3.0, the restaurant's website clarifies that it will become a pioneering test kitchen dedicated to the work of food innovation and the development of new flavours and that this new phase will mean a series of pop-ups, including doing a season in Copenhagen. "Serving guests will still be a part of who we are, but being a restaurant will no longer define us," the release adds.
Taking an AMA on his Instagram handle after announcing the move, Redzepi has addressed some questions that are on all our minds right now.
While the idea is to make Noma's innovations and products more accessible, Redzepi admits that getting a table at Noma pop-ups will get harder than it already has been at the famed Copenhagen restaurant (it used to be booked three months in advance typically). And that seems plausible, as Redzepi shares that their upcoming Kyoto pop-up was sold out in under a minute of the announcement.
In an interview with the New York Times, Redzepi indicated that the financial sustainability of a fine dining restaurant is blurry, saying, Redzepi told The New York Times. "It's unsustainable," he said. "Financially and emotionally, as an employer and as a human being, it just doesn't work."
Whether this sentiment will be echoed by other establishments worldwide or just start a conversation on whether there's a need to rethink fine dining is for us to wait and see.
Image credit: Getty Images
Chef Rene Redzepi's Nordic legacy will be entering a new phase, as his Copenhagen restaurant Noma awarded the title of being the world's best restaurant multiple times, will be shutting down in 2024 to move away from the restaurant model on to a new journey – to transform into a full-time food lab.
Calling it Noma 3.0, the restaurant's website clarifies that it will become a pioneering test kitchen dedicated to the work of food innovation and the development of new flavours and that this new phase will mean a series of pop-ups, including doing a season in Copenhagen. "Serving guests will still be a part of who we are, but being a restaurant will no longer define us," the release adds.
Taking an AMA on his Instagram handle after announcing the move, Redzepi has addressed some questions that are on all our minds right now.
View this post on Instagram
Is Noma shut for good?
"We want to be an organisation that can do groundbreaking work with food, for food, for decades to come, and we can't do that with the way things are going right now. It's a scary feeling, but I know it's the right thing to do. As soon as the pandemic hit, I knew that it was time to do something different. So this has been two years in the planning," he shares.While the idea is to make Noma's innovations and products more accessible, Redzepi admits that getting a table at Noma pop-ups will get harder than it already has been at the famed Copenhagen restaurant (it used to be booked three months in advance typically). And that seems plausible, as Redzepi shares that their upcoming Kyoto pop-up was sold out in under a minute of the announcement.
View this post on Instagram
Will Noma 3.0 still be open to diners?
"We will have moments during the year where we will be open, it could be Copenhagen or somewhere else in the world – but it won't be year-long," he says, promising to delve more in 2025.In an interview with the New York Times, Redzepi indicated that the financial sustainability of a fine dining restaurant is blurry, saying, Redzepi told The New York Times. "It's unsustainable," he said. "Financially and emotionally, as an employer and as a human being, it just doesn't work."
Whether this sentiment will be echoed by other establishments worldwide or just start a conversation on whether there's a need to rethink fine dining is for us to wait and see.
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