{"id":212344,"date":"2026-03-10T00:20:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T00:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/212344\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T00:20:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T00:20:08","slug":"high-end-noma-l-a-pop-up-will-still-open-despite-restaurant-abuse-controversy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/212344\/","title":{"rendered":"High-end Noma L.A. pop-up will still open despite restaurant abuse controversy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Resurfaced allegations of abuse and an expected protest won\u2019t stop Noma\u2019s sold-out Los Angeles pop-up, which is set to begin on Wednesday evening<\/a>. A spokesperson for the world-famous Copenhagen restaurant told The Times on Monday that plans for Noma\u2019s 16-week appearance in Silver Lake, with seats priced at $1,500 per guest<\/a>, will continue as scheduled.<\/p>\n

The pop-up, the allegations and a public apology by the restaurant\u2019s celebrity chef and co-founder Ren\u00e9 Redzepi are dividing the restaurant industry and renewing discussions of systemic imbalance and fair compensation.<\/p>\n

A former Noma employee has for weeks posted a series of anonymous messages to Instagram from other workers and interns recounting physical, verbal and emotional abuse sustained in years prior. These accounts were compiled and posted by Jason Ignacio White, who previously helmed Noma\u2019s fermentation lab. White also posts about his own mental health struggles during his years at the Copenhagen restaurant.<\/p>\n

A New York Times article<\/a> on Saturday reported accounts of abuse compiled from interviews with 35 former Noma staff, including instances of humiliation, physical violence and intimidation. According to the New York Times, these incidents occurred between 2009 and 2017.<\/p>\n

Redzepi could not be reached for comment, but on Saturday he posted an apology to those he hurt, and underscored that Noma has rectified practices with new initiatives, such as paying interns.<\/p>\n

\"Noma <\/p>\n

Noma chef Ren\u00e9 Redzepi, shown in Los Angeles, posted an apology to those he hurt on Saturday.<\/p>\n

(Laurie Ochoa \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

\u201cI cannot change who I was then,\u201d he wrote. \u201cBut I take responsibility for it and will keep doing the work to be better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Redzepi\u2019s post garnered tens of thousands of responses, including supportive words and heart emojis from some prominent L.A. chefs and restaurants. Less-encouraging comments called for further accountability and reflection.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a big proponent of: You\u2019re supposed to be better today than you were yesterday,\u201d said Pasta Bar chef-owner Phillip Frankland Lee in an interview.<\/p>\n

Frankland Lee operates three L.A. restaurants and commented on Redzepi\u2019s post with clapping emojis. While he said he does not condone the abuse in question, he felt called to support Redzepi\u2019s growth in the years since the allegations first surfaced.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s more important to give people the opportunity to reflect, apologize and set a better example,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople should have the right \u2014 and they have the obligation \u2014 to speak up, but we also need to, as a society, as people, also applaud people for getting better and doing better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other chefs said the statement came across as P.R. spin.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt like it was a bit canned, that it was specifically designed to deflect any type of legal responsibility,\u201d said Uy\u00ean L\u00ea, chef-owner of B\u00e9 \u00d9.<\/p>\n

Before opening her Vietnamese restaurant in Silver Lake, L\u00ea worked in labor organizing and research. She said she hopes the discussion of allegations against Noma will help bring systemic change in culture, compensation and whose voices are elevated in the kitchen.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope that we\u2019re actually going to focus on changing the culture and not just going, \u2018Oh, this guy has changed \u2014 he has mental health issues, but he\u2019s worked on it,\u2019\u201d L\u00ea said Monday. \u201cIt\u2019s not about this individual person. It\u2019s about a culture that is rotten and needs to change from the inside out.\u201d<\/p>\n

One L.A. chef who worked with Noma abroad expressed shock at the allegations. The chef requested anonymity for fear of public and industry retaliation, but shared that they are trying to square the accounts with the healthy kitchen practices they have seen firsthand at Noma in recent years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re still an inspiration to me, but we have to do something about it, and I do think that they have been for many years,\u201d the chef said. \u201cI equally empathize with both sides. It doesn\u2019t seem very bright right now, but I feel like the future is bright still.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, White plans to co-lead a protest of Noma\u2019s L.A. pop-up with worker-advocacy nonprofit One Fair Wage, which is calling for fair compensation within the restaurant industry, such as a proposed $30 wage floor in Los Angeles. Organizers also plan to deliver an open letter to Redzepi regarding the allegations of abuse.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe respect the right to protest peacefully and agree it is important to talk about the culture and standards in our industry,\u201d a representative for Noma said via email. \u201cNoma has participated in this dialogue for many years and taken strides to improve. We recognize change should have come sooner, and for that we are sorry.\u201d<\/p>\n

The resurfaced allegations against Redzepi and Noma have spurred others in the hospitality industry to publicly discuss their own experiences at other restaurants.<\/p>\n

Lindsey Danis, a former restaurant worker in the Bay Area, said she had a boss at a bakery where she worked in 2007 who was \u201cvery volatile\u201d and \u201cwould fly off the handle in screaming meltdowns,\u201d Danis said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt felt like she was treating us as if she was a dysfunctional family member and not the way a boss would treat their employees,\u201d Danis said.<\/p>\n

When she was in culinary school, an instructor of hers was transparent about his own experiences, explaining that a previous boss used to hit him with sheet pans. Danis said the instructor was trying to \u201cin a way prepare us for the fact that it wasn\u2019t going to be a warm and fuzzy environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

And people attracted to work in the industry tend to be \u201ca bit rebellious, a bit nonconformist, a bit eccentric,\u201d and so some take \u201ca bit of pride in the toughness of the work environment,\u201d Danis said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe more tough and gritty you are, the more respect you get from other people. And all of that is pretty dysfunctional.\u201d<\/p>\n

Danis said she saw examples of kitchens that did not have dysfunction, which encouraged her to remain in the industry before eventually exiting it entirely.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do wish as diners we stopped giving people passes for making really good food when they are total d\u2014 in the real world,\u201d she said. \u201cWe shouldn\u2019t keep going to those restaurants. There are so many other restaurants … so many chefs who are some of the most generous people in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Resurfaced allegations of abuse and an expected protest won\u2019t stop Noma\u2019s sold-out Los Angeles pop-up, which is set…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":212345,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[14048,38100,14080,16725,6522,97610,97611,48,52,51,97608,47,50,49,74534,592,74532,56778,97607,97609,72],"class_list":["post-212344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-abuse","tag-account","tag-bit","tag-celebrity-chef","tag-culture","tag-fair-compensation","tag-former-noma-employee","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-lindsey-danis","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-noma-l-a","tag-people","tag-redzepi","tag-restaurant-industry","tag-resurfaced-allegation","tag-uyen-le","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212344\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}