{"id":214556,"date":"2026-03-11T08:39:21","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T08:39:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/214556\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T08:39:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T08:39:21","slug":"rene-redzepi-accused-of-abuse-ahead-of-1500-l-a-pop-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/214556\/","title":{"rendered":"Ren\u00e9 Redzepi Accused of Abuse Ahead of $1,500 L.A. Pop-Up"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ren\u00e9 Redzepi has spoken out after being accused of abuse by former staff members, pointing to restaurant culture as cause<\/p>\n

World-renowned chef Ren\u00e9 Redzepi\u2019s $1,500 Los Angeles pop-up<\/a> sold out almost instantly. Now, he\u2019s feeling the heat as old controversy resurfaces.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On Saturday, The New York Times published an expos\u00e9 chronicling allegations of abuse from 35 former employees of Noma, a three-Michelin-star restaurant founded by Redzepi in Copenhagen. In the article, sources accuse the chef of punching, kicking and stabbing staff, citing the bullying as a regular occurrence.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cGoing to work felt like going to war,\u201d one former employee named Alessia told The New York Times. \u201cYou had to force yourself to be strong, to show no fear.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to abusive behavior from Redzepi, coveted internship positions at the restaurant, which often included 16-hour days, were unpaid and were accused of exploitation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"Credit: Credit: Audrey Ma<\/p>\n

Noma first opened in 2003, with Redzepi gaining worldwide recognition for transforming fine-dining through his foraging and fermentation methods. The restaurant was listed as the world\u2019s best restaurant<\/a> five times.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Once the #MeToo movement hit and social justice advocates\u2019 voices were amplified, behavior by leadership at Noma was difficult to ignore.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2022, Redzepi announced interns would begin to receive pay, but later labeled fine-dining as \u201cunsustainable\u201d and closed his restaurant.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Scroll to continue reading<\/p>\n

Now, Noma operates in \u201cseasons,\u201d hosting pop-ups around the world each year. Its Los Angeles 16-week residency will take place from March 11 through June 26 in Silver Lake.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Following the release of the article, Redzepi promptly spoke out online, addressing the allegations and acknowledging harmful behavior. He pointed to the culture of kitchens in his past, where he suffered his own abuse as an answer for his actions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Redzepi then wrote that he has sought out therapy and stepped away from \u201cleading the day-to-day service,\u201d which has helped him better manage his anger.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough I don\u2019t recognize all details in these stories, I can see enough of my past behavior reflected in them to understand that my actions were harmful to people who worked with me,\u201d he wrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jason Ignacio White, former head of Redzepi\u2019s fermentation lab, is now using Instagram to voice critiques of the chef.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMy global fermentation tour is over. All restaurant collaborations are canceled,\u201d White wrote. \u201cI am now dedicating my life to helping our industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

He is using his platform to share abuse stories from alleged former employees of Noma. Additionally, White also plans to take part in a labor protest organized by One Fair Wage<\/a> outside of Noma\u2019s Los Angeles pop-up on Wednesday, March 11.<\/p>\n

Protestors said they will deliver a letter to Redzepi demanding reparations for those harmed by his behavior, structural changes for exploitative workplace policies and protections for employees against harassment and retaliation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m speaking out because it does not have to be this way,\u201d White said. \u201cIf Ren\u00e9 is willing to meet, listen, and take responsibility for the harm caused, there is a real opportunity to repair that damage and move the industry forward.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ren\u00e9 Redzepi has spoken out after being accused of abuse by former staff members, pointing to restaurant culture…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":214557,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[48,52,51,47,50,49,98404,64185,74534,98405,9164],"class_list":["post-214556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-metoo","tag-noma","tag-noma-l-a","tag-ren-redzepi","tag-silver-lake"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214556","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=214556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214556\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}