Why does anyone care that noma is (not) closing?
<p>The coverage of the restaurant’s closure perpetuates the myth of noma as “The World’s Greatest Restaurant”, credits it for being an innovator in changing toxic and systemic industry-labor-practices, and glosses over the fact that it defined and continually exploited systemic inequalities in order to make elaborate, expensive menus.</p>
<p><img alt="the dining room at noma in copenhagen" src="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:630/0*PlzpcOMPGCv9hTB6.jpg" style="height:420px; width:700px" /></p>
<p>If you were a restaurant-minded person on the internet on January 9th, 2023, it was pretty difficult to avoid the public announcement of noma’s closure. It was featured across media including in the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/09/dining/noma-closing-rene-redzepi.html" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">NYTimes</a>, <a href="https://london.eater.com/23546160/worlds-best-restaurant-noma-closing-rene-redzepi-copenhagen" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">Eater</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/food/2023/jan/09/noma-restaurant-to-close-temporarily-at-the-end-of-2024" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">The Guardian</a>, and <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/ad082963-fb65-404b-adc7-6a0dcbf1500d" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">The Financial Times</a>, which had published <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/a62a96b8-2db2-44ec-ac80-67fcf83d86ef" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">an article criticizing the labor practices of Copenhagen restaurants</a>, noma in particular, early last year. As I live and work in food in Copenhagen, I received pings from disparate places asking what I thought; my mom sent me a “did you see this!” text.</p>
<p><a href="https://medium.com/@agruminant/why-does-anyone-care-that-noma-is-not-closing-bbe6a979eec6"><strong>Read More</strong></a></p>