What Lies Ahead for Noma?

Guests visiting Copenhagen, the home of chef Rene Redzepi’s acclaimed restaurant and culinary innovator Noma, have until the end of 2024 to finally discover what all the excitement is about.

Let’s begin with the concept: Noma 2.0—this restaurant has opened and closed frequently enough to deserve a 2.0 designation—features multiple structures, each crafted from a unique material but united under a sweeping glass canopy. This architectural choice, created in partnership with Danish architect Bjarke Ingels, appears to represent transparency, suggesting that diners inside can gaze out while those outside can look in.

This serves as a fitting metaphor for how this ever-evolving restaurant perceives itself: as a web of unique yet interconnected operations, both enigmatic and accessible. While the allure of the establishment has always relied on elements of surprise and sensation—Redzepi’s first astonishing feat in 2012 involved serving yogurt teeming with live ants—the Noma brand aims to embody a certain local simplicity despite its exorbitant cost, a staggering $440 per person, excluding wine.

This dual focus on seemingly opposing ideals—accessibility and enigma—was highlighted by two announcements from the Noma team over the past year. The first, in early 2022, introduced a new venture called Noma Projects, launching an online marketplace for pantry staples developed in the restaurant’s Fermentation Lab. Described as an initiative to bring “a taste of the Noma kitchen to your home,” with prices ranging from $25 to $35 before shipping, the initial product release featured a liquid umami condiment known as Smoked Mushroom Garum, followed by Wild Rose Vinegar and a Forager’s Vinaigrette made from hand-harvested blackcurrant wood and wild roses, along with the promise of regular future product launches.

The second announcement, made in January through a series of exclusives with the New York Times, hinted that Noma 2.0 would conclude its service at the end of 2024, potentially reemerging later as Noma 3.0, a new and undefined version of itself. While the news about Noma Projects was met with enthusiasm, the impending closure of this iconic restaurant stirred deep emotions among fans and critics alike, ranging from sorrow and admiration to skepticism.

Noma opened its doors in 2003 in a historic waterfront warehouse located in Copenhagen’s Christianshavn neighborhood, and this will not be its first transformation. In 2017, after establishing the “New Nordic” culinary movement with dishes featuring underappreciated local ingredients and earning multiple accolades as the world’s best restaurant, Redzepi chose to close it, stating that “routine” was the “killer of creativity” during a talk at NYC’s Global Skift Forum. It reopened as the revamped Noma 2.0 in 2018, housed in a modern building designed by Bjarke Ingels, complete with fresh decor, an on-site garden, a greenhouse, and two research and development labs.

Despite its previous evolution, this transformation is perceived to signify a more enduring change, particularly as it reflects the critical examination Noma has faced over the past year. A series of recent exposés has highlighted fine dining’s “sustainability crisis,” shedding light on the exploitative labor practices often demanded from workers to achieve the exquisite outcomes expected from establishments like Noma. Redzepi himself has openly acknowledged an anger-management issue and stated in the first New York Times article, published on January 9, that he struggles to find a way for his business model to balance the immense pressure of high standards with a sustainable quality of life for his employees. “Financially and emotionally, as an employer and as a human being,” he remarked, “it just doesn’t work.”

Noma undeniably put Copenhagen on the culinary map, drawing food enthusiasts from around the world to the Danish capital for a chance to dine there. With a menu featuring 20 courses that easily costs over $1,000 for two diners, the offerings are organized around three seasonal themes crafted by Redzepi: Seafood season, Vegetable season, and Forest and Game season. Noma has a penchant for presenting living ingredients—one memorable dish from 2010 featured small live shrimp in a brown butter emulsion, while swarming insects often appear on the menu. Additionally, they creatively serve food designed to resemble other items, such as duck-fat toffee shaped like duck feet, beetle-shaped fruit leather, and an edible “soil” made from hazelnut and malt flour. Diners often leave with quirky mementos that emphasize the unique nature of their experience, like a crab-shaped ornament or a string-crafted bird.

Nevertheless, while some have praised Redzepi’s choice to address the toxic work culture associated with his restaurant, critics challenge his dramatic denunciation of the industry. “Many people will never have the opportunity to dine at a place like Noma, so the idea of offering Noma garum bottles for home use is a smart move,” says Nick Curtin, head chef of the Michelin-starred newcomer Alouette, who has openly resisted the notion that fine dining must involve exploitation. “My concern is that René is avoiding the issue that he significantly contributes to,” he continued. “If any restaurant could simply raise its prices to ensure fair wages for everyone, it would be Noma. I believe his claim that fine dining can’t be sustainable is an excuse; instead of using his creativity to rethink the model, he gives up and claims that it can’t be done—not just by him, but by anyone.”

Even though Noma has played a pivotal role in shaping Copenhagen’s culinary scene, this isn’t the conclusion of the narrative. Its closure might encourage travelers to discover the city’s wealth of fantastic food options. Many of the countless trainees and interns who have worked at Noma have gone on to establish their own respected restaurants and cafes—consider Restaurant Barr, Sanchez, Radio, Baest, Brace, or bakeries like Hart, Benji, and Juno, to name just a few. Additionally, numerous independent chefs have leveraged the city’s status as a global hub for talent to make their mark on the culinary landscape.

At Alouette, Curtin has fostered an atmosphere that makes diners feel like cherished guests in his home. His inventive and playful cuisine emphasizes seasonal ingredients without any pretense—take, for example, the Life of a Hegnsholt Chicken dish, which features a savory egg custard, crispy chicken skin, quinoa, ramson, a rich roasted-chicken jus, and a hay-aged cheese sauce. This approach has earned him a Michelin star, all while advocating for a humane work-life balance with a strict 37-hour work week for his team. Alongside him, chefs at Michelin-starred restaurants like Kadeu and Jatak, as well as newer establishments like Juju and Goldfinch, are delivering exceptional fine-dining experiences that reflect Copenhagen's culinary creativity while remaining grounded.

Though there have been rumors about something akin to Noma Projects for quite a while, the COVID shutdown provided its creators with the motivation they needed: the sobering realization of the restaurant industry’s fragility. “I recall a discussion with Redzepi during a staff lunch about how the essence of fine dining makes it inherently unscalable in a manner that truly supports the people working in it,” recounts David Zilber, the Canadian chef-turned-scientist who started at Noma as a cook and later coauthored The Noma Guide to Fermentation before leaving in 2020. “This challenge is intrinsic to high-end dining, which relies on a very physical and time-consuming process. René longed to explore something different, and perhaps Noma Projects is the realization of that aspiration.”

In addition to launching its first three commercially available condiments and promising future “educational and environmental initiatives,” Noma Projects has also introduced Tastebuds, a research and development club. For an annual fee of 526 euros (approximately US$564), Tastebuds members enjoy the privilege of receiving four deliveries of unreleased product samples to taste and access to two “virtual events” featuring the Fermentation Lab and the Test Kitchen, where they can hear from Noma team members about fermentation techniques. It’s a sophisticated form of market research at a premium price, yet it’s incredibly popular: This year’s 1,000 memberships, which became available on December 1, sold out within a day, with another round set to be offered next year.

“We know our destination, but the path to get there remains uncertain,” confessed Thomas Frebel, the creative director of Noma Projects and a chef who has collaborated with Redzepi since 2008. “However, I believe René envisions Noma Projects growing larger than the restaurant itself, with service becoming just one of the many ventures we undertake.”

Currently, Noma Projects is primarily rooted in the Fermentation Lab, a fitting focus given its influence on changing some people’s eating habits. Noma’s commitment to using humble ingredients along with traditional methods like fermentation and pickling to craft unique and remarkable flavors has entered mainstream awareness, broadening our global palate and positively reshaping the culinary landscape. Zilber, who cites general burnout as his reason for leaving, regards the launch of Noma Projects as a significant move forward for a restaurant that provided him with both “some of the best experiences in my life—and some of my worst.”

“Should Noma Projects end up supporting the restaurant, it will enhance everyone’s experience there,” he mentioned to me. “In the end, as people become more educated about fermentation and begin to incorporate it into their homes, they will develop a deeper connection to the food they prepare and consume. It fosters respect for the food production system and a greater appreciation for the time and effort involved in making food—and any initiative that counters the rapid disposability fostered by capitalism can only be beneficial.”

Regarding the mysterious Noma 3.0 and its eventual shape, it's anyone's guess. However, with Noma Projects seeming to embrace a more inclusive approach, it's reasonable to conclude that Noma's transformation aims to rebrand itself as less exotic, more grounded, and more accessible to a wider range of diners.

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