A world-renowned chef has is stepping down from his position after being accused of violently abusing staff for more than a decade.
René Redzepi, founder of the Danish restaurant Noma, announced his resignation on Wednesday after a damning New York Times report revealed how he allegedly bullied and physically assaulted at least 30 employees between 2009 and 2017.
‘The recent weeks have brought attention and important conversations about our restaurant, industry, and my past leadership,’ he said in a statement.
‘I have worked to be a better leader and Noma has taken big steps to transform the culture over many years,’ the restaurateur continued, acknowledging: ‘I recognize these changes do not repair the past.
‘An apology is not enough; I take responsibility for my own actions.’
‘After more than two decades of building and leading this restaurant, I’ve decided to step away and allow our extraordinary leaders to now guide the restaurant into its next chapter,’ the celebrity chef said in a statement, adding that he has also resigned from the board of the nonprofit he founded in 2011.
The announcement came as Noma was set to debut a luxurious residency in Los Angeles’ Silver Lake neighborhood, which Redzepi said will continue as planned despite protests over its opening.
‘Noma’s mission for the future is to keep exploring ideas, discovering new flavors, and imagining what food can become decades from now,’ he concluded. ‘Noma has always been bigger than any one person. And this next step honors that belief.’
Celebrity chef René Redzepi announced on Wednesday he is resigning amid abuse allegations
Noma, which was originally based in Denmark and ranked first five times on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants List, was scheduled to begin a residency in Los Angeles on Wednesday
The master chef also shared a video to social media showing him announcing his resignation to his staff members.
‘I’m sorry everyone’s in this situation, I really, really am,’ he said in the video posted to Instagram.
‘I don’t think this represents our team,’ he continued. ‘I am so proud of where we are as an organization – it’s just we’re int he belly of the beast here.
‘In order to make sure that you guys are feeling 100 percent, I’m gonna step away, OK?’ Redzepi asked, rhetorically.
After then telling staff members that it would be up to them to continue Noma’s mission, Redzepi insisted: ‘I’m not running away from any responsibility on how I have been, I am not. I know how I have been.’
‘We will get through this, we will get through this,’ he told the staffers, whom he called his ‘family.’
‘But because it’s so focused on me, I have to remove myself.’
He then asked his staff to ‘please, please, pleas fight, be in this, find strength in each other as a team, and know that I’m doing this to protect everyone here.’
Redzepi has bee accused of bullying and physically assaulting at least 30 employees between 2009 and 2017
Redzepi’s resignation comes after protesters took to the streets to denounce his Los Angeles pop-up
The celebrity chef concluded his message by insisting the culture at the restaurant has changed since the employees claimed they were abused and ‘that is not who we are.’
‘There are many sides to this – it’s not one sided,’ he said, noting that he is now going to plan ‘the next phase.’
Redzepi’s resignation comes after protesters took to the streets to denounce his Los Angeles pop-up, spurred on by the former head of Noma’s fermentation lab, Jason Ignacio White.
‘For years, the culture surrounding René Redzepi and Noma has been celebrated without confronting the harm many workers experienced behind the scenes,’ he said.
White claimed to have ‘witnessed intimidation, unpaid labor, and a culture that pushed people beyond their limits while expecting silence in return’ at the restaurant.
He has been sharing accusations sent to him by former employees for the past month, as well as derogatory pictures about Noma, on a public social media profile.
One of the most recent posts on February 27 showed a text message thread that featured an anonymous worker who said working at Noma was ‘the worst two weeks of my life.’
The worker claimed that Redzepi had punched him in the stomach for ‘not picking the herbs right’ in 2012.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated.
