Noma, One of the World’s Top-Rated Restaurants, Is Closing Its Doors
Owner of the Danish restaurant said it would shut its doors to regular service in winter of 2024 but would later reopen as a test kitchen
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Noma, the Danish restaurant considered one of the best in the world, said Monday that it would close its doors next year and reopen as a test kitchen.
“To continue being noma, we must change,” Noma’s owner René Redzepi said on the restaurant’s website, without elaborating why the restaurant was closing to regular service in the winter of 2024.
Restaurants have struggled during the pandemic to cope with mounting food costs and diners staying home. Fine-dining establishments in particular have had trouble hawking expensive menus to patrons. At Noma, a meal currently costs at least $500 a person.
Mr. Redzepi said that starting in 2025, Noma would become a test kitchen and would sell products online. He said Noma would also have pop-ups around the world.
“Serving guests will always be a part of who we are, but being a restaurant will no longer define us,” he said.
He said on Instagram Monday that he and his team had planned the move for the last two years.
“It’s scary and weird but I also know it’s the right thing to do,” he said. “As soon as the pandemic hit I had this feeling in me that it was time for something different.”
He said he was on a plane bound for Kyoto, Japan, where Noma was set to open a pop-up restaurant for two months.
A representative for the restaurant said Mr. Redzepi wasn’t available for comment.
Mr. Redzepi opened Noma in Copenhagen in 2003 and eventually became the crown jewel in a booming food scene. He introduced Nordic food to new audiences and foraged through Danish shorelines and forests for ingredients like herbs and roots. As word spread about Noma’s experimental dishes, it became almost impossible to get a reservation.
After Noma was first named the world’s best restaurant in 2010 on Restaurant magazine’s influential list, it received about 100,000 reservation requests a month for its 40-seat dining space. It was named the world’s best restaurant again four more times. The restaurant has three Michelin stars.
Noma led Copenhagen’s reinvention as a fine-dining destination, drawing talented chefs and real-estate developers to Denmark’s capital. It also attracts diners who make pilgrimages from all around the world to try its multi-course menus. Noma has served dishes including pork neck with bulrushes and violets and king crab with leeks rolled in ashes.
Noma used to be based in an old warehouse on Copenhagen’s docks before closing in 2016 and reopening at a new location two years later.
Mr. Redzepi said in a 2015 blog post that he had been a bully and a terrible boss at times because he was under pressure. He said he would yell at employees over messing up dishes for journalists or overcooking fish. He said as a result that he had changed Noma’s culture to boost staff morale.
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Prepare yourself for the year of the peach
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Pantone has released its 2024 Colour of the Year — and it’s warm and fuzzy.
Peach Fuzz has been named as the colour to sum up the year ahead, chosen to imbue a sense of “kindness and tenderness, communicating a message of caring and sharing, community and collaboration” said vice president of the Pantone Color Institute, Laurie Pressman.
“A warm and cosy shade highlighting our desire for togetherness with others or for enjoying a moment of stillness and the feeling of sanctuary this creates, PANTONE 13-1023 Peach Fuzz presents a fresh approach to a new softness,” she said.
The choice of a soft pastel will come as little surprise to those who follow the Pantone releases, which are often a reflection of world affairs and community mood. Typically, when economies are buoyant and international security is assured, colours tend to the bolder spectrum. Given the ongoing war in Ukraine, the Israeli-Gaza conflict and talk of recession in many countries, the choice of a softer, more reassuring colour is predictable.
“At a time of turmoil in many aspects of our lives, our need for nurturing, empathy and compassion grows ever stronger as does our imaginings of a more peaceful future,” she said. “We are reminded that a vital part of living a full life is having the good health, stamina, and strength to enjoy it.”
The colour also reflects a desire to turn inward and exercise self care in an increasingly frenetic world.
“As we navigate the present and build toward a new world, we are reevaluating what is important,” she said. “Reframing how we want to live, we are expressing ourselves with greater intentionality and consideration.
“Recalibrating our priorities to align with our internal values, we are focusing on health and wellbeing, both mental and physical, and cherishing what’s special — the warmth and comfort of spending time with friends and family, or simply taking a moment of time to ourselves.”
Each year since 2000, Pantone has released a colour of the year as a trendsetting tool for marketers and branding agents. It is widely taken up in the fashion and interior design industries, influencing collections across the spectrum.
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Chris Dixon, a partner who led the charge, says he has a ‘very long-term horizon’
