Out of the frying pan? Noma’s Rene Redzepi resigns, and fine dining confronts ‘brigade’ culture

Chef Gordon Ramsay yells at people. His mentor, London’s Marco Pierre White, was known for throwing pans and plates. White even titled his memoir “The Devil in the Kitchen,” partly referencing the punishments he doled out to his chefs. “If you don’t fear the boss, you’ll take shortcuts, you’ll turn up late,” White wrote, adding that his kitchen staff “were all pain junkies, they had to be. They couldn’t get enough of the bollockings.”

But this culture is now facing a dramatic reckoning.

The public downfall this week of Denmark’s René Redzepi, widely considered the world’s top chef, has forced an urgent conversation about when traditional kitchen hierarchy crosses into abuse and what consequences should follow for those who create edible art through intimidation.

The controversy raises questions about whether time has finally run out on the storied bullying culture of fine dining kitchens – a world brought into living rooms through reality shows and acclaimed series like “The Bear.” Complex issues of leadership style and legal liability have suddenly become central to an industry known for razor-thin profit margins rather than robust HR departments.

“The resources aren’t there for self-policing,” explains Robin Burrow, associate professor of organization studies at the University of York. “The general feeling, though, is that things are so tough even for very good chefs that this kind of culture ends up being inevitable.”

Redzepi, a Danish knight and the founder of Noma, stepped down Thursday after The New York Times reported that dozens of former employees had detailed years of abuse and assault between 2009 and 2017 at his Copenhagen restaurant. The allegations weren’t new – Redzepi had long faced reports of mistreating staff and using unpaid interns at Noma, which earned three Michelin stars and topped the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list five times.

The accusations overshadowed Noma’s $1,500-per-person pop-up in Los Angeles. Sponsors withdrew their support for the residency, which opened Wednesday amid small protests. Redzepi announced his resignation on Instagram with a tearful video, stating, “An apology is not enough. I take responsibility for my own actions.”

Former employees claim Redzepi was never truly held accountable for his conduct, which allegedly included punching staff members, jabbing them with kitchen tools, and threatening to blacklist them from restaurants or have their families deported.

Jason Ignacio White, who previously headed Noma’s fermentation lab, collected anonymous testimonies of alleged abuse at the restaurant and shared them on Instagram, where they’ve been viewed millions of times.

“Noma destroyed my passion for the industry,” one post stated. “I struggled with intense anxiety, bad enough to give me panic attacks in the middle of the night. The trauma, abuse and idea that nothing would ever change all led me to walk away from the career.”

The hierarchical kitchen structure at the heart of this controversy dates back to the turn of the 20th century. French chef Georges Auguste Escoffier developed the “brigade de cuisine,” a strict kitchen organization based on his military experience. This system assigns specialized roles to each staff member – from the chief to those handling sauces, roasts, grills, and fish. Their synchronized movements and standardized communications (“Hand!” and “Yes, chef!”) aim to ensure speed, consistency, and cleanliness.

Yet kitchen environments have historically been chaotic and intense. Escoffier himself noted that his first chef believed it impossible to run a kitchen “without a shower of slaps.”

George Orwell once described the restaurant kitchen hierarchy as a cascade of abuse, with each person yelling at their subordinate. As a plongeur (dishwasher) at the bottom rung, Orwell wrote in his 1933 work “Down and Out in Paris and London” that such workers were “slaves of the modern world… no freer than if he were bought and sold.”

Modern professional kitchens remain notoriously difficult workplaces, combining long hours, cramped quarters, rigid hierarchies, physically demanding conditions, and constant pressure.

The emergence of chefs as auteurs in the 1970s, coupled with an obsession with Michelin-star excellence, accelerated poor behavior as prices and egos climbed. White famously described his kitchen at London’s Harveys as “my theatre of cruelty” and boasted of giving his chefs “a 10-second throttle.” Anthony Bourdain’s memoir “Kitchen Confidential” further romanticized this testosterone-fueled environment, describing kitchens filled with “heated argument, hypermacho posturing and drunken ranting.”

Research supports these accounts. A 2021 Cardiff University study interviewing 47 elite chefs found that commercial kitchens can create a “geography of deviance” producing “feelings of invisibility, alienation and detachment” among lower-ranking staff.

Open kitchen designs were partly created to bridge the divide between cooking and dining spaces. According to The Times, when Redzepi wanted to discipline staff in his open kitchen but customers were present, he would allegedly crouch under counters and jab workers in the legs with his fingers or utensils.

Many chefs’ assistants remain silent about abuse, fearing they’ll lose opportunities to learn from masters or launch their own careers – a dynamic portrayed in “The Bear,” where character Carmy Berzatto endures flagrant abuse to study under a legendary chef.

Noma – a combination of the Danish words for “Nordic” and “food” – opened in 2003 dedicated to “rediscovering wild local ingredients by foraging and following the seasons.” By the time of Redzepi’s resignation, he had become so influential that Noma featured in “The Bear” as the training ground for two main characters, with Redzepi making a cameo appearance.

This wasn’t his first screen time. He was seen yelling at cooks in the 2008 documentary “Noma at Boiling Point” and has made several public apologies over the years. In a 2015 essay, he acknowledged being “a bully for a large part of my career,” admitting, “I’ve yelled and pushed people. I’ve been a terrible boss at times.”

Even then, amid today’s cultural fascination with intense kitchen behavior, Redzepi seemed to recognize that the old approach alienates talented young workers and threatens cuisine’s future.

“The only way we will be able to reap the promise of the present,” Redzepi said, “is by confronting the unpleasant legacies of our past and collectively forging a new path forward.”