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Charmaine Mok
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Charmaine Mok

Noma chef Rene Redzepi’s Instagram apology over abuse allegations is worthy of an Oscar

Will Rene Redzepi’s carefully filmed and edited video of him addressing his team at the three-Michelin-star restaurant appease his critics?

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Rene Redzepi is seen in a video showing him apologising to staff at Noma, which was posted to his Instagram account on March 11, 2026. Photo: Instagram/reneredzepinoma
Charmaine Mok
Charmaine Mok is the Deputy Culture Editor at SCMP and the desk's food and wine specialist.

The Oscars were announced on March 15, but the performance of the season might just go to the social media post featuring fallen chef Rene Redzepi, published on the Noma restaurant account on March 11.

For those outside the storm in a teacup that has been brewing for weeks, a quick recap: three-Michelin-star Noma, which has topped the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list on multiple occasions, had been preparing to launch an audaciously priced yet sold-out pop-up in Los Angeles starting March 11, with patrons willing to pay US$1,500 a seat for the experience.

In the run-up, an aggrieved ex-employee – Jason Ignacio White, Noma’s former head of fermentation – began sharing stories of physical and emotional abuse at the restaurant from other Noma alumni.

What started as a trickle quickly became a torrent of increasingly alarming allegations of Redzepi and other senior chefs subjecting staff to public humiliation and physical harm, including detailed accounts of punching, jabbing with forks and burning. The restaurant’s history of not paying interns was also re-examined, and its entire kitchen brigade culture was questioned.

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