In a heartfelt and private meeting, the acclaimed creator of Noma, a globally recognized culinary hotspot, revealed his departure from the restaurant amidst a backdrop of controversies.

Captured on video, René Redzepi addressed his team, urging them to “fight” and draw “strength from each other as a team,” emphasizing that they are now the ones “running the show.”

On Instagram, the renowned chef shared that “after more than twenty years of building and leading this restaurant, I’ve decided to step back and let our remarkable leaders navigate the restaurant into its next era.”

During his touching address, Redzepi expressed regret about the current situation, stating, “I’m sorry everyone is in this position… I don’t believe this reflects our team.”

He also highlighted his pride in their achievements as an organization, remarking, “I’m so proud of where we are.”

“We are in the belly of the beast here,” he poignantly concluded.

“In order to make sure that you guys are a hundred-percent feeling safe, I am going to step away,” Redzepi said. “But running of this restaurant, for now, will sit on you guys. And I really, really, really, really hope with every fiber of my body that you’ll fight for it.”

He made it clear that he was “not running away from any responsibility on how I have been.”

“I am not. I know how I’ve been. Many of you have been here long enough to have experienced how we’ve gone through this change,” the chef said, calling on his employees to once again “step up and fight.”

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“We win guests over one by one. And that will do it. Long term that will do it.”

The Michelin star chef then promised his team that they will get through this, labeling some of them family after working together with many of them for more than a decade.

“But because it’s so much focused on me, I have to remove myself,” Redzepi said once again. “My commitment is the same as always, in the sense that I want to work to be an extraordinary organization where food is at the forefront and we’re part of a change.”

“And knowing that I’m doing this to protect everyone here,” Redzepi said, pointing to what he said has been going on online, adding that there’s many “sides to this, it’s not one-sided.”

While he didn’t dive into any of the details of the controversy surrounding Noma in his speech, Redzepi did acknowledge some of it in his lengthy statement following a bombshell report detailing decades of alleged misconduct by the chef.

“The recent weeks have brought attention and important conversations about our restaurant, industry, and my past leadership,” Redzepi wrote.

“I have worked to be a better leader and Noma has taken big steps to transform the culture over many years. I recognize these changes do not repair the past. An apology is not enough; I take responsibility for my own actions.”

The visionary behind the Danish institution has faced intense blowback over allegations of long hours, unpaid labor, harassment, and abusive kitchen culture at Noma.

Former staffers came forward with harrowing accounts of “psychological warfare,” claiming Redzepi’s kitchen was less of a culinary lab and more of a torture chamber.

In his statement, the chef said that “the Noma team today is the strongest and most inspiring it has ever been.”

He concluded that “Noma has always been bigger than one person. And this next step honors that belief.”