The Noma restaurant announces that it will close in 2024 to become a gastronomic laboratory

Noma, the Danish restaurant chosen five times as the best restaurant in the world, announced that it will close its doors at the end of 2024 to become a gastronomic laboratory.

The renowned establishment, renamed Noma 3.0, will be dedicated to “food innovation” and the development of “new flavors”, without ruling out “specific” openings in different places, including Copenhagen, according to a statement released on its website.

”Serving diners will continue to be a part of who we are, but being a restaurant will no longer define us. Instead, we will dedicate much of our time to exploring new projects and developing many more ideas and products,” said its chef and ideologue, René Redzepi, in the letter.

Redzepi advanced the news to the “New York Times”, alluding to the fatigue due to the hectic pace of life and the pressure, and later explained in statements to the Danish newspaper “Berlingske” that he made the decision during the start of the coronavirus pandemic. ”Especially during the first confinement I really had calm to think and look forward. What I saw was that it was going to be very difficult to continue as we do now in Noma for another ten years without a firm with a lot of money buying us that could help us in what we do, ”he said on the“ Berlingske ”website.

And he decided that, to increase the focus on creativity and reduce it on production, it would be best to look for another economic foundation, Noma Projects, a portal for the sale of fermented gastronomic products devised by his team, which launched last year with a sauce based on fermented mushrooms and then smoked.

Redzepi revealed that Noma’s transformation process will take “between two and four years.”

”In what way Noma will open again I don’t know yet. But I doubt that it does it like a common restaurant, which is always open and where you can reserve a table. It will be something more sporadic and of the pop up type”, stated the Danish chef.

Rezdepi talks about opening a station a year in Copenhagen or elsewhere, but he doesn’t want to commit to anything and hints that he will only open “once every two years”.

The Noma, which also has three Michelin stars, had already closed after thirteen years at the end of 2016, to reappear in 2018 in a renovated premises in an area close to the Danish capital, with an urban garden and several different menus, depending on the station.