On the TV show, The Bear, season 3, episode 1, Carmy’s flashback was at the restaurant Noma. Noma is a three-Michelin-star restaurant and the top 50 best restaurant in the world for six years straight. You can probably say that the restaurant is the top of the top. The best of the best. The Delta Force of the elite culinary world. That organization has been led by a single man: Rene Redzepi. A tall, little bit scruffy, 48-year-old man with ambitions that built a restaurant and reached the Mount Everest of achieving the ultimate culinary excellence that every chef has ever dreamed of. That, however, had met his downfall shortly after.

A lot of my chef friends and my regular friends asked me what my take on this whole Rene Redzepi situation about workplace abuse and unpaid wages was. So I’m here to give you my take as a 29-year-old Christian chef. My point of view is a one of one. Feel free to disagree if you like. But this is my opinion. As my old mentor has said to me, “Everything starts to make sense with enough information.” So, throughout the past two and a half weeks of research, reading, and talking to all of my chef friends, this is what I have gathered. I may have forgotten a few things, so just bear with me here (no pun intended). 

Born in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1978, Redzepi lived in a rural area where families ate locally sourced food. When he was 15 years old, he left high school to pursue cooking. After his apprenticeship and working in multiple kitchens, he has been given the opportunity to be the head chef at Noma. Later on, he achieved the impossible. World’s 50 best restaurants for many years, 3 Michelin stars, and the title of the best restaurant in the world. But that all comes with a cost

During his time as a chef, Rene Rezepi has been accused of physically, emotionally, and psychologically harassing his cooks, staff, and front-end house staff for not meeting his standards. It could be at the smallest detail, like forgetting to wipe down a station or preparing a certain type of prep in a specific way by a menial margin. He has been pushed, punched, stabbed, burned, and humiliated either individually or by large hordes away from the customers. This has slowly led to his demise, and that has led to his resignation a couple of weeks ago, as this post is being made. This has sent shockwaves throughout not only the whole food industry but also across the world. A 48-year-old man has achieved the pinnacle of culinary excellence and stepped down due to his attitude, which has affected poorly in his own organization that he has created. 

So you guys probably want my opinion on this. Well, first and foremost, what we can set up as a fair and fundamental standpoint from all this, is that any kind of abuse, physical, emotional, psychological, I don’t care. That is a big red flag, and it is a no-go for not only the food industry but any industry. That is probably something that we can all agree on. This kind of abuse is a no-brainer.

When it comes to unpaid wages or working for free, it’s a little bit of a gray area. There’s something called an apprenticeship where people have to work with less or even no pay for a chance to gain knowledge throughout the industry. Cooks are not the only profession that does it. Plumbers, electricians, even white-collar jobs like tech, engineers, programmers, and if you want to go to a different industry, healthcare people do work either for less or for free, so that they can get the experience that they need to succeed long-term.

Do you think that the whole organization should solely be founded on these types of principles: unfair, low, or even free labor? No, probably not. Because people need to be paid, these are not only these are staff, but also people. And these people have families. Families have to eat and put food on the table. They also have rent and want to live a better life for themselves. That’s the reason why people want to jump into the food industry, because people want not only that they want to express themselves through the work that they do. But they want to make sure that at the end of the day, they can be fairly compensated. So that they can return home with a good paycheck to a family that is able to live under a roof that has good food. I’m pretty sure that’s like a bottom line that everyone can agree on. 

At the end of the day, guys, this is not really a black or white answer (well, minus the abuse and maybe the working less or free thing). But everything else is complicated, just like history in the food industry. It’s complicated because there are 3 kinds of people on the spectrum:

• On one side, you have the head chefs and those highly successful people in the food industry who want to right their wrongs and try to steer a different path to help charter a new future in the food industry.
• On the other side, there are people that are celebrating the failure of someone else’s downfall.
• The people who are stuck in the past and continuing their old, corrupted ways

Whenever someone asks me what are your thoughts on the Rene Rezepi situation are, I could tell this. “I look up to him because of his ambition and relentless style. I admire the accolades that he has collected throughout his whole career. But the way that he had done it, I wish it had been a bit cleaner.” 

And by the way, guys, Rene Rezepi isn’t the only one who has that type of abusive style. There are many other big-name chefs that we all know that has the same style.

Chef Marco Pierre White, Gordon Ramsay’s mentor. He is basically the godfather of the culinary industry. He has made history by introducing us to the world that he lives in, the culinary world. With that, gave birth to Gordon Ramsay and we all know that Gordon Ramsay’s style can be very tough on love. I mean, there’s Hell’s Kitchen, Masterchef, Hotel Hell, Kitchen Nightmares, even Boiling Point (it is a Gordon Ramsay documentary from the 1990s). If Rene Rezepi could be an actor, he could play out Gordon Ramsay in the 1990s really well. And last but not least, the late Anthony Bourdain, a chef who has sinned many times in the food industry, from drugs to addiction, smoking, and drinking. At the end of the day, they all righted their wrongs. They both have realized that maybe there’s a different way of taking a more innovative and modern approach to raise the next generation of cooks. That’s why I said that this situation is not really black and white – it’s complicated. 

At the end of the day, it is the younger generation that has to evolve and adapt to the new world that we live in because the old style of yelling, abusing, calling certain names, bullying, in the food industry is long gone. People now have social media, and things can spread like wildfire. 

It is better for us, not only as chefs but also as sous chefs and business owners, to choose our words wisely, making sure that the staff feels safe and welcome, so that they can do their tasks to the best of their ability, and knowing that they can go home safe and at one piece.

We can’t blame the older generation for their mistakes and wrongdoings. All they did during their time was not all wrong, but there were some things that were good. The innovation is how the brigade works, making sure that their system is in place. Because every generation should be better than the last. That’s just how the world works. That’s how evolution works.

And lastly, for myself as a 29-year-old Christian chef that has been on both sides of the spectrum – the cook that has been abused, but has been shaped by my mentors, the bosses, and the colony world itself, and also that was the other end of the spectrum that has been cold, ruthless, selfish, bitter – trying to write my wrongs. It is my job to make sure that I can provide the tools that I have given and the knowledge that I’ve learned to my team, my friends, my family, and to you guys and everyone else in the world because I don’t want greatness to stop at me. I want to make sure that there are multiple people that can carry on not only my legacy, but also carry the legacy of the people that had mentored me and helped build this industry that we all know and love. That no matter how tough it gets, we always stand together.
So I can look at this at a optimistic standpoint and a realistic standpoint. At a realistic standpoint, the next couple years will be rough. There’ll be a time of learning, a time of making mistakes, maybe a few setbacks. But I can be optimistic that 20-30 years from now, the food industry will be a prosperous place where people can express themselves, tell stories about their life, and make sure that people are well-connected to each other so that they can live a happy life. This doesn’t just come from myself. It comes from everyone. Every chef that I know, whether if they are an executive chef at a high-end restaurant or just a local food truck chef, we all want to be the very best in a meaningful way so that we can share our story to the world and connect with another. Sharing our legacy and raising the next generation of cooks, chefs, and leaders is the most joyful experience any chef will ever have. As the wise words from former Vice President Kamala Harris, “You may be the first, just make sure you’re not the last.”