It has held the title of best restaurant in the world for several years, Noma, three Michelin stars, announced on Monday that it would close its doors at the end of 2024 to reinvent itself as a culinary laboratory.
“To remain Noma, we must change (…). Winter 2024 will be the last season of Noma as we know it,” the Copenhagen restaurant said in a statement posted on Instagram.
Short for the Danish words ‘nordisk’ (Nordic) and ‘mad’ (food), Noma (with a lowercase ‘n’) opened on a quay in central Copenhagen in 2003 before closing in 2016, two years later to reopen. later in a more remote and tree-lined area of the Danish capital.
“In 2025, our restaurant will be transformed into a giant laboratory – a pioneering test kitchen dedicated to food innovation work and the development of new flavors,” he explained on his website.
To continue being noma, we must change. For that reason, dear guests, colleagues and friends, we have some exciting news for you. Visit https://t.co/8DqGez12f2 to learn more about Noma 3.0.
— Noma Restaurant (@nomacph) January 9, 2023
As an advocate of fermentation, which makes pine cones, for example, edible, René Redzepi, who is renowned in gastronomy for his inventive talent, manages to shuffle the cards again and again.
During the pandemic, he turned his restaurant into a wine and hamburger bar for a month in the summer of 2020.
If the emphasis is now on creativity, it will still be possible to eat at noma, in Copenhagen or in ephemeral restaurants elsewhere in the world from time to time.
“Serving customers will always be a part of us, but being a restaurant will no longer define us,” wrote noma to describe its noma 3.0 project.
“A lot of our time is spent exploring new projects and developing many other ideas and products,” he continues without further details.
In the spring, noma will open temporarily in Kyoto for two months between March 15 and May 20.