Maybe we don't need restaurants like Nomad

If fine dining requires such pain, it's not worth it.

This column is part of the Off Menu newsletter, our Wednesday roundup of restaurant news, gossip, advice and heated debate.To subscribe, visit the Standard's newsletter.

There is a high-class food perception that the key is not sacrifice but a single goal in the small space between knowledge and madness.

To make an omelet, as the saying goes, you have to break a few eggs - and maybe a few psyches.

Few chefs are willing to admit that this is true.But Julia Moskin's article last week in The New York Times, detailing a decade of physical and psychological abuse (opens a new tab) at the hands of Noma's Rene Redzepi, is the latest evidence that this saying is not only uncomfortable, but accurate.

It occurred to me that if creating a 17-course tasting menu with insects made from fruit skins and live shrimp covered in ants meant there was a small group of unpaid interns and embittered chefs huddled in the kitchen, then the tasting menu didn't need to exist.

The Times' report is alarming. Stories include Redzepi beating the chef with a barbecue fork, stabbing him in the stomach and chest, and threatening to deport him. Meanwhile, from time to time, unsuspecting guests dined a few feet away on reindeer and pans ragout and radish pie.

As I read this I felt the familiar cry in my stomach. It would be one thing if the working conditions at Noma were unusual, but the more the diners know, It seems more normal.

David Chang of Momofuku (and the empire he spawned) has been accused of shouting death threats (opens in new tab) during a subpar family meal.Dozens of former employees of Dan Barber of Blue Hill in Stone Barns say the chef made them cry or insulted them (opens in new tab) when he didn't approve of their work.At the Willows Inn, run by former Nome student Blaine Wetzel, former workers say they were given drugs and alcohol and forced to have sex (opens in new tab).Closer to home, chef Christopher Costow of the now-closed The Restaurant at Meadowood was accused of yelling at employees and throwing plates (opens in new tab).

What culinary industry leaders have in common is that they all value changing the way America eats — a fact that, for some employees and diners, justifies their abhorrent behavior.They're celebrated not only for serving delicious food, but for being pioneers—redefining casual dining (Chang), farm-to-table food practices (Barber), hyperlocal sourcing (Wetzel), and Napa cuisine (Kostow).

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It's enough to make you wonder if it's possible to run a restaurant at an extremely high level without one person or many people suffering behind the scenes.

Early to Rise chef and owner Andrew McCormack, who served at Jean-Georges and The Modern in New York and the Michelin-starred Quince, seems unlikely."Working at this level requires implementing a comprehensive and unified vision," he said.

Douglas Keen of Cyrus, a Michelin-starred Geyserville restaurant, points out that exploitation isn't limited to one end of the dining spectrum."Abuse happens in all levels of restaurants. But it's loud and ugly in fine dining because of the celebrity status we give chefs and the personality the business attracts: egomaniacs."

Still, McCormack says chefs have a lot to gain if they can hang on, an attitude shared by many Noma workers interviewed by Moskin."Experience like this allows you to rise to another level of craft, even if the work is not sustainable in the long term," McCormack said.There will be.It's very important."

I'm glad that at least some of the workers who pass through these kitchens feel that they got more than what was bought from them.But I no longer think I can pay hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars for the privilege of a life-changing meal prepared by a traumatized dreamer across the aisle.

There is no morsel of reindeer rooster worth this price.