(Bloomberg) -- Its been six years since the food world’s most famous, brightest names assembled in Copenhagen to plot the future of their industry. But on May 25, chef Rene Redzepi and the nonprofit organization MAD will reconvene them for the return of its seminal symposium. What’s more, the chef says, the event’s theme also reveals the future he envisions for his famed restaurant, Noma, which he’s said would close for good in 2025.
“First Covid, then huge inflation which created huge problems and bankruptcies and division in the restaurant world, I wanted to see how can we come together,” Redzepi tells Bloomberg exclusively about about why he’s resurrecting the MAD Symposium, which was started by the non-profit MAD organization in 2011 in a bright red circus tent on Copenhagen’s waterfront. The two-day event for 600 people features talks, demos and seminars, and not least, the opportunity to connect. Although chefs are the most notable attendees, there’s a wide range of participants from scientists to botanists and environmentalists.
The theme of this year’s MAD is Build to Last, says Redzepi, putting an emphasis on the present tense. “This year will be about how we plan with a long-term vision.”
The event is designed to address some of the restaurant community’s biggest issues from financial pressures, to social reckoning movements like #MeToo and mental and physical health concerns; past themes have included Tomorrow’s Kitchen, which focused on the future of cooking, and Mind the Gap, which addressed gender issues.
“We’ll focus on how do we create resilient business, how do we stay healthy and creative over the course of our careers, how can we work with food to ensure a healthy planet,” says Melina Shannon DiPietro, executive director of MAD of this year’s symposium. “There will be so many smart, incredibly driven people, we have real opportunity here.”
Attendes can include the general public though food and drink professionals get preference. Everyone has to fill out an application. “It’s brief. Not a college application,” laughs Shannon DiPietro.
She says they are finalizing the ticket price which includes (good) food and drinks. The price of the last MAD, in 2018, was 3,500 Danish kronner (about $507 today). Shannon DiPietro adds that some speakers are confirmed but the line-up won’t be announced until the event.
Past symposiums have had a pronounced influence on the mainstream dining world. After attending an early MAD which included food waste talks, Mark Rosati the former culinary director for Shake Shack Inc, says that after attending 2014 MAD, he became attuned to food waste and started using burgers’ lettuce trimmings for the Chicken Shack sandwiches. Chef Daniel Patterson and Kogi BBQ’s Roy Choi, who met at a MAD conference, went on to present their revolutionary spot Locol, which offers both job training opportunities and good quality fast food in the low-income Watts neighborhood in Los Angeles.
Redzepi says there are two ground rules for the symposium: ask speakers to dare to say the things they don’t usually say; and for the focus to be on something he and the Noma crew want to learn, too. “The symposium has to be something that we want to learn. In the case of Noma, that is to create a lasting generational foundation and structure that ensures that we stay creative and impactful for a lifetime.”
And that leads to the highly anticipated question: What’s happening with his Noma flagship, a five-time winner on the World’s 50 Best list. “Noma will exist as a pop-up entity,” says Redzepi. “It will be open once a year, in Copenhagen or somewhere else in the world.” It’s already a model that has proven successful with pop-ups in locations like Tokyo and Tulum.
Noma Projects will carry on whether or not the restaurant is operational, rolling out products like Mushroom Garum and Corn Yuzu Hot Sauce. “It was designed to be the financial foundation, that in itself is not easy,” says Redzepi, given it makes only small batches of condiments from ingredients that they can source. It will never scale up to a Rao’s pasta sauce, part of a $2.7 billion acquisition by Campbell Soup Co.
Redzepi, speaking from Japan for his vaunted Noma Kyoto residency, where the tickets are going for 840 euros ($908) plus service, said that even before the pressures of the pandemic, when he opened a burger spot to cover costs, he was working on a big change for his restaurant. “I wanted to operate a restaurant with pop-up energy, where you spend a year in preparation, with field trips and collaborations with artists. You open for a moment and then it goes away, almost like performance art.”
“People think its pretentious,” he continues, but ”you go there to feel something but then you can’t feel it again—it’s gone. I’m excited for the restaurant to operate like that.”
As for logistics, pop-ups could go for a couple weeks, or they could be for four months. “We’re working it out,” says Redzepi. One thing is confirmed: the restaurant will be open for MAD, May 25–26, although it’s not yet determined whether it will be open to the public.
In fact, Redzepi isn’t revealing a closing date for Noma; he’s keeping things fluid. Following Kyoto, the restaurant will reopen in Copenhagen for a new season starting Jan. 21. Reservations will open on Nov. 11, at 3 p.m. local time on the website; Noma newsletter subscribers will get a link at least 24 hours ahead.
“Our seasonal menu will evolve more fluidly and frequently, showcasing the latest innovations from our test kitchen and fermentation lab,” confirms Lena Hennessy, Noma’s chief operating officer. “As we embark on a new chapter and plan for the future of our organization, our goal remains the same: to make an even bigger and more positive impact on the world of food.” It’s a tall order given how much impact the small, Copenhagen restaurant has already had on the world.
Still, Redzepi is uncharacteristically optimistic. “I’m more excited about the future than I‘’ve been in a long time,” he says. “Genuinely, I am.”
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