When chef René Redzepi of Noma, considered the best restaurant in the world, announced on Monday that he would be closing the three-Michelin-star restaurant in Copenhagen, it perhaps came as no surprise.
Running a fine dining establishment that calls for precision and perfection is backbreaking work that is by no means compensated by the top dollar charged for the food. “We have to completely rethink the industry,” Redzepi told The New York Times. “This is simply too hard, and we have to work in a different way.” Redzepi admitted to the newspaper that the economics of producing a high standard of food, which called for gruelling hours, plus compensating the employees fairly while maintaining prices that the market will bear was not sustainable.
The culinary world is no stranger to this kind of news. When Spanish restaurant El Bulli shut down in 2011, it had been hailed as the world’s top restaurant a record five times. Known for molecular gastronomy, which became a rage the world over and was a trend that persisted and copied to death years after El Bulli shut, the establishment attracted visitors who made a trip just to eat chef Ferran Adrià’s food, costing over 250 Euros per person. For perspective of its popularity, it accommodated only about 8,000 diners every season, but received over two million requests. Noma, too, has been a star on the gastro tourists’ itinerary, who have been queuing to pay about $500 for its tasting menu.
In California, chef David Kinch, who recently closed his three-Michelin-star restaurant Manresa in Los Gatos, said he no longer wanted to offer fine dining, calling it “backbreaking work he no longer wanted to inflict on himself or on his staff”.
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Closer home, Indians might recall making trips to Bangkok to eat at Gaggan, an Indian restaurant by chef Gaggan Anand that won two Michelin stars, and closed down in 2019 at the peak of its popularity. The only Indian cuisine restaurant to ever find a spot in the world’s best 50 places to eat, reaching number four, Gaggan was also named Thailand’s best restaurant. Chef Anand had trained under El Bulli’s Adrià, and planned to close Gaggan in 2020 to start a 10-seat restaurant in Fukuoka, Japan. Owing to some acrimony with his partners, Anand closed Gaggan in 2019, and now runs Gaggan Anand in Bangkok.
In India, fine dining is still a confused concept, with even the best of restaurants lacking consistency in quality and clarity in cuisine. Trying to ape Western trends, but aiming to please the Indian customer is a tough balance. Plus, the mainstay of the best cooking in the world — the idea of less is more, heroing of the ingredient and focus on flavour –– is usually missed in Indian restaurants.