I liked the article. It was rightly critical of their treatment of employees, but I wonder if it’s possible for a restaurant like noma to exist with fair wages and have a menu price low enough for people to show up.
Restaurants in France for example generally pay their interns (there's quite specific rules for unpaid internships and they must last less than 2 months) and hours are much more reasonable for everyone (still rough compared to tech and other professions).
The result is that French fine dining restaurants offer less courses and less elaborate cuisine than Noma while charging similar amounts. They also largely survive off regular clients (billionaires, rich politicians, etc...) who can afford to eat there regularly and buy big bottles of wine. Paris is a bigger city and more of a financial hub than Copenhagen.
Noma specifically probably couldn't survive as they thrive mainly on tourist traffic (ie. one-time visitors on a budget) as most people agree it's more "interesting" than tasty. They've also taken the complexity to an extreme because they've had access to unpaid interns for so long (versus France which mandated better working conditions over a decade ago).
i wonder if it's possible for a plantation to exist without its slaves?
a labor prison camp without with its prison laborers?
etc.
i do think it's a semi-interesting story, but only semi-interesting because it feels like this Cartman "screw you guys, I'm going home" tale is pretty tired. this is just the latest example.
but they were like 'we shutting down... after a couple more years of exploitation.'
did i read that right?
makes me think of the plight of mothers and other 'unpaid interns', and "womens' professions" in america (teaching, nursing, etc.), generally. will there be more than just a few individuals who will stand up and say, "this is not right - it feels like the abuse is built into this model"?
