Fans of The Menu are stunned by the parallels they have drawn between the film and a real-life fine dining restaurant, Noma, being closed down. The Menu premiered on November 18, 2022, and follows a young couple whose visit to a fine dining restaurant on a remote island takes a turn for the worse as the head chef, Chef Slowik (Ralph Fiennes), has plans for his guests other than taste testing. Its satirical premise takes aim at foodie culture and the issues within the restaurant industry as a whole. The Menu's thought-provoking themes, satirical tone, absurdity, and performances all earned it high praise from critics. Some fans have even expressed the belief that the film could have the power to influence the real-life restaurant industry.As reported by The New York Times, the Copenhagen restaurant Noma will be shutting down in 2024 after a two-decade run. Noma has received three Michelin stars and has been named among the best restaurants in the world. Just as The Menu offered an exclusive dining experience, Noma offers a 20-course meal that can cost a patron up to $500. However, owner René Redzepi is shutting the restaurant down because fine dining is "unsustainable" for requiring long grueling hours of its workers and lacking the resources to pay them. Fans of The Menu quickly took to social media and theorized that the film influenced Redzepi's decision. Check out their reactions below:
What The Menu Says About The Restaurant Industry
It isn't surprising that fans have drawn parallels between The Menu and the closing of Noma. The Menu tackles the restaurant industry in a very bold manner and unveils the sad truths of the industry that aren't often seen. After all, the entire film is a parody of fine-dining restaurants. The head chef, Slowik, is filled with rage and vengeance for the customers who made him lose his passion for cooking. Meanwhile, the cooks live on site and work nearly day and night as they are "trapped" in their jobs. There is an immense aura of subservience as the cooks do Slowik's bidding and seem to have little say under his tyrannical rule.
Then, there are the customers like Tyler (Nicholas Hoult) in The Menu. The majority of the customers are nitpicking know-it-alls and needy celebrities who care more about showing off their wealth with the experience than about the actual food. While The Menu is a satirical and exaggerated take on the restaurant industry, the main aspects of it will ring true for real-life workers in the industry. In the industry, some cooks work grueling hours, with workers at Noma working 16-hour shifts. There have been countless stories of head chefs who were verbally and emotionally abusive to their workers. Then, while working countless hours with little pay in a high-stress environment and creating unique and brilliant culinary masterpieces, many workers are met with harassment from unappreciative customers.
In The Menu, even as viewers are horrified by Slowik's actions, some will still feel empathy for him. His extreme frustration is something that many workers in the restaurant industry can likely relate to, and it highlights the need for change in the industry. Now, restaurants like Noma are showing just how spot on The Menu was about the industry, to the point that even the best restaurants in the world are realizing that it just isn't feasible to do what they're doing without the negative drawbacks for their workers. The fact that fans are drawing parallels between Noma and The Menu proves that the film's powerful message wasn't lost on viewers.
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