ABSTRACT
Entrepreneurship literature is ripe with stories of companies built on an idea written down on a napkin. This story is slightly different but it has much in common with the traditional napkin tale. In Copenhagen the restaurant Noma was chosen in 2010 as the best restaurant in the world – a status it maintained in 2011 and 2012. In 2013 it fell back one place but regained the prestigious title of the best restaurant in the world in 2014. This was a major achievement not only for the restaurant but also for a movement that started with a manifesto in 2004, less than half a year after it opened its doors in 2003. The manifesto contained 10 rules outlining the New Nordic food paradigm. It was signed by 12 top chefs from the Nordic region. Claus Meyer was the architect behind the symposium where the manifesto and movement came into being and was one of the two co-writers of the draft manifesto. He is also one of the founders of Noma and is considered the “Father of the new Nordic kitchen”. Another was Rene Redzepi, the intense and highly dedicated head chef of Noma. This case will describe how the restaurant Noma has achieved immense success in a relatively short time. It is also about how the love of food combined with a keen sense of business and authenticity has created something as unlikely as a top-class restaurant based on Danish and Nordic food. The restaurant has had a major impact on the national as well as the international restaurant scene.
