Imogen kept hearing similar stories with similar language. This is an industry with high commitment and low margins, which creates cycle. There are long hours, which make staff sick, but then taking sick leave means you'll miss your shift,. So no one has a day off. If you're doing astage, the unpaid internship, you can work up to 16 hours a day. Those types of days are min at noma. They talked about it being like o cult. They talkedabout it being military. Yes, i was really struck and kind of disturbed by the number of people who said that they thought the system of chef's learning bad behaviour in the kitchen could be 'justifiably
This week we speak with Michael R. Jackson, playwright of A Strange Loop, which just won the Tony award for Best Musical and Best Book. Jackson is a queer, black writer whose musical is about a queer, black writer writing a musical about a queer, black writer.. Hence the strange, but incredibly entertaining loop. Then, we learn about the dark side of Copenhagen's world-famous fine dining restaurant scene from Imogen West-Knights. Denmark seems to be turning a blind eye to abuses in its hottest – and extremely lucrative – hospitality industry.
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Want to say hi? We love hearing from you. Email us at ftweekendpodcast@ft.com. We’re on Twitter @ftweekendpod, and Lilah is on Instagram and Twitter @lilahrap.
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Links and mentions from the episode:
– Imogen’s article ‘Fine dining faces its dark truths in Copenhagen’: https://on.ft.com/3NlO6Mq .
– Lilah’s article ‘How far does a chef have to go to be truly good?’: https://www.ft.com/content/246cdc2a-f135-4d3d-9d74-e524e9217699.
– Michael’s musical A Strange Loop is on Broadway at the Lyceum Theatre.
– Imogen is on Twitter @ImogenWK, and Michael is @TheLivingMJ.
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Original music by Metaphor Music. Mixing and sound design by Breen Turner and Sam Giovinco.
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
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