The Europeans

When legendary Copenhagen restaurant Noma announced that it's planning to close its doors, its star chef René Redzepi said that producing his kind of elite cuisine had become 'unsustainable'. The restaurant, and others like it, have faced vocal criticism over working practices ranging from exploitative unpaid internships to gruelling 16-hour days. This week we speak to Lisa Lind Dunbar, an industry veteran and critic of Denmark's restaurant working culture, to try to understand how fine dining went so wrong. We're also talking about Polish bison, why Turkey is blocking Sweden's NATO bid, and the Irish president's vision of a blissfully homework-free childhood.

You can follow Lisa on Instagram here. This week's Isolation Inspiration: Paolo Sorrentino's 'Hand of God', and 'Ukraine: Under the Counter', reported by our very own Katz Laszlo for Rough Translation / Radiolab.

Thanks for listening! If you enjoy our podcast and would like to help us keep making it, we'd love it if you'd consider chipping in a few bucks a month at patreon.com/europeanspodcast (many currencies are available). You can also help new listeners find the show by leaving us a review or giving us five stars on Spotify.

00:00 The Europeans, brought to you by ChatGPT
03:49 Good Week: A proposed homework ban in Ireland
10:15 Bad week: Why Turkey is blocking Sweden's NATO bid
20:55 Interview: Lisa Lind Dunbar on Denmark's broken restaurant industry
39:03 Isolation Inspiration: 'The Hand of God' and 'Under the Counter'
42:07 Hooray for Polish bison

Producers: Katy Lee and Wojciech Oleksiak

Mixing and mastering: Wojciech Oleksiak

Music: Jim Barne and Mariska Martina

Twitter | Instagram | hello@europeanspodcast.com