Founded by Noma co-founder René Redzepi, the two-day event forms a core part of MAD – a non-profit organization initially launched to improve restaurant workplace conditions and find sustainable food sourcing solutions. It’s vital work but it’s not exactly thrilling. Yet, lured by Redzepi’s mammoth influence, Copenhagen’s then-burgeoning food scene and a communal goal to better the food industry, people flocked from far and wide to the first Symposium in 2011. A precedent was quickly set.
Somewhere between a culinary Coachella (Redzepi has cited Glastonbury festival as an inspiration for the event) and an academic conference, MAD Symposium investigates how the food industry can continually evolve and thrive while simultaneously putting on a star-studded lineup of speakers and hosts.
The seventh iteration of the event, dubbed MAD7, will once again take place within the iconic crimson circus tent on the banks of Copenhagen harbour with the promise of an eclectic mix of the brightest and most influential minds in hospitality, including servers, chefs, writers, sommeliers and producers in attendance.
And, after its prolonged break, MAD Symposium is back with more urgency than ever. MAD7 is working around the central theme of ‘Build to Last’ and seeks to ask how the restaurant world, and the supply chains on which it relies, can sustain itself for years to come. There’s an understandable level of seriousness in the question but, like previous iterations of the Symposium, optimism is set to be key.
“Coming out of an extraordinarily difficult period of time, and with serious challenges still ahead, the hospitality community needs a chance to reflect, to re-connect, and to renew its sense of purpose and agency,” says MAD executive director Melina Shannon-DiPietro. “We’re bringing back Symposium with the intention of providing just that.”
A sense of mystery has been carefully created: despite the ticket price of approximately $800, speakers are intentionally not revealed until you head inside the tent’s canvas doors. But, with past speakers including the likes of Ferran Adrià, who founded the incomparable El Bulli; Clare Smyth, of London’s three-Michelin-starred Core by Clare Smyth; and enormously influential chef-philanthropist José Andrés, the rumor mill on this year’s lineup has already begun to swirl.
While initial tickets for the main event have all been allocated (although an additional drop is imminent), the Danish capital is set to hum in the coming weeks with a stellar roster of events in the days running up to and following MAD7.
Ranging from in-depth conversations on systemic barriers in the global food system to convivial, family-style dinners, the events invite attendees to not just intellectually examine the restaurant industry but to wholeheartedly celebrate it in all its guises.
Highlights include an opening dinner at Saji on May 19, which will fuse Indonesian and Danish flavors; a taste of Sicilian sfincione (a tray-baked bread known to have preceded what we now call pizza) and wild-fermented wines at Surt on May 22; wine tasting on board a local canal boat, hosted by winemakers Jean-Pascal Sarnin and Tom Lubbe on May 23; and a Puglian pop-up at Kitchen Collective, with DJs late into the night.
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Closing out the Symposium will be a family-style Italian-American feast hosted by chefs Courtney Storer and CJ Capace (both of whom were instrumental in bringing FX’s The Bear to life). Taking over Villette for one night only on May 28, the duo will serve a five-course sharing menu.
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