René Redzepi, the chef and co-owner of the Copenhagen restaurant Noma, has tested positive for Covid and will not appear at the restaurant’s weeklong dinner series in Brooklyn, American Express wrote in an email to attendees on Monday.
As a result, American Express said it would refund the price of the dinner — $700 a person — to all those who paid to attend the sold-out series, which continues through Friday.
In its email, American Express Platinum Presents, a partner in the event along with Resy, assured guests that the Noma team in Brooklyn, including the co-owner Peter Kreiner and the chef Thomas Frebel, a longtime lieutenant for Mr. Redzepi, had not been in contact with Mr. Redzepi, and were being tested daily.
At the dinner on Tuesday night, a welcoming video from an apologetic Mr. Redzepi followed hors d’oeuvres of sea urchin, crunchy cauliflower waffles and ebelskivers fried in duck fat.
The dinner, in an airy repurposed warehouse building in Dumbo, consists of a succession of dishes luxuriously appointed with caviar, black truffles, lobster and king crab, and pours of uncommon natural wines.
A first course features tiny baby green peas set in a jellied mushroom broth. That is followed by a sweetly crunchy, whole blanched white turnip, paired with Dover sole stuffed with mousse and glazed with a paste of dried tomatoes and kanzuri chile paste. Pillowy king crab with egg and black truffles come in a plate-size crab shell, and succulently fried cod collar with first-rate Osetra caviar is served to be eaten by hand.
Maine lobsters are strewn with flower petals for the final savory course, followed by a yogurt dessert with poppy seeds, cardamom and chamomile — an elegant, refreshing finish.
The 50 diners each night are sent home with a gift bag containing a small bowl by the ceramist Katrine Binzer.
Though it’s hard to place a value on such a one-of-a-kind meal, the all-inclusive price tag of $700 would not have been out of line. The dinner could have been touted as one of those “money cannot buy” experiences. This time, money didn’t have to.
