René Redzepi's MAD Symposium Is Taking 2015 Off

MAD — the international culinary symposium founded by Danish chef René Redzepi (Noma, Copenhagen) — has taken place each summer since it launched in 2011. But MAD will skip this year's conference, according to an announcement from the MAD team. MAD5 will take place in 2016 rather than this summer.

MAD4, which "explored the meaning of cooking", touched on dozens of topics, from food's impact on the art world to the power of the celebrity chef to food's service as nourishment for the soul. The conference also encouraged attendees and presenters to take world-changing action. This was the stage where chefs Roy Choi and Daniel Patterson announced Loco'l, their ground-breaking fast food concept, which is still in development. To underline the conference's original goal, MAD is taking a break this year.

MAD5 is being presented as MADGO, and seeks to be "as impactful as possible." Until then, MAD's presenters have other projects in the works, and chef Redzepi has a feature film to release.

The complete announcement:

In his closing speech at last year's symposium, René encouraged us all to start taking action—to take to heart the ideas presented at the symposium and work to make them a reality.

Since last August, we have made several efforts to embody this philosophy, taking on new projects that will change the character of our organization and expand our reach to new audiences around the globe.

We will work to expand the knowledge gathered through the symposiums to make every meal a better meal; not just at restaurants, but every meal cooked and served. We have learned that good cooking and a healthy environment can and should go hand-in-hand, and the quest for a better meal can leave the world a better place than we found it. MAD will henceforth be committed to producing and sharing this knowledge and to taking promising ideas from theory to practice.

Therefore, MAD5 will take place in 2016 rather than 2015. Quite simply, we want to make MAD5—or "MAD GO"—as impactful as possible. In the coming months, we will start scoping out some of the projects we hope to present, as well as more information about how (and why) to attend.

For all of you that have been waiting, anxiously: we really appreciate your support and interest in the next symposium, and we will make sure to keep you updated as things progress.