René Redzepi Brought a Trainer to Tulum for Noma Mexico

The team that works out together, serves $600 tasting menus together. At least that’s the case for the Noma staff, who had a trainer on hand throughout the entire run of the groundbreaking Copenhagen restaurant’s Tulum popup, according to chef René Redzepi’s accounting of his fitness regimen for Men’s Journal.

Fitness was, at first, a personal goal for Redzepi, but when his second daughter, Ro, was born and his wife Nadine decided she also wanted to get in shape, Redzepi hired a trainer for the entire restaurant. This way, everyone could get in sets between services. With trainer Johan Troels Andersen, the Noma staff did pushups, pull-ups, burpees, weights, and yoga. “But Johan mixes it up, and there’s a playfulness to it,” Redzepi describes in Men’s Journal. “Sometimes we ‘fight’ each other by trying to tap the back of each other’s knees, and the loser has to carry the winner piggyback.”

The restaurant’s staff was so into the workouts at Noma in Copenhagen — even using pullup rings set up in the office during quick breaks — that when Noma popped up in Mexico, the trainer had to come, too. In Tulum, the crew worked out with Andersen on the beach six days a week, followed by a group breakfast of fried eggs, avocado, fresh fruit, and homemade sourdough bread. “It definitely made us closer as a team,” Redzepi notes.

Redzepi says that the routine has also made him a better chef. But, he’s not quite an exercise fanatic. “I still wouldn’t say I enjoy working out, but now I only hate it about 25 percent of the time.”

• The World's Hottest Chef Has An Even Hotter Workout [Men’s Journal]