60 diners at world's best restaurant struck with vomiting bug after employee 'cooked food while ill'

Guests at Copenhagen restaurant thought to have been caught norovirus

63 people who had eaten at exclusive eatery complained of food poisoning



Local food authority said it had launched investigation into the incident

Restaurant manager Peter Kreiner also said the restaurant is investigating



Danish restaurant Noma, crowned the world’s best restaurant three years running in one poll, on Friday apologised after 63 guests fell ill with sickness and diarrhoea after visiting the haute cuisine establishment.

According to the Danish health authorities, the guests fell ill during a five-day period in February and the outbreak could have come from a sick kitchen staff employee.

Health inspectors criticised the restaurant for not alerting authorities soon enough and for not taking proper action after the employee was struck ill upon returning home after work.



Elite restaurant: But diners at Noma in Copenhagen were struck ill after eating there last month

Owner: Noma's co-owner, founder and executive chef Rene Redzepi pictured outside the Copenhagen restaurant in 2010

WHAT'S ON THE MENU AT THE WORLD'S BEST RESTAURANT?

Starters Malt flatbread and juniper

Moss and cep

Crispy pork skin and black currant

Fruit leather (with pickled rose petals)

Cooked mussels

Cheese cookie, rocket and stems

Potato and duck liver

Dried carrot and sorrel

Caramelized milk and cod liver

Pickled and smoked quails egg

Radish, soil, and grass

Grilled corn

Sorrel leaf and cricket paste



Mains



Cooked fava beans and beach herbs

Cucumber and dill with cream and elderflower

Tartar and sorrel with juniper and tarragon

Cauliflower and pine with cream and horseradish

Pike perch and stems, with cabbage and elderberries

The hen and the egg

Sweetbread and bitter greens, with celeriac and mushroom

Dessert



Blueberries and ants

Pear tree

The two-Michelin-star restaurant recognised in a report that internal procedures had not been good enough and said an e-mail from the employee reporting his sickness had not been seen.

'We are in the business of making people happy and taking care of our guests, so this is the worst thing that could happen to us,' Noma managing director Peter Kreiner told Reuters.

'Since the outbreak we have worked closely with the health authorities to get to the bottom of it and find the source of infection.

'We are extremely sorry about all of this and I have personally been in dialogue with all the guests who were affected and discussed compensation for them,' he said, adding there was never any danger of the restaurant being closed down.

Food poisoning can have a major impact on top-end restaurants.

In 2009 British chef Heston Blumenthal received negative headlines and was forced to close his three-star restaurant The Fat Duck for around three weeks after hundreds of guests became ill.

Noma, known for experimental ingredients such as ants and fermented grasshoppers, has been voted winner of The S. Pellegrino and Acqua Panna World’s 50 Best Restaurants in 2010, 2011 and 2012.

Guests flock to the Danish restaurant from all over the world and pay around £600 for a 12-course set menu for two including appetisers, treats to finish, wine pairing and a tour of the kitchen to meet some of the 50 chefs.

When the restaurant releases monthly bookings, two-seater tables are usually snapped up in less than an hour.

For the last three years it has finished on top of Restaurant magazine's list of the best restaurants in the world, winning its second Michelin star in 2007.

The distinguished French food guide's decision not to award the restaurant a third star last year was met with criticism.

By comparison Gordon Ramsay's eponymous Chelsea restaurant was awarded three stars.

The restaurant is known for relying on fresh and locally sourced products.

Danish newspaper Ekstra Bladet said that a member of the kitchen staff had been preparing food while ill and subsequently vomited.



The worker apparently alerted the restaurant to the incident within a week, but it did not respond to his report.