change”.) Noma has reopened without any Michelin stars or its star chef. Mr Redzepi is “creative director”, not the man at the pass. Rock-star chefs were once indulged. In the 1990s and 2000s people were hungry for macho cooks: Marco Pierre White, an English chef, dumped his underlings in rubbish bins for “time out”; Gordon Ramsay became famous for losing his temper and calling people things like “idiot sandwich”. Anthony Bourdain’s book, “Kitchen Confidential”, portrayed chefs as miscreants. Yet somehow cheffing seemed glamorous. Portrayals of chefs have matured. “The Bear”, a hit show that ended in June, follows a brilliant but traumatised chef. (It is hinted that he used to work at Noma.) This month “Tony”, a biopic of Bourdain, will show his formative years in hellish kitchens. In a forthcoming series Mr White, Mr Ramsay and Heston Blumenthal will reflect on their “fights, fall-outs and feuds”. Off-screen, chefs are calling for better working conditions. Amanda Cohen of Dirt Candy, a Michelin-starred restaurant in New York, says young cooks have high expectations. Chefs once endured harsh kitchens to “make their résumé”, she notes, but now they have more leverage. In America, for instance, 1.2m hospitality workers left the industry during the pandemic.
Even Noma is adapting. Mette Brink Soberg (pictured above), who will lead the kitchen with Pablo Soto, the head chef, says that Noma is adopting shorter working hours. It is replacing its three seasonal menus with rolling changes, which will make the work less stressful and repetitive. Drudgery, such as deseeding pumpkins, will be shared out. Can this cordial environment last? Restaurants are stressful places to work; Noma is under a lot of scrutiny. But if its culture really has changed, chefs who still can’t stand the heat may have to follow Mr Redzepi out of the kitchen.■ This article was downloaded by zlibrary from https://www.economist.com/culture/2026/08/04/the-rock-star-chef-is-off-the-menu-at- noma
Hollywood’s latest obsession: older women and younger men Age-gap relationships are becoming more common off-screen, too Aug 6th 2026 ERIKA TRACY is a provocative contemporary artist in her late 30s. Elliot, her assistant, is a dishevelled 23-year-old with an indifferent girlfriend and a pointless degree in “new media”. So he is all too happy to comply when Erika decides he will be her subordinate and “sexual muse”, dressing him in pink underwear and making him crawl along the floor. “With you I actually don’t have to make any decisions. I’ve found this amazing freedom in just letting go of control,” he gushes. “I know,” Erika replies. “You’re welcome.” “I Want Your Sex” is the latest iteration of the older-woman-younger-man story that Hollywood has been telling with ever-greater frequency. Consider “The Idea of You”, about a divorced gallerist’s unlikely tryst with a boyband
star, or “Babygirl”, about a ceo’s unusual management of her intern. You may recall “Dreams” (about a socialite’s affair with an undocumented Mexican immigrant), “Vladimir” (a professor’s obsession with a younger colleague) or “Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy” (fairly self-explanatory). Reality shows such as “MILF Manor” and “Age of Attraction” have got in on the action, too. True, the dynamic has intrigued screenwriters for decades. Mrs Robinson— viewers never learn her first name—is an almost cartoonish vixen in “The Graduate” (1967); the character established the archetype of the alluring older lady. “American Pie” (1999) featured a buxom vamp known mostly as “Stifler’s mom”. Shows such as “Cougar Town” dramatised the thrills of a younger boyfriend. But what is notable about the current trend is that such relationships are increasingly happening off-screen, too. In 2023 women were older in 22% of unmarried, cohabiting heterosexual couples in America, up from 14.5% in 1995. Last year a study of single American adults by Match.com, a dating website, found that 30% of men had dated someone at least ten years older. On Feeld, “a dating app for the curious”, 73% of men seeking relationships with older women are aged between 18 and 25, up from 65% two years ago. It is “one of the clearest shifts we’re seeing”, the company says. Women are feeling the heat. On a recent evening in Paris, a 59-year-old says nine men have approached her on Hinge, another app, in the past few hours. Four were in their 20s; one of the oldest was 42. (“That starts to feel old and reasonable.”) At least three-quarters of the men who message her are under 40, she estimates. What’s behind the trend, both in entertainment and real life? There are a few reasons. One is celebrity influence. It was scandalous in 2005 when Demi Moore (then 42) married Ashton Kutcher (then 27). But these days plenty of women d’un certain âge, including Kris Jenner, Jennifer Lopez, Tilda Swinton and Madonna, have dated younger men.
Another reason is a greater understanding of sexuality: it is, in short, what lots of women want. Justin Lehmiller of the Kinsey Institute, a research centre, surveyed heterosexual Americans for a book published in 2018. He found that 64% of middle-aged women had thought about sex with a younger man at least once, and 13% frequently fantasised about it. Pornography data suggest it is what lots of men want, too. Holly Randall, an adult-film producer who hosts a podcast on the industry, pointed out that back in the era of dirty magazines and DVDs, a handful of directors and distributors served as gatekeepers. “Milfs did not exist 15, 20 years ago,” she has said. “When you were, like, 28, you were done, your career was over.” Yet sexual appetites turned out to be far more varied than those gatekeepers had imagined. “Milf” was the second-most searched term on PornHub last year. Adult-content platforms such as OnlyFans allow models of any (legal) age to set up shop. Some women in their 50s and 60s are doing “incredibly well”, Ms Randall said. Broader demographic trends may also be playing a role in the older-woman- younger-man match-up. Many rich countries report a yawning gap in the two sexes’ level of education. This is reflected in job prospects and earnings: a rising share of 20- to 24-year-old men are not studying, working or looking for work. The attitudes of young men and women are drifting apart, too, with women becoming more liberal as young men lean to the right. Young men may be less attractive to women their own age. But to older women, what they lack in social and economic capital, they make up for in the bedroom (and without needing to resort to Viagra). A small-sample study in 2024 found that women whose partners were approximately seven to ten years younger were happier and had more sexual confidence compared with those with same-age partners. The final reason may lie in recent social movements. Some young men today feel unsure of the rules of courtship in what is often a wary consent culture. In the study by Match.com, 72% of Gen Z respondents reported “more passivity in making the first move” (compared with 63% overall). Many fear public rejection.
In “Vladimir”, the married professor reminisces about the unpredictability and sizzle of sexual pursuit. She tells her students that romance was more thrilling when it was perilous. Love affairs that “left you a little bruised—I mean, emotionally, of course—were considered, within reason, really kind of fun”. On screen, at least, older women usually know what they want and they are not afraid to ask for it. However, in Hollywood films, as in marriages, younger men are rarely seen as viable long-term partners. (Just ask Ms Moore, who is now divorced.) Data from Pew, a pollster, bear this out: the share of American heterosexual marriages where the woman is at least three years older has hovered at about 10% since 2000. Instead, youthful partners are catalysts for self-actualisation and professional success. In “I Want Your Sex” Erika turns her homemade sex tapes of Elliot into an art installation and tricks him into a stunt to save her career. Once the professor in “Vladimir” finally sleeps with her hunky crush, she realises that sex was not the point. It was that feeling desire “was invigorating...it gave me this”, she says, gesturing towards the manuscript of her new book. Young bucks, beware. ■ This article was downloaded by zlibrary from https://www.economist.com/culture/2026/08/06/hollywoods-latest-obsession-older- women-and-younger-men
The problem with AI companion toys for children A new book warns that they could affect youngsters’ development Aug 6th 2026 A BOY OF five or six is cuddling a soft toy that looks like a robot. “You wanna be best friend?” he asks it, as if making a tentative approach in the playground. “Oh Carson! I’d love to be best friends!” comes the enthusiastic reply. The boy seems pleased. “Do you want to snuggle?” he asks. “I’m here for a cosy hug any time you want,” says the toy. Gabbo is an AI companion created by Curio, a Silicon Valley startup. Other toys in the range include a bear, a dog and a coffee cup dressed as a ballerina. A banana slug called Professor Linus can “help you unstick tricky homework questions, calm your nerves when school gets tough and chat about anything on your mind”. For those entertaining little ones, an AI