Ali Sonko has been washing dishes at world-renowned Danish restaurant Noma since it opened 13 years ago.
Now the 62-year-old, who moved to Denmark from The Gambia 34 years ago, has become one of three new partners in the Copenhagen establishment, Danish newspaper reports.
Head chef René Redzepi made the announcement as the two-Michelin starred restaurant closed its doors at its current location, with plans to reopen in December as an "urban farm" on the edge of the city in . 
"Ali is the heart and soul of Noma," said Redzepi during a 30-minute speech to 250 staff and friends the day after the restaurant closed its doors to the public on February 24.
Ali Sonko at Noma, where he has just been made a co-owner. Source: AAP
"I don't think people appreciate what it means to have a person like Ali in the house. He is all smiles, no matter how his twelve children fare.
"And, by the way, my own father was also named Ali, and he too worked as a dishwasher when he came to Denmark," said an emotional Redzepi.
Redzepi also revealed two other staff had been made partners - service director Lau Richter and James Spreadbury, originally from Adelaide, who has been the restaurant manager for the past eight years.
"This is only the beginning, as we plan to surprise several more of our staff with a piece of the walls that they have chosen to work so hard within," Redzepi wrote in an Instagram post sharing the news about Noma's new partners.
"This move is one of the happiest moments of my time at noma."
Noma has been named the world's best restaurant four times, and placed at number 5 in the .
Sonko was supposed to join Noma's chefs on stage in London in 2010 when Noma was first named the best restaurant in the world, but the Gambian did not have a visa and so could not enter Britain.
Instead, the Noma group wore t-shirts bearing Sonko's face as they accepted the award.
Two years later, as Noma notched up its third win, Sonko had organised his visa and delivered the reception speech on stage in front of the world's media: "Thank you so much, I'm so happy about it... I would have liked to come here three years ago but I couldn't get here. I'm so happy for all of us and I say thank you for Rene and all the team."
René Redzepi and the Noma team wore t-shirts with Ali Sonko's face on them as they accepted the award for best restaurant in the world in 2010. Source: YouTube/The World's 50 Best Restaurants
In 2016, Redzepi opened a Noma Australia pop-up in Sydney, which sold out within minutes and had a waitlist of 27,000 people.
