92 epicureasia.com

Fire in the kitchen

With ubiquitous open kitchen concepts, you might have come across hot-headed chefs

who lose their cool during dinner service. How would you react, asks June Lee.

92 epicureasia.com

FOOD TALK

ILLUSTRATION

LIM AN-LING (WWW.MUSINGCATS.COM)

S

itting at the front row bench of an open kitchen, my

colleague was recently privy to the protracted altercations

between the head chef and a junior staff. While a pot of hot

soup was not thrown about a la Gordon Ramsay in Hell’s Kitchen,

such experiences are indeed rarer now that the chef profession

has been cleaning itself up.

Physical and verbal abuse in the past were well documented,

with such abuse taken as par for the course, or even warranted

in the quest for perfection. Chef Éric Ripert reports in his memoir

that Joël Robuchon exerted so much pressure that “some guys

shook all the time. Some went downstairs and cried in the

stairwell. I saw a few guys punch the walls. Some guys suffered

crippling anxiety attacks.” Chef Tomonori Danzaki, who led the

opening of Joël Robuchon and L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon at

Resorts World Sentosa in 2011, was served with a lawsuit in 2015

by two former staff. According to press reports, Franck Yoke said

Danzaki "treated us like dogs, morons, less-than-nothing".

For many diners, witnessing a meltdown in the kitchen may

be a new experience. Which of the following describes your

reaction? e

A Turn a blind eye

The easiest thing to do is often to ignore the situation – if it doesn’t

seem too serious. After all, the kitchen is a tense place with short

tempers, hot stoves and sharp knives. We’ve all been conditioned

watching Hell's Kitchen since 2005, haven’t we?

On the flip side, unchecked bad behaviour can lead to

toxic or dysfunctional restaurant culture, the kind that toppled

restaurateurs Mario Batali, Ken Friedman and John Besh after the

#metoo movement. For the consumer, being alert to endemic types

of behaviour such as excessive sexism, disrespect and foul language

can be the harbinger to stop supporting a restaurant.

B Take your business elsewhere

While chefs do discipline their staff when necessary, sometimes it

goes too far – especially in full view of diners. PR practitioner Jill

Sara recalls visiting a brand-new restaurant a few years ago, where

the chef-owner grabbed the arm of another chef who was trying to

pipe dishes during a full service. Says Sara, “I remember observing

the chef-owner closely before deciding what to do next. The former

continued talking very harshly into the other person's ear while

jolting his arm every now and then.”

With such experiences leaving a sour taste, customers may

not return, especially if the chef’s less-than-hospitable manners

transmits to the dining environment. Says Sara, “I know most

people would say it's none of our business, but must a bloody

accident happen or for someone to be gravely hurt before any of us

take appropriate action?”

C Call it out on social media

From #foodieporn to #kitchenfails, social media has changed

how the world dines in the past 10 years. Can it also change

kitchen culture? With a younger generation of chefs and

diners who are equally well equipped to shine a light on how

things work, the industry isn’t as rough and gritty as it once

was – in modern Singaporean kitchens at least.

However, the dark side of social media also includes

sensationalism, where any and every perceived fault in the

restaurant can go viral.

D Give the benefit of the doubt

Drew Nocente has seen chefs giving their staff ‘the eye’,

but as a diner he’s not seen physical or verbal abuse here

or elsewhere. He says, “Discipline does happen in the

kitchen and to us, each staff is different in his personality

and is trained differently. Hence, we reach out to each staff

differently, it could be a private conversation or a stern

warning or anything like that, but definitely no yelling or

screaming.” The chef-owner of Salted & Hung has worked at

a succession of open kitchens, including Skirt at W Singapore

and Maze Grill in London (yes, the Gordon Ramsay one).

“The kitchen environment is intense and stressful,

depending on the expectations of guests and chefs. To

deliver food at a level that is celebrated, chefs are pushing

the envelope and doing as much as they can, with all they

got.”