Letters

The 30 minutes that could have lost us 10 years

Having just watched The Big Story (ITV, 28 September), I felt I had to put my views on paper.

I do not condone violence of any shape or form and the sooner this is stamped out the better. Yes, some chefs have short fuses and tend to raise their voices under pressure, but physical violence is unacceptable.

Surely it is irrelevant how good the food may be or how much the customer is paying? Cooking good food and running a prestigious restaurant do not go hand in hand with physical abuse of staff. It is quite possible to serve good food without resorting to these measures.

It seems to me that perhaps the chefs involved are blaming their own shortcomings on junior members of staff. Junior staff are there to learn, and cannot be blamed for not having the experience of older chefs.

I hope the programme will make people think twice about the restaurant they are going to eat at, but somehow I doubt it. Knowing human nature, more people will visit for the novelty value, which is unfortunate for the poor people in the kitchen.

At a time when London in particular has a serious chef shortage and we are doing all we can to try and encourage school leavers to enter into the crazy world of the hospitality industry, a 30-minute television programme could have knocked us back 10 years. Wise up, guys!

NEIL SAVAGE,

Head Chef,

One Ninety Queen's Gate, London SW7.

Don't add to our bad reputation

After watching The Big Story, I found it totally despicable that a chef of John Burton-Race's calibre feels the need to run his kitchen in such a brutal manner.

His sous chef Nigel Marriage seems to be of this mind also. The programme showed Mr Marriage kicking a poor young chef so much that the chef ended up crying.

The young man had come over from France to train as a chef and yet he was subjected to a tirade of both verbal and physical abuse.

Our industry has a bad enough reputation as it is, without adding physical and verbal abuse to its list.

Raymond Blanc had the right idea when he said that kitchen violence should be a problem of yesterday, certainly not one of today.

Name and address supplied.

Appalling, but long overdue

Last night's ITV programme The Big Story was appalling, but long overdue.

For 21 years we have supplied top chefs and top restaurants.

As a result, we know well that busy kitchens are stressful places, where tempers can flare, but quick moments of anger are worlds away from systematic violence.

John Burton-Race at L'Ortolan and his sous chef were seen behaving worse than schoolyard bullies, worse because they are supposedly mature men. Why do kitchen brigades put up with such dreadful behaviour by their seniors?

The answer can only be fear. We, as suppliers to such bullies, are not afraid of the commercial risks of standing up to be counted. Hopefully, those being bullied will take heart from such statements of support from every corner of the industry.

Thank goodness for Raymond Blanc and Richard Shepherd, who ably portrayed the best of top British kitchen standards: let us all join in their call to stamp out kitchen bullying.

TONY RUSSELL

Vice-Chairman,

Catering Equipment Suppliers Association, Bicester, Oxfordshire.

Can a lecturer explain this away?

I have been in the industry since 1963 and have never seen what I saw on The Big Story in any kitchen I have worked in. The brutality some head and sous chefs are using on junior members of staff is a disgrace to the industry.

As a lecturer, what can I tell my students who saw this programme? Seeing staff humiliated in this manner will not encourage students into an industry I have enjoyed working in.

I thought I was a strong disciplinarian, but what I saw was totally outrageous. Many of the people featured are members of the Académie Culinaire de France. The management of the Académie should remove them from membership.

If I was a customer of any one of these establishments, after watching this programme I certainly would not go there again. Where do I put my students if the industry has more chefs who show brutality to their staff?

MALCOLM SCOTT

Merthyr Tydfil, Mid Glamorgan.