Inside hell's kitchens

Noma isn’t the first restaurant to mistreat its staff. Abusive chefs have risen to the very top. So, why does the industry keep rewarding bullies?

- VIR SANGHVI

Unless you are really interested in chefs and restaurants, you may have missed the storm over a residency by Noma, one of the world’s most influential and important restaurants, in Los Angeles.

What happened was this: When Noma announced its residency, some ex-employ-ees drew attention to the bullying of the staff at the restaurant's main operation in Copenhagen. The allegations dated back several years and the uproar drew the attention of The New York Times, which researched them and published a devastating article about Noma’s treatment of its junior employees. Consequently, Noma’s Los Angeles residency has gone on as planned, but without Rene Redzepi, Noma’s charismatic founder, who has stepped away from the restaurant.

More about Redzepi later, but what the uproar demonstrates is that there is growing concern about bullying and harassment in restaurant Kitchens. This is not about sexual harassment, which was the subject of another controversy some years ago, one that led to the downfall of such famous chefs as Mario Batali. The charge here is that chefs treat their subordinates with too little respect and that many top chefs subject their kitchen staff to abuse and sometimes, violence. It is, they say, the dark side of Michelin-starred restaurants, one that customers don't know about.

Well yes and no.

People who go to these restaurants do know about it. Stories about violent chefs have been featuring in British newspapers for decades. And there have been Instagram accounts like HospitalityBullshit which have documented the abuse. More recently books, such as the chef Sally Abe's A Woman's Place Is In The Kichen, and Tart by the pseudonymous blogger The Slutty Cheff, have described the underbelly of top kitchens and have drawn attention to the harassment.