It has long been known that tempers in the frenetic atmosphere of a commercial kitchen can flare up and boil over into verbal and physical abuse. But the days of the poisonous kitchen were supposed to be long gone.
his experience of a number of current chefs shows that this is not the case.
John *, a young chef who was physically and verbally bullied in the kitchen of a well-known Dublin restaurant, contacted me by email.
“When I think back to my first job in 2018,” he wrote, “I was the recipient of treatment that would be considered shocking if it took place in any other workplace.
“I think sharing my experience can help shed some light on the problems young chefs face and bring about some positive change.”
I talked to John, to another chef, Sally *, who worked in the same kitchen, and to Brian *, who saw behavior while working a probationary period that made him realize this is not a place where he does not want to work.
“What upset me the most,” Brian told me, “was that the person who fucked up the most had to buy the beers for the kitchen at the end of each night. It has always been the non-Irish kitchen porter, the lowest paid staff member. ”
During his service, John was kicked twice, beaten three times in the upper body, grabbed four times near a hot stove top and twice grabbed and held against a surface. He was punched in the face, with food thrown over his head and beaten with physical objects.
“These are just the incidents that I remember concretely,” he says. “The list goes on. But physical assault was almost preferable to the verbal abuse and bullying you encountered on a daily basis.
“Personal matters such as relationships or medical conditions have turned into ammunition if you have made the mistake of disclosing it. It was relentless. This was in addition to working 60+ hours a week for € 22,000 (per year).
“It seems crazy to me that this could be the norm. Even at work I was occasionally reminded that if it was in London, the treatment would actually have been worse.
“Is this how cooking was at the highest level? “Unfortunately, after hearing other people’s accounts, I believe we were not the only ones facing this treatment.”
Sally also experienced toxic behaviors.
“I stayed there for a few months,” she told me. “I worked in a well-known restaurant abroad where there was a horrible kitchen culture, but I have only heard good things about the Dublin place. In those massive international kitchens, the chefs are like pit bulls. You keep your head up and just work, work, work. I assumed it was just like eating well because I had worked in casual restaurants before. During my trial in Dublin, I heard things that reminded me of that kitchen, but I put it out of my head because I wanted the career advancement.
“During my first two weeks, there was verbal abuse every time I made a mistake. I was the only woman in the department. Every day, ‘X’, the head chef, and ‘Y’, his number two, called me a retard, a donkey, a fool. They did it to me less than the guys. The boys also suffered physical abuse.
“I think they thought a woman would be more likely to go to management.
“X and Y were a double act. They went between shifts for pints every day and came back to do service. If Y did something, X would laugh and encourage him. We were always told how lucky we were to work there.
“Checks would be asked: ‘What medication are you on?’ if they were too slow. One day And I hit a wet cloth on my face when he was angry. I saw people being punched, pressed against hot pans, shouted at, thrown over counters. And used to make sexual remarks about the waitresses.
“We all worked too many hours, which was technically illegal. It was impossible to do what was requested within the allotted hours. I knew X and Y were aware that HR’s wife had been talking to me about the hours, so I could not say anything about the bullying because they knew it was coming from me. HR was more worried about the hours we did than the bullying, which they knew there were rumors about. ”
Sally also experienced sexually abusive language and harassment.
“At first I thought I got the job because of my skill,” she added, “but there were so many inappropriate remarks that I realized and overlooked. It got worse when I was not reciprocal and made it clear I was not interested.
“He sat on the counter every day and watched how I washed the floor. I laughed at first, but after a while I did not laugh – it was no longer funny. X and Y would say to me, ‘Why are you so restless? Why can you not laugh? When was the last time you lay down? ‘ And I wanted to know how many sex partners I had when I was ever with a woman. ”
John did not complain to management about the bullying. “At the time, I did not feel like talking to HR about the issues,” he said. “What was the point when two directors of the company previously mocked me after an incident in the kitchen? Because I was at the beginning of my career, I was worried about what an HR or WRC case would look like. The Dublin chef community is small, the degrees of separation between kitchens are small. Would it have an impact on my career if I went to HR “cry” like one chef put it? “
Since John left the toxic kitchen, he has become convinced that there are other chefs who experience violence in the workplace, too scared to raise a voice and talk about the conditions they face.
“What’s worse is that young graduate chefs see it for the first time and think, ‘this is how things are,’ and then the bullying and lack of respect will just continue.”
“After a few months, I had enough,” Sally said, “and I went to work in a restaurant where no one was screaming and there was a much nicer atmosphere.
“The HR woman asked me to e-mail her or sit down with her, but I did not feel safe to do so, as the word came around. I know what happened there happened in other restaurants. So many chefs are hypocritical. They all know which kitchens are toxic. ”
While a majority of chefs in Ireland have told me that they believe bullying is a thing of the past, others disagree.
“You hear over and over about certain restaurants,” said Gaz Smith of Michael’s and Little Mike’s in Mount Merrion.
“Customers tell me when they hear how bullying goes on when they eat in other restaurants. I’m not perfect, but I can not see why anyone would do it – it is against good business practice, as these customers say they will not return.
“Of course there is sometimes pressure in a kitchen that leads to barking, but the problem is when it goes further. I was happy early in my career – many of the chief chefs I worked with were women who were very calm. There were one or two a *** holes, but I was never afraid to stand up for myself.
“I do not know why this is happening. Maybe it’s due to uncertainty, or to being too driven. Maybe chefs are doing the wrong things for the right reasons. I think bullying was common in London kitchens and some of those who trained there continue that behavior here. I have heard of a chef branded with a hot tool, of others being paid silent fees for not bringing formal proceedings. ”
Some allegedly toxic kitchens are those that set high standards and win awards. Shockingly, some alleged kitchen bullies appear on industry panels talking about promoting a positive work environment in restaurant kitchens.
If everyone in the industry knows who they are, why are they not being called out?
Kitchen porters and untrained chefs on student visa who work for cash are afraid to rock the boat for fear they will lose their jobs and not be able to get another one. Chefs who have been bullied are reluctant to come forward because they feel there is no protection for whistleblowers.
The chefs, who are determined that toxic behaviors in kitchens no longer occur, say the repetition of these “myths” discourages young people from entering the industry. They say the cliché of the obsessive chef who pursues culinary perfection at the expense of a fair work environment does not reflect reality.
However, Chef Cuan Greene, formerly of Noma in Copenhagen and Bastible in Dublin, believes the only way forward is to nurture staff and ensure their well-being.
“The articles (I read about toxic kitchens in the UK and the US),” he writes in his omos newsletter, “made me hope for good food and indeed made my future in it questionable… Judging by the waiting lists in restaurants of chefs with (a reputation for)… behavioral issues, one can question whether… the public is not bothered about this abuse . ”
Adrian Cummins says in his 13 years at the helm of the Restaurants Association of Ireland, no one has picked up the phone to him to complain of bullying in Irish restaurants, but anyone who has experienced it can contact him in confidence. He encourages anyone who has been physically assaulted to go to the gardaí.
Gaz Smith hopes toxic kitchens will become a thing of the past. “Sometimes people tell me to leave a toxic kitchen is like leaving an abusive marriage, that they did not realize how bad it was until they left. I hope that if more people talk about their experiences, it will help whistleblowers everywhere. ”
* Names have been changed