star has made bombshell allegations against a well-known chef, who he described as a “vile monster”.
The star appeared on The Staff Canteen’s Grilled podcast alongside fellow chef Anna Haugh and editor Cara Houchen, who wanted to know exactly what makes a restaurant good or bad. Cara asked: “What makes a great restaurant and what makes it not so great? Feel free to name names.”
Kicking things off, Anna explained: “It’s kind of weird. I definitely think that if a restaurant is able to give you little snippets of what you can expect from the name to the decor to the menu when you sit down and how the staff behave, they can kind of pre-tell you what kind of experience it’s going to be – is it gonna be expensive, is it gonna be affordable, is it gonna be quick, slow? All of that results in a really good meal. So it should definitely reflect how much it costs.
“What I hate is when you think you’re getting something middle of the road and then you’re like ‘Holy moly, that is seriously punchy expensive’. Cooking good food isn’t enough any more. You need to have a whole package because there are so many good restaurants out there.”
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Matt Tebbutt branded one famous chef a ‘monster’ (Image: BBC)
Matt then chimed in with a horrible anecdote of his own, telling the hosts: “Anna’s absolutely right, it’s more than just food. Back in the 90s it was all about food – the waiters could be as surly as they liked.
“The one thing I always remember as a young chef going out, we used to have a little club and we’d go out on a Wednesday afternoon when we were off work. We’d go to the newest local opening. I remember sitting in this restaurant and there was this big name chef who sadly is still alive today, he is… he was a vile, vile monster.
“He was berating his kitchen like you wouldn’t… you just couldn’t get away with it now. Effing and blinding and in your face because the kitchen was open, and we were looking at this and thinking, ‘I don’t want to eat this food’. That really stayed with me.
The Saturday Kitchen star had a bad experience in the 90s (Image: BBC)
“When you get food given to you by some master chef who really thinks he’s something, but you look at the lack of soul that’s gone into it and go, ‘I don’t want to f***ing eat that food. I want to eat the food down the road in some little Italian that’s made with love and passion.’ Yes there’s things about plating and the way it’s served and stuff like that but I want food that’s made with a lot of soul, not fear,” he added.