Top British chef causes a stir with row over spoon

Link : http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20041014/od_afp/afplifestyle_food_spoon_041014223418&e=3

LONDON (AFP) - As Sarah Roe left the top London restaurant where she had just spent a huge sum entertaining business clients to find the chef blocking the door, she probably thought he was about to thank her for her custom


Oh no. Instead the recruitment company owner found herself loudly accused of stealing a teaspoon.


According to the shocked businesswoman, relating the unlikely row in Friday's edition of The Times newspaper, the celebrity chef concerned refused to apologise even when the offending cutlery was found on another table.


The chef in question is Tom Aikens, 34, whose eponymous restaurant in west London holds two Michelin stars and is one of the capital's most lauded new eating places.


Aikens, however, has a reputation as a hothead -- four years ago he was sacked in disgrace from another restaurant after allegedly branding a sous chef with a palette knife.


Roe said she had just settled the 536-pound (780-euro, 960-dollar) bill and was preparing to leave when Aikens stormed out of the kitchen and blocked her exit with his hand.


"He then announced in front of all the other diners: 'A silver spoon is missing from your table -- what do you know about this?'" she was quoted as saying by The Times.


"My first reaction was to laugh and say: 'Are you being serious?', and he said: 'Yes, I am absolutely serious.'


"So I asked him sarcastically if he wanted to frisk me. I said: 'Do you really think I've come all this way to steal one spoon?'"


However the chef refused to back down, and even when the silver spoon was found on an adjoining table, he appeared to hint she had moved it there.


Roe said she would take her clients elsewhere in future, and would "never set foot" in Aikens' establishment again.


Aikens told The Times he did not wish to discuss the incident, but did complain that theft at the restaurant was rife.


"The handcream goes, the towels, the ashtrays -- everything," he said.