Lou Perri - Palate Pleasures

with LOU PERRI

FROM THE STUNNED MULLET S T A R Chefs…WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

Having recently pulled out a tattered copy of Anthony Bourdain’s cult restaurant bible ‘Kitchen Confidential’ for old times sake – I couldn’t help but wonder if it showed signs of aging.

After all, it has been 22 years since this exposé on the front-line realities of chef and restaurant life was written and of course Bourdain has since tragically taken his own life. Since the early 2000’s when this book was written, there’s been a whole host of similar tomes penned by kitchen professionals, plus of course the rise of the reality cooking genre. That’s where one can take one’s pick from anything in the realm of say, Masterchef, all the way to Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, where it is indeed possible to gleefully view the complete gamut of bad chef behaviour, soul destroying abuse of underlings and all manner of food crimes and health and safety breaches. Indeed, it seems as if our appetite to consume not just the culinary delights plated up by chefs, but also a non-stop feast of their dirty laundry saw no bounds for a good chunk of the last couple of decades. But as we emerge from the tumultuous last couple of years of pandemic, floods and fires - are we still so unapologetically voyeuristic when it comes to our need to be a ‘fly on the wall’ of the restaurant kitchen? Certainly when it comes to the serious business of the mental health of those in the industry, and the fate of Bourdain himself, there is a need for perhaps less exposé and more TLC. For an industry still in strife and flux, there needs to be an acknowledgement of the importance of the profession, a duty of care and respect given to those that chose this path. In the last few years, perhaps because of the recent Covid derailment, the bad boy chefs seem to have all disappeared. The old boys such as Ramsay have gone all soft and middle aged. And the up-and-coming young guns? Well, I could be imagining it but there seems to be a new generation of serious young chefs out there. The focus is on the artistry, the creativity and the produce. Instagram feeds are full of serious, minimalist plating up and less name dropping and made for TV spin offs. There’s a backlash within the industry to quash that cliché. Those that choose the profession, are themselves individuals and not to be lumped in as a bad boy/girl collective. As indeed within any given profession, there are surely bad boys and girls, shonky practises behind closed doors, tantrums and scandals that co-exist with others that just get on with it. The new generation chefs are known and congratulated by the dining public, but it seems like the tantrums, the posturing, the

Instagram feeds brazenly degenerative behaviour and ‘celebrity are full of chef’ label have been relegated back to that serious, minimalist Spice Girl era. plating up and less Sadly for Bourdain, all this comes too late. name dropping and With the recent release of a new unauthorised made for TV spin offs. biography, he looks to remain firmly in the There’s a backlash spotlight that he so wanted to escape. As he within the industry to wrote to his estranged wife shortly before his quash that cliché. death “I hate my fans too, I hate being famous. I hate my job”. Everything has to come full circle and could it be that is one thing we’ve learned? That chefs and restaurants are, and should be all about the food. Not about antics, or gimmicks or scandals. We started with the food, then the closed doors of the kitchen became of interest to us and now we’re realising that yep, it was – and still is about the food.