The Hand and Flowers pub
(Picture: David Hartley/REX/Shutterstock)A former chef at Tom Kerridge’s double Michelin-starred gastropub is suing for £150,000 after he was covered in boiling stock during a kitchen accident.
Andrew Lewis, 28, suffered burns to both legs, his chest, and his hands when an urn malfunctioned in the back kitchen of the TV chef’s lauded Hand and Flowers.
He was left permanently scarred and says he now suffers from flashbacks and post-traumatic stress disorder, as well as fearing for his ability to work in later life.
Mr Lewis is suing The Hand and Flowers Ltd, based in Marlow, Buckinghamshire, and Kettering firm IPM Catering Ltd which was responsible for servicing the stock boiling urn, claiming up to £150,000 in compensation.
His barrister Simon Brindle set out in the court filing how Mr Lewis had been working as a demi chef de partie for just over a year when he was injured on October 24, 2018.
He was responsible for “setting up and switching on” the stock boiler at the gastropub, which is owned and operated by Tom Kerridge and his wife Beth Cullen-Kerridge and earned its second Michelin star in 2012.
“Water, vegetables and/or meat (the stock) is placed inside the drum, the machine is switched on and then, once ready, the stock is extracted from the stock boiler via the tap”, explained Mr Brindle. “The stock inside is heated under pressure, resulting in the temperature of the water exceeding 100 degrees.”
He set out that Mr Lewis noticed a leak which he cleared up, before he “attempted to fix the leak by tightening the tap”.
“To do so he crouched down in front of the tap. Unfortunately, as he was trying to tighten the tap, it suddenly came away from the stock boiler, causing pressurised, boiling stock water to be ejected from it and over him”, he wrote.
“As a result of the accident, the claimant suffered 34 per cent partial thickness burns to his left chest, abdomen, left forearm, right forearm and both legs, feet and ankles. He required emergency hospital admission.”
Mr Lewis, from the village of Tetsworth in Oxfordshire, said the stock boiler was “faulty and defective” and accuses one of the defendant companies of “failing to ensure he was adequately protected from the risk of burn and scald created by the unintended ejection of the stock”.
The companies blame each other for the accident, with IPM suggesting it was someone at the restaurant who was responsible for the tap being loose.
The court has been told Mr Lewis is now a head chef at a different restaurant, but suffered “delayed onset post-traumatic stress disorder” after the accident.
“He finds that he experiences significant pain in his legs at the end of the working day”, said Mr Brindle.
The legal claim has been filed with the High Court, but defences from the companies have not yet been made public.
