Social media is a cruel mistress. Just ask Thomas Straker, a plummy young chef who made his name making drool-inducing butter videos for TikTok, and who put up some pictures of his Notting Hill restaurant’s kitchen team on Instagram this week.
The backlash was swift. That’s because the snaps showed eight white men who all looked eerily alike. The optics weren’t helped by the fact that Straker’s restaurant is on the diverse Golborne Road, and its website claims it’s “a hub of cultures”, specialising in flatbreads.
Instead of wringing his hands, Straker hit back. He told critics to “calm down”, and blamed a shortage of staff in the industry. But the tough talking didn’t work. Many pointed out that he’d actually boasted to a magazine last year about how many job applications he gets. So, after some reflection, or (more likely) a dressing down from his public relations team, Straker put out a grovelling apology, admitting he needs to “improve”.
Straker has now been forced to think a bit deeper, and may change his restaurants as a consequence
Of course, the episode shows restaurants should think about diversity. But perhaps it also shows something else. Are we witnessing a slow fatigue with a blokey restaurant dinosaur, the shoot-from-the-hip maverick king of the kitchen, in the vein of Gordon Ramsay and Marco Pierre White? They swearily said what they thought, and slammed anyone who got in the way.
The kitchen has long been a key battleground for gender politics. Women still do far more cooking at home, but men take extra credit for what they do do, as anyone who has been to a barbecue knows.
Meanwhile, professional kitchens are often full of men. Foodie hero Anthony Bourdain said late in his too-short life he feared he’d fuelled a “meathead culture” in restaurants, and hoped it could change.
In response to the Straker episode, other London restaurants have showed off the diversity of their teams.
Like Ramsay et al, Straker tried to blast back at his critics and defend his seven disciples, but has now been forced to think a bit deeper, and may change his restaurants as a consequence. However buttery and delicious his flatbread is, that’s probably a good thing.
