“Chef of the Century” Joël Robuchon was well known for his authoritarian (critics said tyrannical) style. Richard Neat, the very first British chef to train under Robuchon at his legendary three-Michelin-starred Paris restaurant Jamin, was explicitly named by the Frenchman as his “spiritual successor”.
Neat’s latest chapter,"Tyranny”, is a brutally honest reflection on how to achieve results in a top-level, high pressure environment. In this mea culpa (?), Richard lays out how he achieved culinary perfection and asks whether it was worth the human cost. Digest. Consider. And ask yourselves whether “being nice” would have got him anywhere. - Daniel Clarke-Serret (editor)
Contents (to date):
Chapter 1: Ambition // Chapter 2: Faith // Chapter 3: Loyalty //Chapter 4: Struggle // Chapter 5: Sovereignty // Chapter 6: Creativity // Chapter 7: Shame // Chapter 8: Exclusivity // Chapter 9: Recognition
OBSERVATIONS FROM THE KITCHEN by Richard Neat
Chapter 10: TYRANNY
Tian of Skate Wing and Crab and Cucumber Velouté
“Whoever has experienced the power, the complete ability to humiliate another human being …loses power over his own sensations. Tyranny is a habit, it has a capacity for development, it develops finally into a disease….. The human being and the citizen die within the tyrant forever; return to humanity…..becomes almost impossible.” (Dostoyevsky).
The Cook slammed down the telephone, still screaming invectives at the caller.
The kitchen bore witness to yet another display of his volatility. Like a crime scene, though before the police had arrived to tape-off specific areas, evidence of some felony was perceivable. Splashes from a multitude of sauces hung across the wall by the service table like a savoury-themed Jackson Pollack canvas. If this had been a movie scene, the director would have shot in grainy black and white with a villainous role for Vincent Price, emerging from a bank of artificial fog, while the orchestra struck-up a sinister musical score. Evidently, it had been a very bad service.
“Do you think they’ll come back?” asked The Cook, only now realising that his behaviour had repercussions beyond that ecstatic moment of deliciously wild drama.
“Not sure” replied The Saint. “The Fish Cook was pretty rattled and said he couldn’t operate in this type of atmosphere but the Fat boy will be back as he has no where else to go.”
