Aurelien Largeau, a celebrity French chef based at Hyatt’s upscale Hotel du Palais in Biarritz, has resigned after a humiliating “hazing” incident in his kitchen prompted outrage. Aurelien Largeau Resigns From Hyatt’s Hotel du Palais Afer Alleged Hazing Of...
Aurelien Largeau, a celebrity French chef based at Hyatt’s upscale Hotel du Palais in Biarritz, has resigned after a humiliating “hazing” incident in his kitchen prompted outrage.
Aurelien Largeau Resigns From Hyatt’s Hotel du Palais Afer Alleged Hazing Of New Hire
Largeau, 31, has already earned a reputation as one of the leading chefs of the world and ran his Michelin-starred restaurant, La Table d’Aurélien Largeau, in southwest France at the Hotel du Palais in Biarritz, part of the Hyatt network.
But it seems that Largeau has either quite a temper or quite an “initiation ritual” for new hires, because video surfaced online (since totally scrubbed) of one of his kitchen hands tied up naked with an apple in his mouth and a carrot stuck up…the other hole. Apparently, this kitchen hand was left naked for hours in the kitchen with other staff, including Largeau, working around him.
The kitchen hand’s “transgression” was not clear, but when this “hazing” incident came to light, Largeau abruptly quit. To make matters worse for Largeau, the public prosecutor’s office in Bayonne is exploring charges of sexual assault and violence. Hazing is banned under French law.
Hyatt condemned the incident without providing any more details about what exactly occurred or why:
“This incident does not reflect the values that we defend. We have undertaken an investigation and taken the appropriate decisions. The safety, health and well-being of our colleagues, clients and partners are absolute priorities for us.”
Hazing is still a thing…it happens around the world in various ways (I was subject to it myself, though much more mildly, in the US Air Force). But there does cross a line of decency and this seems to have crossed it. In a world with little tolerance for unwanted touching, this hazing is totally egregious, but it seems to me that such conduct is not appropriate in an era…
And yet, this seems to be a common rite of passage in French kitchens? That a cultural intricacy I say non to.
CONCLUSION
Chef Aurelien Largeau has left the Hotel du Palais in Biarritz, a luxury Hyatt property, for allegedly hazing a new kitchen hand. The incident has sparked local outrage with the prosecutor’s office now looking into charges.
Meanwhile, Hyatt has quickly scrubbed Largeau from its website is left looking for a new chef…
image: Hyatt