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
What the actual…
Sounds like a typical night at your house.
Dave Edwards just loves to suck a big fat diiiick
Hēi guǐ
We did this to Stuart once but it definitely wasn’t hazing. It was his idea, and he even picked out his own carrot.
Mais oui. The French don’t own this type of kitchen violence, but it exists. I was a juror for an attempted murder trial. A young man, new to a kitchen in Potomac was stabbed in the back with a paring knife for irritating a chef. The surgeon’s testimony was compelling.
I have stayed there twice in the past year. It’s an exceptional Hyatt and a beautiful place, once the summer palace of Empress Eugenie. The food was very good, nothing extraordinary though and I am sure given the plethora of excellent chefs there that they will find someone new in a matter of days. Honestly, so many wonderful small restaurants in Biarritz within walking distance that even with a lesser restaurant (this one offered a full set menu in the evening in the dining room) there is really no need to eat there if you choose not. Incredible large window views though at the restaurant right over the water. The suite upgrades there are quite generous, at least in the winter months when I was in town for meetings. Though furnished in French Napoleon III style (not a fan) the rooms were still quite comfortable with fantastic views right on the breaking waves.
I bet you enjoyed the carrots as well.
No, he refused to boil them soft. So I could think of you.
One might expect a certain permissiveness at Hilton – look at the way the family namesakes behave – but at a Hyatt?!?!
Seriously, a bit summary of French labor law would also be helpful here. Is this kind of employer/supervisor behavior permitted in France? In the US, if the footage can be proved real, the employee subjected to this event would undoubtedly get a nice settlement.
I’ll have the carrot soup, please.
There are some people who actually think hazing is a good thing and brings people closer but I think they are idiots. Hazing is a stupid childish behavior. I’ve never been in a hazing situation (on either side) and I wish no one would put up with this stuff. The military had a history of stupid behavior like this stuff and of course colleges did for decades.
I couldn’t agree more, and, in fact, this case is way beyond hazing (which, per se, is bad enough and warrant criminal prosecution), we’re dealing here with a sexual pervert, and nobody should be surprised if more victims show up. Anyway, he’ll soon be sous-chef at Le Centre Pénitentiaire de Mont-de-Marsan, a Ministry of Justice three-starred (maison d’arrêt, centre de détention, and centre de semi-liberté) facility.
This sort of thing used to be common enough according to a mate of mine who is a chef and has been for about 35 years. He reports that on his first day it was pants off and clench an inserted courgette for the duration of his working day, if he dropped it he was promised two more days of the same the first time, four the second and so on. He says he kept it in.
That was though years ago, it shouldn’t happen now in any work context – what people do with carrots and courgettes in the privacy of their own home is of course their business but in the workplace, NO.
Hazing would be playing Mike Brant songs on a loop. Sticking a carrot up an out hole is rape. No one calling the police to report this makes them accomplices to a crime.
Hey..these carrots taste like Sh….
je veux manger le sausage LOL