Top chef Hix apologises for ‘racist’ banter

TOP chef Mark hix is in the soup. The 55-year-old restaurateur, who competed in the BBC series Great British Menu, is embroiled in a simmering race row.

he sent an email to senior colleagues at his eponymous restaurant business in which he referred to a Chinese restaurant as a ‘chinky’.

although the term was widely used in the past, it has come to be seen as highly offensive. One of his staff who received the email was so upset that they lodged a formal complaint.

‘The casual way he used the offensive term gives some idea of the racist attitudes prevalent in his kitchens,’ claims a staff member. ‘he thinks he can get away with anything.’

In the email, hix refers to a newspaper report that he was asked to develop a dish, Bang Bang Chicken, while he was head chef at The Ivy, after the owner had enjoyed it at a restaurant in London’s Chinatown.

‘ha ha they got that wrong,’ hix commented. ‘It was a chinky in Earl’s Court.’

he now tells me: ‘I have apologised for my ill-chosen use of this word.

‘One member of staff raised a concern about the comment. I personally apologised to them that day.’