Celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal is famed for delighting diners with his weird and wonderful culinary dishes but now faces a £200,000 claim that creating his trademark food has left a junior chef with chronic wrist pain.
His Fat Duck restaurant set the food industry alight with signature dishes including scrambled egg and bacon ice cream and Alice In Wonderland-inspired mock turtle soup, and won three Michelin stars in record-breaking time.
But the business in Bray, Berkshire, now faces claims that “fast, arduous and repetitive” preparation work left pastry chef Sharon Anderson with repetitive strain injury.
She is suing for damages, arguing the delicate tasks she was given caused her injury and sparked bouts of depression and anxiety that left her unable to work since leaving the restaurant in November 2015.
The restaurant is set to fight the negligence allegations in the High Court, denying liability and arguing Ms Anderson’s roles were common to the sort of patisserie practised in other “fine dining restaurants”.
Ms Anderson, 28, from Co Donegal, says in court papers that she started at the Fat Duck as a commis chef in June 2014.
She claims she had to use tweezers to pack individually 400 wrapped sweets into cellophane bags from 7-11am, make chocolate playing cards from 11.30am to about 4pm, and made close to 550 whisky wine gums between 4-6pm.
Ms Anderson said making the chocolate cards involved holding a mould which weighed about two kilos when full in her left hand with her wrist extended. She would make around 180 cards a day.
When the restaurant moved to Melbourne, Australia in January 2015 as the Bray premises was renovated, Ms Anderson moved with it. She claims the pressure on creating the chocolate cards increased as they would melt faster in the warmer climate.
Charles Robertshaw, her barrister, said the pain in Ms Anderson’s forearm had become “significant” by June 2015 and a physiotherapist blamed it on “long hours and repetitive work”.
In her final few months at the restaurant, Ms Anderson said she was tasked with “hand-piping whisky wine gums” and wrapping petit fours, as well as preparing mushroom logs by “pinching creases into 500 sugar sheets per week with her fingers”.
The chef claims she suffers from “significant wrist pain” after carrying out normal daily tasks, and struggles with heavy lifting, driving and cooking.
She claims the restaurant failed to give her proper rest periods or support, and “required her to work under time pressure throughout the day”.
Denying the claims, the Fat Duck points out that Ms Anderson was transferred to lighter duties after she complained about making chocolate patisserie.
They say her workload was not oppressive and she was given adequate support. The restaurant is also arguing that Ms Anderson’s compensation claim was filed too late.
The case is due to return to court next year.
