Be careful what you say – ‘arsenic’ chef shown the door.
It appears from reports in the Bermuda Sun that an Australian chef who upset Bermudian hotel staff by allegedly quipping that they should put arsenic in Bermudian Premier Ewart Brown’s food has been forced to leave the island.
The Bermuda Sun understands Immigration officials escorted Anthony Reynolds, the former executive chef at the luxury Elbow Beach Hotel, off the island this week, five days after the alleged comment was made and he reportedly took a flight to London via New York.
When asked, Dr. Brown’s spokesman Scott Simmons denied the Premier had ordered Mr. Reynold’s sudden departure. “Absolutely not,” he said.
Reportedly, the alleged comment was made at a function hosted by the Premier at the South Shore hotel last Friday, with one staff member telling the Bermudan Sun, “We had a function set up for the Premier and the Cabinet and were working out where the Premier was going to sit when the chef said, “We should put some arsenic on the Premier’s plate.” “No one found this funny”. “It was a statement made in very bad taste.”
The worker conceded only a few people heard the alleged comment but that “rumours spread fast” in hotels and it wasn’t long before they wanted Mr. Reynolds fired.
The worker rejected suggestions the staff were being over-sensitive saying, “I’m Bermudian but I’ve worked at other hotels throughout the world, including the US and if you made a comment like that about a head of state you would be fired.”
Sources close to the incident told the Bermudan Sun that it was the hotel bosses who wanted Mr. Reynolds off the island. “This came from the very top”. “The management was disappointed, they just weren’t happy and the hotel is owned by the Saudis who have a very good relationship with Dr. Brown.”
Asked by the Bermudan Sun to confirm the nature of Mr. Reynolds departure, the source said: “He was shown the way.”
The Hotel’s Director of Pperations, Donald Bowman, refused to comment on the incident yesterday, telling the Bermudan Sun, “It’s a closed matter.” “We regret it happened in the first place.” “Now we’re moving forward preparing for our busy Christmas period”.
The Bermuda Sun says that Mr. Reynolds is an award-winning chef with more than 20 years’ experience working at some of the finest hotels in the world and he is understood to have worked at the Elbow Beach hotel for about two years.
Report from the Bermuda Sun by The Mole
John Alwyn-Jones
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