Top chef fired for making influencer cry by telling her she wasn’t famous enough for free food
Top chef fired for making influencer cry by telling her she wasn’t famous enough for free food
by johnnylineup
46 Comments
Top-Diamond-5661
Good for him
Bare-baked-beans
Brownhog
Good God. Please stop giving these people power.
Sanquinity
Good. He’s a hero in my book. Even if she had a million followers I’d still refuse to simply give them a free meal. If you’re oh so important you have the money to pay for it, and if you’re not so important why would anyone accept your meager “exposure” as payment?
jdolbeer
“advocate for micro influencers”
What the actual fuck
Amande232
I mean the article says that she was invited by the restaurant to collaborate and promote. Per the restaurant wish she was literally supposés to receive free food in exchange for promotion, she wasn’t there randomly and just demanded something. It was part of a agreed-upon deal. It’s not like she showed up entitled, the chef just insulted her after the restaurant had planned a brand deal with her.
DragOwn56
These comments are ridiculous. I hate influencers, but they reached out to her about coming in for a collaboration for a free meal. Don’t reach out to someone and invite them, then shit on them lol.
MaybeItsJustMike
Context seems to say she was invited, had a deal in place with the people that invited her where her and her husband eats and she pays with her status as an “Influencer”, making a video and posting it across her socials.
If a media agent at the restaurant set this up and invited her there, which seems to be what the article says, then the Chef coming out and shitting on her badly enough that she ended up in tears was the ultimate dick move and I for one say he deserved to be fired.
There’s no reason to treat someone like that. Just be a decent human fucking being, eat the cost of a fucking dinner, that your restaurant set up, and go about your fucking day. What does anyone get out of being a big enough piece of shit to make someone fucking cry.
This dude just sounds like he embodies all of the things in a “celebrity” chef that the industry is trying to get away from.
MyNamesTambo
Hella people reacting to just the title haha
consumeshroomz
Idk maybe I’m just crazy but I feel like the more famous you are the less deserving of free food you are.
SunsCosmos
Wait, so they invited her specifically … and then the chef just decided he wasn’t gonna serve her? Because she wasn’t famous enough for his tastes? What??
EyeVee4
Most of you obviously didn’t read the story. While I don’t like influencer culture in any way, the restaurant invited her to collaborate. Chef seems to be in the wrong here.
Duke55
Dodged a bullet then if that’s the attitude the other co-owner.
Sounds more like they’re in damage control. But yeah..
CutsSoFresh
Those of you who are celebrating this chef clearly didn’t read the article. Chef acted more like a spoiled and privileged influencer than the influencer herself. Bragging about their kid being more famous and having more followers and shit
CarrotsEatenAnally
Folks read the article. Everyone sucks here. F@$k food influencers, but f@$k this chef for gatekeeping on a “follower requirement” he set himself.
If anything he’s validating influencer culture.
GeistMD
A lot of kitchen people seem to forget we’re only working till the people stop coming. Yea influencers are shit, but the business thrives off them and you can’t forget that. Bad reviews can tank a place and influencers are walking talking reviews.
signsofgoodfood
What were the exact terms of the promotion? Was a free meal promised as part of the collaboration, or was it expected? This speaks to a communication breakdown between both parties.
The chef’s also an asshole for how he conducted himself. Get outta here with that behavior.
MustardTiger231
Seems like this headline is complete bullshit?
Opposite_Lettuce
For people who don’t want to/didn’t bother reading the full story
* A new restaurant **reached out to her for a collaboration.** The agreement was that she would arrive with a plus 1, film the restaurant & food, film a review and promote the place in exchange for the unpaid meals * So she agrees and arrives alone at the restaurant early so she can film the interior without any interruption * When she’s seated, she can clearly hear & see just a few feet away, the chef (and co-owner) asking the host *”who is she? why is she here? how many followers does she have?”* * The host tells him and the chef says she doesn’t have enough followers, he shouldn’t have invited her and this was a mistake. * The chef then asks the host if she will be dining alone, and the host says she’ll have a plus 1. To which the chef responds *”And they’re late?”* (They were not, she arrived early) * The chef walks up to her and says *”did you do any research on this restaurant? do you know who we are?”* They don’t have a website but she had reviewed their items told him what she knew of the menu. The chef smirks, says she didn’t do any research and that there’s been a miscommunication. * The chef then asks her tiktok name, pulls out his phone and starts playing videos at full volume in the restaurant (he’s playing videos with her tag so not even her tiktok account) * At this point he tells her that the videos weren’t good enough and that her videos and followers were not the kinds of clientele they want to attract. * At this point, he directly asks her *”do you know who I am?*” and she doesn’t. Turns out he’s a James Beard Award nominee and she doesn’t know how to respond to that. The chef then tells her that his own daughter has over 600,000 follows on tiktok and that she the influencer, isn’t at that level. * He points out her own cooking videos and calls them “cute but homey”, and that he doesn’t think she can truly understand what they’re doing at the restaurant. * By now, she’s in tears and tells him that she feels very disrespected and belittled * The chef responds that he is the offended one, because she didn’t come over and introduce herself to him. She goes on to say in the video that was an odd thing for him to say, because in her experience the host would greet her (the same person who reached out and arranged the collaboration) and would rarely ever see or even meet the owner * Her husband shows up and had no idea what just happened. She tells him that they won’t be eating there and they leave
RDAM60
Yes, true, according to the influencer and the story.
And, yet, either way she is accepting free product in return for exposure on her platform. That’s pay-to-play and not the kind of “review,” or honest assessment I would want or believe/trust.
We may dislike the state of journalism today but the standard was almost always, a reporter or reviewer never accepts freebies.
Major_Wager75
Article made me think it was a Top Chef contestant and I lowk got defensive
Earth_Annual
Don’t act like we don’t all know a chef who would get his panties in a twist over something like this. I personally know 3 who would have done something similar if they got surprised with a celebrity ” seating. I know one that might be just as rude if they were fully informed ahead of time. Too many of us forget that the profession we’re in is hospitality.
Stillwater-Scorp1381
Why is reading an article so hard for so many in this group?!
The influencer was there by invitation.
Chibow
“Micro influencer” is a new word I learned today
Chef_Brah
We are in the hospitality industry not hostile industry chef.
dangermonger27
Manager – “we’re getting in an influencer to collaborate with”
Chef – “I hate influencers, they come in regularly making themselves too known and ruining the dining experiences of others with cameras and “creating content”, I don’t want to work with this person”
Manager – “… You shut your trap and play nice alright?”
Chef – 😤😤😤
Apathetic_Ogre_6969
paquemeinvitan3
Chef was a complete egotistic asshole to influencer who has been invited in and verified that they agreed to a partnership beforehand.
Chefs in the comment prove her point by being illiterate egotistical assholes in the comments
Kind_Ability3218
dude should have said this to the lady who invited her haha. he’s not wrong but it’s not her fault. also “an advocate for micro influencers” hahaha oh jesus
Wiggie49
Ooof talk about biting the hand that feeds you. Maybe if you care so much about how many followers an influencer has you should vet them yourself chef.
JTT_0550
Regardless of how you feel about influencers, whatever your higher-ups say goes, period.
Hwng_L
Who dat
Affectionate_Wing915
What’s the name of the restaurant?
thudwumpler
I hate everyone in this story
EWW-25177
She says that the was there to do a “collab” with the restaurant. Apparently that means taking pictures of an eating their food.
Great team effort there.
EWW-25177
Would the world be better or worse if everyone who ever referred to themselves as an “influencer” was fed into a woodchipper?
Discuss …
bossmt_2
If you agree to work with an influencer, you need to know who you’re working with. This sounds like someone was told to reach out to influencers and the chef was pissed with who came in. Presumably whomever the host was.
Honestly, if this happened, it’s on whomever arranged it not the influencer. The chef shouldn’t be going after said influencer and shoudl instead deal with whomever extended the offer to said influencer.
smurfe
If it hasn’t happened already, I bet his dude has backers in no time to open a new place.
jigga19
Sigh.
Dazzling-Bear3942
He was not fired for being rude to an invited guest.
KorLeonis1138
Sure, the chef was in the wrong, but at the end of the day an influencer was in tears, and that can never happen often enough.
yourbiggesthero
Ok, honestly: one owner reached out to basically a mini influencer, and the actual chef that runs the restaurant didn’t approve of it and now the owner has to find a new chef and the chef has to find a new restaurant to cook at, which won’t be hard because he is a prestigious chef.
and this girl is whining about the rights of “micro-influencers”
I’d rather shoot myself in the head than see the rise of micro-influencers, especially ones that break down crying in the face of a slightly adverse situation.
this whole situation was stupid, micro-influencer girl included.
jdanton14
I feel stupider for having read this.
ActionMan48
I fucking hate “influencer” culture.
TeaKingMac
Leading with the words Top Chef, I thought it was going to be somebody I’d seen on the show
sebastobol
Too bad. This would be a reason for me to visit the restaurant almost daily in my vacations.
46 Comments
Good for him
Good God. Please stop giving these people power.
Good. He’s a hero in my book. Even if she had a million followers I’d still refuse to simply give them a free meal. If you’re oh so important you have the money to pay for it, and if you’re not so important why would anyone accept your meager “exposure” as payment?
“advocate for micro influencers”
What the actual fuck
I mean the article says that she was invited by the restaurant to collaborate and promote. Per the restaurant wish she was literally supposés to receive free food in exchange for promotion, she wasn’t there randomly and just demanded something. It was part of a agreed-upon deal. It’s not like she showed up entitled, the chef just insulted her after the restaurant had planned a brand deal with her.
These comments are ridiculous. I hate influencers, but they reached out to her about coming in for a collaboration for a free meal. Don’t reach out to someone and invite them, then shit on them lol.
Context seems to say she was invited, had a deal in place with the people that invited her where her and her husband eats and she pays with her status as an “Influencer”, making a video and posting it across her socials.
If a media agent at the restaurant set this up and invited her there, which seems to be what the article says, then the Chef coming out and shitting on her badly enough that she ended up in tears was the ultimate dick move and I for one say he deserved to be fired.
There’s no reason to treat someone like that. Just be a decent human fucking being, eat the cost of a fucking dinner, that your restaurant set up, and go about your fucking day. What does anyone get out of being a big enough piece of shit to make someone fucking cry.
This dude just sounds like he embodies all of the things in a “celebrity” chef that the industry is trying to get away from.
Hella people reacting to just the title haha
Idk maybe I’m just crazy but I feel like the more famous you are the less deserving of free food you are.
Wait, so they invited her specifically … and then the chef just decided he wasn’t gonna serve her? Because she wasn’t famous enough for his tastes? What??
Most of you obviously didn’t read the story. While I don’t like influencer culture in any way, the restaurant invited her to collaborate. Chef seems to be in the wrong here.
Dodged a bullet then if that’s the attitude the other co-owner.
Sounds more like they’re in damage control. But yeah..
Those of you who are celebrating this chef clearly didn’t read the article. Chef acted more like a spoiled and privileged influencer than the influencer herself. Bragging about their kid being more famous and having more followers and shit
Folks read the article. Everyone sucks here. F@$k food influencers, but f@$k this chef for gatekeeping on a “follower requirement” he set himself.
If anything he’s validating influencer culture.
A lot of kitchen people seem to forget we’re only working till the people stop coming. Yea influencers are shit, but the business thrives off them and you can’t forget that. Bad reviews can tank a place and influencers are walking talking reviews.
What were the exact terms of the promotion? Was a free meal promised as part of the collaboration, or was it expected? This speaks to a communication breakdown between both parties.
The chef’s also an asshole for how he conducted himself. Get outta here with that behavior.
Seems like this headline is complete bullshit?
For people who don’t want to/didn’t bother reading the full story
* A new restaurant **reached out to her for a collaboration.** The agreement was that she would arrive with a plus 1, film the restaurant & food, film a review and promote the place in exchange for the unpaid meals
* So she agrees and arrives alone at the restaurant early so she can film the interior without any interruption
* When she’s seated, she can clearly hear & see just a few feet away, the chef (and co-owner) asking the host *”who is she? why is she here? how many followers does she have?”*
* The host tells him and the chef says she doesn’t have enough followers, he shouldn’t have invited her and this was a mistake.
* The chef then asks the host if she will be dining alone, and the host says she’ll have a plus 1. To which the chef responds *”And they’re late?”* (They were not, she arrived early)
* The chef walks up to her and says *”did you do any research on this restaurant? do you know who we are?”* They don’t have a website but she had reviewed their items told him what she knew of the menu. The chef smirks, says she didn’t do any research and that there’s been a miscommunication.
* The chef then asks her tiktok name, pulls out his phone and starts playing videos at full volume in the restaurant (he’s playing videos with her tag so not even her tiktok account)
* At this point he tells her that the videos weren’t good enough and that her videos and followers were not the kinds of clientele they want to attract.
* At this point, he directly asks her *”do you know who I am?*” and she doesn’t. Turns out he’s a James Beard Award nominee and she doesn’t know how to respond to that. The chef then tells her that his own daughter has over 600,000 follows on tiktok and that she the influencer, isn’t at that level.
* He points out her own cooking videos and calls them “cute but homey”, and that he doesn’t think she can truly understand what they’re doing at the restaurant.
* By now, she’s in tears and tells him that she feels very disrespected and belittled
* The chef responds that he is the offended one, because she didn’t come over and introduce herself to him. She goes on to say in the video that was an odd thing for him to say, because in her experience the host would greet her (the same person who reached out and arranged the collaboration) and would rarely ever see or even meet the owner
* Her husband shows up and had no idea what just happened. She tells him that they won’t be eating there and they leave
Yes, true, according to the influencer and the story.
And, yet, either way she is accepting free product in return for exposure on her platform. That’s pay-to-play and not the kind of “review,” or honest assessment I would want or believe/trust.
We may dislike the state of journalism today but the standard was almost always, a reporter or reviewer never accepts freebies.
Article made me think it was a Top Chef contestant and I lowk got defensive
Don’t act like we don’t all know a chef who would get his panties in a twist over something like this. I personally know 3 who would have done something similar if they got surprised with a celebrity ” seating. I know one that might be just as rude if they were fully informed ahead of time.
Too many of us forget that the profession we’re in is hospitality.
Why is reading an article so hard for so many in this group?!
The influencer was there by invitation.
“Micro influencer” is a new word I learned today
We are in the hospitality industry not hostile industry chef.
Manager – “we’re getting in an influencer to collaborate with”
Chef – “I hate influencers, they come in regularly making themselves too known and ruining the dining experiences of others with cameras and “creating content”, I don’t want to work with this person”
Manager – “… You shut your trap and play nice alright?”
Chef – 😤😤😤
Chef was a complete egotistic asshole to influencer who has been invited in and verified that they agreed to a partnership beforehand.
Chefs in the comment prove her point by being illiterate egotistical assholes in the comments
dude should have said this to the lady who invited her haha. he’s not wrong but it’s not her fault. also “an advocate for micro influencers” hahaha oh jesus
Ooof talk about biting the hand that feeds you. Maybe if you care so much about how many followers an influencer has you should vet them yourself chef.
Regardless of how you feel about influencers, whatever your higher-ups say goes, period.
Who dat
What’s the name of the restaurant?
I hate everyone in this story
She says that the was there to do a “collab” with the restaurant. Apparently that means taking pictures of an eating their food.
Great team effort there.
Would the world be better or worse if everyone who ever referred to themselves as an “influencer” was fed into a woodchipper?
Discuss …
If you agree to work with an influencer, you need to know who you’re working with. This sounds like someone was told to reach out to influencers and the chef was pissed with who came in. Presumably whomever the host was.
Honestly, if this happened, it’s on whomever arranged it not the influencer. The chef shouldn’t be going after said influencer and shoudl instead deal with whomever extended the offer to said influencer.
If it hasn’t happened already, I bet his dude has backers in no time to open a new place.
Sigh.
He was not fired for being rude to an invited guest.
Sure, the chef was in the wrong, but at the end of the day an influencer was in tears, and that can never happen often enough.
Ok, honestly: one owner reached out to basically a mini influencer, and the actual chef that runs the restaurant didn’t approve of it and now the owner has to find a new chef and the chef has to find a new restaurant to cook at, which won’t be hard because he is a prestigious chef.
and this girl is whining about the rights of “micro-influencers”
I’d rather shoot myself in the head than see the rise of micro-influencers, especially ones that break down crying in the face of a slightly adverse situation.
this whole situation was stupid, micro-influencer girl included.
I feel stupider for having read this.
I fucking hate “influencer” culture.
Leading with the words Top Chef, I thought it was going to be somebody I’d seen on the show
Too bad. This would be a reason for me to visit the restaurant almost daily in my vacations.
f*ck these influencer pandemic