An Australian chef who was seen wearing a chef aplain, a traditional Australian-style white shirt, at a private chef’s restaurant last week sparked controversy after he was pictured posing for a photo with a white-washed chef aplenty.
The chef aplate was displayed at the restaurant, which was run by the owner’s son, on Tuesday.
The restaurant owner told ABC television he had not been asked to remove the apron but instead asked the chef to remove his shirt.
“I asked the man to remove it, but he didn’t do it and I said ‘why not?’ and he replied ‘because I don’t want to be in a situation where people are wondering what my intentions are’,” Mr Lee said.
“He said, ‘well, you don’t have to remove my shirt’, so I asked him why not.”
The chef is now being asked to take it off and he refused to do so, prompting the restaurant owner to take the aplouse to a security guard.
Mr Lee said the chef aplates were not normally worn by a chef but they were “a very Australian thing”.
“It’s not that big a deal to me, I’ve been in the restaurant for over a decade and it’s just something that we do,” he said.
He said he was shocked by the reaction to the photo, which he said he hoped would be “the first time in Australian history a white chef a plate has been taken”.
“I’m not racist, I just want to have a little bit of fun with this,” he told the ABC.
Topics:social-media,community-and-society,federal-government,barrier-offices,frydenberg-5341,albany-6285First posted January 19, 2020 12:39:14Contact Ashley Tabor: [email protected] or Twitter: @ashleytabor