A restaurant boss who has nearly four million social media followers has come under fire after posting photos of his team of all-white male chefs.
Critics have questioned why the queue for Thomas Straker and his seven other chefs outside his trendy restaurant included no ethnic minority women or kitchen staff.
Straker, known for his colorful food and cooking videos, has been accused of perpetuating the idea that top restaurants are “a white boy’s club”.
Others claimed the line-up was ‘completely unrepresentative’ of multicultural Britain and showed ‘no consideration for women’.
Straker, who has a huge social media presence with 1.4 million followers on Instagram, 2.1 million on TikTok and 250,000 on YouTube, posed for two photos with his seven kitchen workers last Friday.
Her Instagram snaps which were captioned “Chief’s team reunited” sparked protests from people who questioned why the lineup didn’t include women or non-white faces.
Critics have questioned why the queue for Thomas Straker and his seven other chefs outside his trendy restaurant included no ethnic minority women or kitchen staff.
Straker, known for his colorful food and cooking videos, has been accused of perpetuating the idea that top restaurants are “a white boy’s club”.
Some critics claimed the images were particularly out of place because Straker’s restaurant is in the diverse Goldborne Road area of Notting Hill, west London.
Baking fan Melissa Martin, known as melissamartinbakes, posted: “Hey I don’t blame this guy for the staff he hired. You hire friends, good people you know and awesome CVs .
“But I think this post shows a glaring example of the quality of fine dining that remains a white boys club. The fact that he doesn’t have people of color (sic) or women on the team is a huge extension of the biggest cultural problem we ALWAYS have, not necessarily an individual failure.
“I would love if he took it upon himself to seek diversity in his team, but that clearly doesn’t seem important to his values and those of his restaurant.”
Another Instagram user called tcblu commented, “The main problem is that in the most diverse city in the world, in the poorest part of the wealthiest borough in the country, not only did you manage to hire female chiefs, but not a single POC.
‘Golborne Road is historically a Black/Moroccan/Spanish/Portuguese community with an incredible history of culture and rebellion in the face of adversity.
“It became home to the largest Moroccan population in England and home to Windrush families. How amazing would it be if you searched this community for young rising stars who might not have the chance to thrive in hospitality other than hiring friends?
“Provide them with training and a safe place to grow as leaders. In return, you would be placing something in the very community you are gentrifying – intentionally or not. Just something to think about.
Some critics claimed the images were particularly out of place because Straker’s restaurant is in the diverse Goldborne Road area of Notting Hill, west London.
Drinks writer Becky Paskin, who champions women in whiskey and regularly appears on ITV’s Love Your Weekend, wrote of Straker’s original post: “Too often we say, ‘We only hire on the basis of the best people for the job “without any consideration the biases play a role in the selection process.
“It has been proven time and time again that diverse teams are more creative, productive and successful. If all the members look alike and have the same background, you will find that they will all think the same way. Building diverse teams isn’t just the right thing to do, it also makes good business sense.
As dozens of people continued to post negative comments, Straker, known for his videos showcasing different uses for butter, responded with his own comment saying, “Honestly people need to calm down.”
“First of all there is a shortage of chefs/hospitality workers. Second, if you’re feeling so passionate, go get the resumes of any leaders you think we miss on the team. Solutions not problems.’
But his comment only served to fan the flames, drawing further complaints that he was not doing enough to have a diverse workforce.
American chef Kenji Lopez-Alt, known for his book The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science, said: “Stay away from social media for about a week. Do some thinking. Talk to people who care about you and whom you trust. Be better.’
Another Instagram user, mbbphotography, accused Straker of “literally being part of the problem”. He added: ‘As if in one of the most diverse cities in the world, you haven’t received any applications other than white males. Ridiculous.’
The set of images of a great debate and stream of comments from people with different opinions
ivana_finci posted: ‘I love your food man. Serious respect for you. But for God’s sake, just look at the picture of your stick. I would understand if you are in a low diversity area, but you are in LONDON.
Jasminenwood added, “Unfortunately, I feel like this bad answer will reflect the values of the company.” Of course, it might be difficult to hire right now. That doesn’t stop you from recognizing that an all-white, all-male team isn’t what you’re looking for. This platform and the many followers could be used to do better.
Rhythmvick posted: ‘One of the solutions, instead of telling people to calm down, is to internalize that you have a responsibility as a hirer to make sure your kitchen is even female friendly and POCs – it’s not about representation, it’s about inclusive activity.
“As a former chef, you just know when a kitchen won’t support you as a woman, so you’re not going for those jobs, and that ‘not my problem’ attitude is exactly one example of that. You are the chef-owner, *you* create the culture of the kitchen.’
Jeremyspandex added: “This is embarrassing bro – instead of being defensive why don’t you look at yourself and wonder why this weird situation happened?” It is not a coincidence. You are not doing enough.
“You have a lot of non-male and POC people who have supported your work online, the least you can do is wonder how you can give back and not be so closed-minded and fragile right?”
The protests led Straker to share an apology today via his Instagram Story where he appeared to back down and insist he was committed to ‘ensure diversity’ at his businesses.
He wrote: “I put up a post from my chef team on Friday night and many rightly pointed out the lack of diversity in it. I’m really sorry for my original answer, where some asked me if I took this question seriously.
“I am absolutely committed to ensuring diversity in my restaurants, unfortunately we are currently not achieving this in my kitchens and this is an area I know I need to improve, making sure it is seen as an environment welcoming and accessible to all. Tom x.’
Some Instagram users rushed to defend Straker’s posts and insisted his leaders were all-male and white were irrelevant.
dmclellan2004 posted: “Jobs are not given out of sympathy or to tick boxes. Jobs are awarded based on merit experience and an interview process to ensure the right people are hired. Stop with positive discrimination.
The same user added, “I know a lot of ladies and poc who excel at their jobs. Maybe none of these people applied for a job here? Maybe out of all the people who applied, the owner chose the one he thought was the best?
“We don’t run his business and I’m sure he wants it to succeed. He’s not going to hire people just to tick a few boxes or look good for an Instagram photo.
Another user, ivan__tes, said: “Honestly, people have gone absolutely nuts these days with this ‘representation’ stuff.” Who cares about the race or gender of these leaders? The only requirement has to be their skill level, that’s all…
“People need to relax, for some reason I’ve never seen anyone complain about under-representation on all-black teams or all-female teams, but as soon as they see white men, they are triggered.”
Straker was approached for comment by MailOnline.
