Angry chef gives £1,000 from bill to waitress after…

Angry chef gives £1,000 from bill to waitress after rich diners 'acted inappropriately'

A chef has received wide support after handing his restaurant's biggest ever bill - £1,000 - to a waitress in full, who he says was "talked down to" and "disrespected" by diners.

Lee Skeet, owner of Cora, in Cardiff, took to Twitter urge others to "start calling out rich people who think they can treat people like crap". The restaurateur explained to followers how he had emailed the guest and asked them to "never come back", Cornwall Live reports.

Obscuring the diner's name, Lee wrote: "Dear ****, I wanted to firstly thank you for choosing my restaurant for your meal tonight, and I understand you had the biggest bill we've ever had on one table here. Unfortunately throughout the evening I was made aware that your party's behaviour was inappropriate towards Lily, who runs front of house."

"She has told me that - as a 22-year-old girl - she was talked down to, disrespected and touched unwantedly by members of your group. I have spent the last hour having conversations with her that break my heart, make me feel like a s*** employer and a terrible dad having my own daughter."

He later clarified that the "touching" he referred to involved one of the party of six "grabbing her aggressively by the arm"

The Cardiff chef had initially opted to refund the whole bill, deciding he didn't want to take any money from the customer except for a tip for Lily as she received no tip. He said: "Please provide your bank details and I will refund your entire bill of £1,000 minus £100 that I believe you should have tipped Lily - which I will pay directly to her - as you left no tip. I would thank you to never come back to my restaurant. Lily means a lot more to me than money. I also think you should assess the people you surround yourself with."

However, just hours later Lee decided to Tweet again, saying: "On reflection I reacted too quickly and emotionally last night. Sorry I was a little bit angry and protective. I’m not going to refund the customer’s money. I’ve instead kept it and transferred to Lily." His tweet featured a photo of a bank transfer for £1,000.

CornwallLive reported the tweets have since been shared by celebrity TV and radio host and restaurant critic Jay Rayner, who wrote "Huge respect for Lee Skeet for this", and has received lots of replies with people congratulating the chef for speaking out.

Lee, who has previously worked for Gordon Ramsay and Marcus Wareing, made headlines in 2017 when he narrowly escaped being killed when he was heading home with his family from Porthmeor beach in St Ives, Cornwall when a lorry carrying a crane mounted the pavement. Lee’s leg was crushed with almost every muscle destroyed. The lorry just missed hitting his son who was in a pram.

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