Chef wins £20,000 payout after boss ‘ranted about unreliable Mexicans’

The former head chef of a gastropub has been awarded £20,000 after his boss allegedly threatened to get him deported and made comments about ‘unreliable Mexicans’.

Cesar Omar Perez Vargas, who is of Mexican origin, walked out of the Pot Kiln in Thatcham, Berkshire, after things ‘came to a head’ during a busy shift in August 2022.

A tribunal heard the kitchen had recently gone from four chefs to two and he was told to serve 60 diners one day after agreeing to cook for no more than 45.

He told owner Francis Rockcliff the workload was ‘unreasonable’ and he ‘could not bear the pressure anymore’, walking out after Mr Rockcliff dismissed his concerns.

Mr Perez Vargas said the owner followed him out of the premises and told him: ‘I knew that you Mexicans were not reliable people. I will call the Home Office and make sure that they send you back to the country that you belong.’

The chef, who has a husband, also claimed Mr Rockcliff threatened to tell officials he had been ‘sexually harassing all the male staff’.

Mr Rockcliff returned to the restaurant to see out the shift but later drove to Mr Perez Vargas’ home to collect keys for the restaurant.

Mr Perez Vargas’ husband told the panel he went to the door to hand the keys over while his partner remained inside, saying Mr Rockcliff then screamed: ‘He doesn’t belong here. I will report to the Home Office and make sure he’ll be deported back to his country,’

Mr Rockcliff denied making racist comments, but admitted he told Mr Perez Vargas that if he ‘was so unhappy, which was something that I did not understand, why didn’t he go back to Mexico’.

He also accepted saying ‘something along the lines that he had heard the claimant had been sexually harassing staff’, the panel heard.

The tribunal found neither man was ‘likely to be a reliable narrator of the events’.

But the judges said they were ‘satisfied that something along the lines of the things that the claimant complains about occurred’ on the basis of Mr Rockcliff’s responses to the panel.

The panel heard he sent a text message to another member of staff the day after the fallout saying: ‘I’m changing the kitchen culture. I finally lost all the dinosaurs/old brigade chefs to my great relief.

‘I’m not sure that Eastern Europeans or Latin Americans have an innate
understanding of English regional cookery and/or Mediterranean classic cuisine.’

He also wrote a social media post saying classically-trained chefs were ‘people with sautéed egos who have lost their mojo for the love of cooking and who have overcooked their wallets for fame over food’.

While Mr Rockcliff denied the comments were ‘directed’ at Mr Perez Vargas, the tribunal found anyone who was familiar with the situation would know ‘exactly who they were referring to’.

The tribunal accepted Mr Rockcliff was not racist and did not discriminate against Mr Perez Vargas.

But it said his behaviour was ‘offensive’ and ‘problematic’ and found it amounted to harassment related to race and sexual orientation.

Mr Perez Vargas, who had worked at the Pot Kiln for nearly three yeras, was was awarded £20,444.24 in compensation.

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