WEDNESDAY, DEC. 20: An Australian chef who upset Bermudian staff by allegedly quipping that they should put arsenic in Premier Ewart Brown's food has left the island.
The Bermuda Sun understands Immigration officials escorted Anthony Reynolds, the former executive chef at the luxury Elbow Beach Hotel, off the island today - five days after the alleged comment was made. He reportedly took a flight to London via New York.
When asked, Dr. Brown's spokesman Scott Simmons denied the Premier had ordered Mr. Reynold's sudden departure. "Absolutely not," he said.
The alleged comment was made at a function hosted by the Premier at the South Shore hotel on Friday.
One staff member told us: "We had a function set up for the Premier and the Cabinet. We were working out where the Premier was going to sit when the chef said 'we should put some arsenic on the Premier's plate.' No one found this funny. It was a statement made in very bad taste."
The worker conceded only a few people heard the alleged comment but that "rumours spread fast" in hotels and it wasn't long before they wanted Mr. Reynolds fired.
The worker rejected suggestions the staff were being over-sensitive saying: "I'm Bermudian but I've worked at other hotels throughout the world, including the U.S. If you made a comment like that about a head of state you would be fired."
Sources close to the incident tell us it was the hotel bosses who wanted Mr. Reynolds off the island. "This came from the very top," the source said.
"The management was disappointed, they just weren't happy. The hotel is owned by the Saudis who have a very good relationship with Dr. Brown."
Asked to confirm the nature of Mr. Reynolds departure, the source said: "He was shown the way."
The hotel's director of operations, Donald Bowman, refused to comment on the incident yesterday. "It's a closed matter. We regret it happened in the first place. Now we're moving forward preparing for our busy Christmas period," he said.
Mr. Reynolds is an award-winning chef with more than 20 years' experience working at some of the finest hotels in the world. He is understood to have worked at the Elbow Beach hotel for about two years.
Reader Comments
Posted: Thursday, December 21, 2006
Comment by:
J Ward
Free country or not, the chef would not have been allowed to get away with that if say he was preparing a meal for "G Dubya". The Secret Service would have been all over him in a heartbeat and he would have more than likely lost his job. It was a joke, but ill-timed and badly delivered.
Posted: Thursday, December 21, 2006
Comment by:
P.Brown
Actually if you were rash enough to make a comment like that in the US about Bush (or any President) you'd be arrested, not just deported. The guy's not very bright.
Posted: Thursday, December 21, 2006
Comment by:
KWilson
I am saddened by what appears to be vindictivness on the part of the employees who overheard this thoughtless but harmless remark. People say silly things like this all the time, and in free countries they don't lose their jobs over it! Shame on you, Bermuda!!
