Ramsay, Wareing branded 'spoilt divas'

London, Aug 4: One of the London’s top chefs has branded celebrity chefs Gordon Ramsay and Marcus Wareing ‘spoilt divas’, insisting that they are more interested in celebrity status than cooking.Herbert Berger, executive chef at London restaurant 1 Lombard Street, urged his culinary colleagues to get back and concentrate on cooking.

He also criticised the chefs who bully their staff — Ramsay regularly yelled at contestants on his reality show, Hell`s Kitchen. Berger issued a public plea for Britain`s chefs to shut up and concentrate on cooking. "I am tired of hearing about bickering among the capital`s chefs in order to raise their profile and celebrity status,” the Telegraph quoted him as telling the Daily Telegraph. It is time for the profession to return to the kitchen, and decide between food or fame, or at least fame gained by cooking. "A number of high profile chefs are behaving like spoilt divas who have lost sight of why they began to cook in the first place. Their behaviour detracts terribly from what they should be doing: concentrating on giving value for money to their customers, preparing the best food and training and looking after the young chefs,” he said. "Petulant children do not ordinarily make the best chefs. We need positive role models, not attention seekers who manipulate the public`s outlook. "Let`s return some dignity to what is - for some of us at least - a civilised profession," he added. And English chef Tom Aikens was fired from Pied a Terre after allegedly branding a trainee chef with a hot knife. He later admitted to behaving like an "idiotic lunatic" in the kitchen. "We hear nightmare stories of terrible work conditions. It is even shown on TV and it is to my mind sadly glorified. The worse they treat their staff, the wider their smiles," said Berger. "This is counter-productive behaviour and can only damage the chances of us finding the talent of the future, which the industry so badly needs,” he added. ANI