Outrage over 'wounded' chef

A Japanese-style restaurant “with many strict rules” has been shut down after a chef was seen preparing food while wearing a watch and with what looked like a wound on his hand in an online promotional video, according to news website xdkb.net. 

The video, uploaded on Thursday by the Qiorigin restaurant in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, went viral following claims it was packed every day despite its many “rules,” such as a ban on taking food home, no menus, a maximum of 10 people for each meal and meals not starting until everyone arrived. 

The video made the restaurant an instant wanghong (web celebrity) but backfired when some viewers spotted the chef’s watch and what appeared to be an abscess on his left hand as he prepared raw shrimp. They said the way he handled the food was "disgusting" and risked contamination.

The chef, who is also the restaurant boss, responded the next day to say he had scalded his hand four months ago but had already recovered, adding that he was wearing a watch to check the time while making food, the news report said.

According to a video published on Sunday on the Weibo account of Jiangsu City Channel’s news department, the chef had shown his recovered hand to the media and told reporters that the picture of the wound was an old photo. But he conceded that wearing a watch violated food safety regulations.

Also in the video, Wang Shengqi, an official of the Gulou District Market Supervision and Management Bureau, said an inspection of the restaurant on Saturday found it had violated the food safety operation specification for the catering service, so they ordered it to suspend business while it put matters right.