Pub chef in Twitter spat starts new job

Jim Knight, head chef at the Plough in Great Haseley, took over the twitter account for the pub @ploughpub to complain about his treatment. The tweets made it to the national press as he said: “We’d like to inform you that we’ve just fired our head chef.

“Unfortunately he wanted to have a weekend off this month and Christmas Day this year for family commitments so we thought we'd sack him.

"Yeah a week before Christmas! We don’t care that he has a 7 ½ month old baby daughter.” However all the tweets have been removed from the account this morning.

The chef has already set up his own twitter account @chefjimknight

He tweeted: "That's enough of all that then. I have a new job to start! Night ... Again."

'Little choice'​

However, the landlord at The Plough Steve Potts defended his actions: "When Jim, as head chef, informed me that he would not be working on Christmas Day, and other Sundays in the near future, I was left with little choice but to end our arrangement. I had been quite clear with him when he started here in October that Sundays are our busiest days of the week, and that all our chefs have to work that day.”

Responding to allegations that the Plough had sourced its food from Asda, which was made on Twitter, Potts added: "Our suppliers are transparent: our meat is fresh, never frozen, and comes from Booker’s in High Wycombe and from a local farmer called Peter Vogt."

He did admit that "certain staples come from our nearest supermarket, which is Asda, but the implied suggestion that we are buying cheap meat and passing it off at a premium is, frankly, outrageous and untrue".

The Plough employs three chefs, all of whom are remaining in their post to ensure a full service over the Christmas period, and Potts is now recruiting another head chef.