{"id":71159,"date":"2023-12-15T15:56:32","date_gmt":"2023-12-15T15:56:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/geels.net\/?p=71159"},"modified":"2023-12-15T15:56:32","modified_gmt":"2023-12-15T15:56:32","slug":"thomas-strakers-restaurant-is-named-most-in-demand-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/geels.net\/beauty\/thomas-strakers-restaurant-is-named-most-in-demand-of-the-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Thomas Straker&apos;s restaurant is named &apos;most in demand&apos; of the year"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1> Thomas Straker, whose wife &#8216;kicked him&#8217; out after learning of his affair with Princess Olympia of Greece &#8211; and who was criticised for white male team in his swanky Notting Hill eatery &#8211; is named the &#8216;most in demand&#8217; restaurant of the year<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Thomas Straker&#8217;s London venue topped the list, curated by booking app Resy\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>READ MORE: Trendy Notting Hill restaurant boss sparks diversity row<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A Notting Hill restaurant &#8211; owned by a TikTok chef who was earlier this year criticised for a white male team &#8211; has been named the &#8216;most in demand&#8217; restaurant of the year.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Thomas Straker&#8217;s London venue topped the list, curated by booking app Resy, Curlytails\u00a0reports.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The foodie celebrity was also embroiled in\u00a0scandal earlier this year, when his wife\u00a0kicked him out of their marital home after being told he was in a romantic relationship with Princess Maria Olympia of Greece.<\/p>\n<p>His restaurant &#8211; called Straker&#8217;s &#8211; promises to offer &#8216;a hub of cultures and culinary delights&#8217;.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The joint is the chef&#8217;s first venue, and also flaunts a &#8216;neighbourhood vibe with great music, cocktails and food you, and Thomas, love to eat&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/15\/13\/79003717-12868251-A_Notting_Hill_restaurant_owned_by_a_TikTok_chef_pictured_who_wa-a-69_1702647474942.jpg\" height=\"685\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>A Notting Hill restaurant &#8211; owned by a TikTok chef (pictured) who was earlier this year criticised for a white male team &#8211; has been named the &#8216;most in demand&#8217; restaurant of the year<\/p>\n<p>Thomas went viral during the COVID lockdown, as he demonstrated cooking tutorials on social media &#8211; and has 2.1 million followers on Instagram.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Menu items include everything from grilled Dover sole, gnocchi with duck ragu, roasted hispi cabbage and fried bread and butter pudding.<\/p>\n<p>This summer, Thomas faced fierce criticism after posting pictures of his team of all-white male chefs.<\/p>\n<p>Critics questioned why the line-up of the owner and his seven other chefs outside his trendy restaurant did not include any women or ethnic minority kitchen staff.<\/p>\n<p>The influencer, who is known for his colourful food and cooking videos, was accused of perpetuating the idea that top restaurants were &#8216;a white boys&#8217; club&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>Others claimed the line-up was &#8216;totally unrepresentative&#8217; of multi-cultural Britain and showed &#8216;no consideration for women&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>Thomas, who has a huge social media presence, posed for two pictures with his seven kitchen staff in July.<\/p>\n<p>His Instagram snaps, which were captioned &#8216;Chef team assembled&#8217;, attracted protests from people who questioned why the line-up included no women or non-white faces.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/15\/13\/79003719-12868251-Thomas_Straker_s_London_venue_topped_the_list_curated_by_booking-a-70_1702647476862.jpg\" height=\"904\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Thomas Straker&#8217;s London venue topped the list, curated by booking app Resy, Curlytails reports<\/p>\n<p>Some critics claimed the pictures were particularly out of place as Thomas&#8217;s restaurant is in the diverse area of Golborne Road in Notting Hill, west London.<\/p>\n<p>Baking fan Melissa Martin, known as melissamartinbakes, posted: &#8216;Hey, I don&#8217;t begrudge this dude for the staff he hired. You hire friends, good people you know, and impressive resumes.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;But I think this post shows a blatant example of how much fine dining is still a white boys&#8217; club. The fact that he has no people of color (sic) or women on the team is a huge extension of the bigger cultural problem we STILL have, not necessarily an individual failing.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Would love if he took it upon himself to look for diversity in his team, but clearly it doesn&#8217;t seem important to the values of him and his restaurant.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Another Instagram user called tcblu commented: &#8216;The main issue is that in the most diverse city in the world, in the poorest part of the richest borough of the country, not only have you managed to hire any female chefs but not a single POC.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Golborne Road is historically a black\/Moroccan\/Spanish\/ Portuguese community with an incredible history of culture and rebellion in the face of adversity.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;It became home to the largest Moroccan population in England and the home of Windrush families. How incredible would it be if you searched that community for young rising stars who may not get a chance to flourish otherwise in hospitality than hiring friends?<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/15\/13\/79003743-12868251-His_restaurant_called_Straker_s_in_Notting_Hill_promises_to_offe-a-71_1702647480680.jpg\" height=\"634\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>His restaurant &#8211; called Straker&#8217;s, in Notting Hill &#8211; promises to offer &#8216;a hub of cultures and culinary delights&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Provide them with training and a safe place to grow as chefs. In turn, you&#8217;d be putting something into the very community that you&#8217;re gentrifying &#8211; intentional or not. Just something to think about.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Tom at the time apologised on Instagram, saying:\u00a0&#8216;On Friday night, I put up a post of my chef team and many rightly pointed out the lack of diversity in it. I am very sorry for my initial response, where some queried whether I take this issue seriously.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I am absolutely committed to ensuring diversity in my restaurants, unfortunately we aren&#8217;t achieving this in my kitchens currently and this is an area I know I need to improve on, making sure it is seen as a welcoming and approachable environment for all. Tom x.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>And only months later, Thomas appeared to face troubles in his marriage after his wife found out about an affair he was having with\u00a0King Charles&#8217; goddaughter &#8211; known as Olympia.<\/p>\n<p>Friends of Thomas and his wife Davina &#8211; who have two daughters aged four and two &#8211; said she was &#8216;devastated&#8217; to be told of his infidelity in October.<\/p>\n<p>The cookery star was photographed with the royal outside her home last month.<\/p>\n<p>The pair were seen together just days after Olympia&#8217;s aristocratic ex-boyfriend Peregrine Pearson was pictured kissing A-lister and Game of Thrones star Sophie Turner in Paris.<\/p>\n<p>Tousle-haired Thomas, 33, who is famed for posting 15 to 30 second videos of his culinary creations, particularly his butter recipes, married actress Davina Pownall in a church ceremony in Wiltshire in 2015.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/femail\/article-12868251\/Thomas-Straker-affair-princess-olympia-greece-demand-restaurant-2023.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thomas Straker, whose wife &#8216;kicked him&#8217; out after learning of his affair with Princess Olympia of Greece &#8211; and who<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":71158,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>US Entertainment News. 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