Cooking up trouble: Chefs, cooks and foodies who faced court
A Red Hill kitchen maestro tried to get around an impound fee after a staffer was nabbed drunk while driving his car by saying he knew nothing of it. But he was a passenger. And he isn’t the only foodie to end up in a southeast Melbourne court.
South East
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A pastry cook who dealt in illegal ingredients, a suspect sushi seller, a lying chef and a hungry, thirsty drink-driver are among the foodie folk who got a roasting in southeast courts.
PASTRY COOK’S DODGY RECIPE
By day he cooked pastries for punters at the RACV Cape Schanck resort, but by night he dealt with ingredients of a different kind.
Dylan Smith trafficked GHB, possessed ice and cannabis oil and crashed his car while high on meth — all while he was already on a corrections order at the time for other drug offending.
The magistrate dished out a massive bake to the “talented” pastry chef, telling him if he continued to use and deal he risked throwing away his promising cooking career.
His defence lawyer said the 27-year-old trafficked to pay for his personal habit as self-medication for his depression, and he was remorseful.
He was jailed for three months, minus 40 days he has already served on remand, and given a 15-month community corrections order with 150 hours of unpaid work.
He was also disqualified from driving for 12 months.
RAW ROACH
Japanese food is meant to be natural, but not this natural.
Owner of Brighton sushi bar Isuki, Sara Duyen Nguyen, was roasted by a court after Bayside Council investigators found insects had overran her Dandy Plaza joint.
“Cockroaches were observed on the front serving area crawling on equipment and the benchtop around an accumulation of food waste,” the council said.
And more of the little critters were observed in a microwave, on the freezer and within cupboards, among other places, they said.
Their reports left a bad taste in the mouth for the magistrate, who described the breaches as a “dismal failure” and fined Nguyen and the company $40,000.
THE LYING CHEF
Maxwell Paganoni was once renowned for his gourmet grub, but the Red Hill kitchen maestro is now more famous for what he dished up in court.
And it was all because he didn’t want to pay to get his car out of the impound yard.
The 50-year-old award-winning chef, who describes himself as the pioneer of winery fine dining, lied in the witness box when he tried to get his car released.
His worker had been caught drink-driving while three times over the limit and the car was impounded for 30 days.
But Paganoni wanted his vehicle back and didn’t want to pay the $950 storage fee, so under oath he told the magistrate he was unaware the car had been impounded.
Which was strange — and untrue — as he was in the passenger seat sat next to the drunk when he was pulled over and he was personally handed a copy of the impound notice.
His defence lawyer said he needed the car for ferrying guests around, was remorseful, embarrassed and his reputation had taken a hit.
The magistrate said the lies were “despicable” and placed him on a 12-month good behaviour bond and ordered him to pay $3000 to the court fund.
HUNGRY, NOT THIRSTY
A dozy drink-drinker has blamed fast food for his failings, saying the prospect of KFC was just too finger lickin’ tempting.
Gurbinder Dhillon had been boozing for five hours at a Pakenham pub when he had a hankering for some of Colonel Sanders’ finest and thought he’d wing it by driving to the nearby diner.
But when he got there he then fell asleep in the drive-through, customers honked their horns, staff called cops and he was arrested.
He registered .11, lost his licence on the spot and his car was impounded for 30 days.
It is not known if he got to take his chicken order home.
When he appeared in court he was fined $600 and disqualified for 11 months.
NOT WILD ABOUT HOLLY
It was a case of baking bad for the owner of a Brighton cake shop after rat crap, moths, flies and traces of bugs and slugs were uncovered.
Brett Douglas O’Callaghan, owner of Wild Holly Cakes, was roasted by a court for a distinct lack of cleanliness after a health check revealed a plethora of pest problems at the Bay St shop.
The family run bakery, which dated back to 1937, had previously never had a problem with authorities until an inspector made a random visit and found rodent droppings, vinegar flies, bug and slug trails, moths, larvae and a pungent odour permeating the premises.
Inspectors also seized 110kg of potentially contaminated food including chocolate, flour and cake mix.
O’Callaghan then shut the shop, saying he wanted to concentrate on online baking ventures instead.
He was convicted and fined $18,000 and had to pay the council’s legal costs of $6000.
WANT GLASS WITH THAT?
One poor diner at the Elsternwick McDonald’s store had a very unhappy meal when he munched down on some fries that had been contaminated with shards of glass.
He ended up in hospital having surgery to remove parts of a broken heat lamp from his stomach.
He had been eating hot chips when he felt a sharp pain in his mouth and spat out a 25mm by 5mm jagged glass fragment, along with some blood.
But the pain was not over for the chip-chomper.
Two days later he experienced severe abdominal pain and collapsed, and had to have broken glass removed from his stomach.
Lawyers for the Maccas franchisee told the court it was an isolated event and the first problem the Elsternwick store, which served 900,000 customers a year, had ever had.
They were ordered to pay $40,000 to the court fund and paid an undisclosed amount of compensation to the victim.
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