It was dinner and a no-show.
British celebrity chef Simon Wood had no reservations about spit-roasting a group of diners online for allegedly neglecting to show up for their reserved table at his fine-dining restaurant, WOOD, over the weekend.
He grilled them in an X post catching fire online.
Wood, who won the hit cooking show “MasterChef” in 2015, posted a pic of an empty table for five at his eponymous establishment in Manchester, England.
“An actual image of my chef’s table at 8pm last night,” the incensed steak-slicer wrote, putting the flaky patrons in the hot seat. “I’d like to say a huge thank you to the table of 5 that no showed, [not] even a phone call or a courtesy so I could resell the table.”
The boiling-mad Wood additionally snarked, “What a way support a small business. Much appreciated. You T#%t$.”
X posters also ripped the unnamed party for failing to honor their reservation — a practice that costs restaurants a lot of money as they’re essentially holding a table for no-shows.
“What a bunch of lovely t–s,” wrote fellow UK chef Dean Banks.
“That is a fantastic looking set up,” said another commenter. “A crime to see it empty. I simply can’t understand the attitude that allows that sort of behavior.
However, some armchair restaurateurs suggested that Wood introduce a no-show fee to dissuade customers from ghosting.
“The business model needs to change,” declared one, who suggested “imposing a deposit policy for reservations, including a non-refundable fee for cancellations within 24 hrs.”
They added that Wood could also “sell table bookings in advance with a set fee, including a non-refundable fee for cancellations within 24hrs.”
“As someone who regularly dines out at nice restaurants it’s usual to guarantee a booking with a card,” observed another. “Why don’t you do this? It’s sad people are so disrespectful to you and your team.”
Larry Yu, a Ph.D. and professor of hospitality management at George Washington University, argued in a 2023 article for MarketScale that “restaurant managers need to communicate a clear cancellation policy, which should be prominently shown on the website or clearly communicated by employees who take phone reservations.”
He added those rules should emphasize the “deadline for cancellation, grace period for notifying the restaurant for running late, and at what time the restaurant cannot honor reservations.”
However, chef Wood insisted in the replies that a no-show fee isn’t nearly enough to offset the “loss of revenue,” adding that the problem lies in people who think they “can s–t on restaurants and it doesn’t matter.”
In 2021, NYC restaurateur Keith McNally banned Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter from all of his restaurants after the journo ghosted a 12-person reservation at Morandio.
