Australian chef speaks out on alleged comments by Marco Pierre White
An Australian chef has gone public with claims that Marco Pierre White made inappropriate remarks to her during a recent job in the UK, saying the experience highlights a culture of ongoing harassment in professional kitchens.
Newcastle-born chef Jordan Hartley says the 63-year-old culinary icon called her “delicious” and commented on her breasts just two months ago.
“Marco Pierre White called me delicious,” Hartley said in an Instagram video. “He also told his managers to stop looking at my tits because he had been looking at them too.”
Hartley, who has worked in kitchens since her teens, said Pierre White’s alleged remarks are just the latest in a long line of sexist encounters she has endured throughout her career. “I think I got to a point where enough is enough,” she told The Daily Telegraph. “There is no need for me to hide the secrets of the industry and how it’s progressively getting worse or has not changed at all.”
While she did not lodge a formal complaint, Hartley said the comments hit her only after the fact. “It takes me a minute to be like, OK, that was actually really bad, because I can bend my way in that moment. It’s a really scary moment. I’m very used to those atmospheres.”
She added that the pressures of post-Covid hospitality have only intensified kitchen culture. “It’s getting worse since Covid because of the financial pressures as well. So the abuse is sort of ramped up.”
Hartley has since stepped back from contract work to focus on recipe writing, but said the “toxic behaviours” she encountered remain entrenched.
Pierre White, regarded as one of the first modern celebrity chefs and a mentor to Gordon Ramsay and Heston Blumenthal, has not been charged with any wrongdoing.
Jonathan Jackson, 8th September 2025
