Sous chef at Tom Kerridge's Harrods fish and chips restaurant who left almost £700 worth of seafood out to spoil tries to sue for unfair dismissal

By JON BRADY, SENIOR NEWS REPORTER Published: 10:58, 29 July 2026 | Updated: 11:08, 29 July 2026 A sous chef at Tom Kerridge's Fish and Chips restaurant in Harrods tried to sue for unfair dismissal after he left almost £700 worth of seafood out to spoil. Giresse Mbala left 10kg of lobster and 150 scallops out in the kitchen for a week without refrigeration in the middle of summer at the upmarket London department store, a tribunal heard. He would have been allowed to keep his job had he not made a series of other health and safety blunders on Valentine's Day, the restaurant's busiest night of the year, in 2024. The veteran cook claimed Harrods had an 'agenda' to sack him, and claimed the man who investigated him had acted 'like a bully' towards him having previously shouted at him 'like a young boy' in front of customers. Mr Mbala, who had worked at Harrods for almost two decades, won £4,000 for wrongful dismissal because Harrods didn't give him the full notice period he was entitled to. But an employment tribunal ruled Harrods had been justified in sacking him after it found his practice had 'real risks to public health'. The remote tribunal was told that Mr Mbala started working at the Knightsbridge landmark in 2005 as a kitchen porter before being promoted to sous chef. But issues emerged on the morning after the Valentine's Day shift, when food safety staff discovered a dish of Dover Sole had been left defrosting in its own liquid.  'Poorly vacuum sealed' scallops were also sitting thawing without a label, while lobsters had been wrapped in paper and left to defrost in the fridge – though the sous chef maintained that this was not 'unusual'.  A former Harrods sous chef was sacked after he left almost £700 of seafood to spoil (pictured: Harrods in Knightsbridge, London) Mr Mbala (not pictured) worked in Tom Kerridge's Fish and Chips restaurant inside Harrods (pictured: Kerridge at the restaurant in 2023) Mr Mbala said the kitchen had been short-staffed the night before – running with three members of staff rather than the usual five – and that he was the last person on shift, with only 30 minutes to close up after last orders. However, Harrods bosses say these discoveries were hazardous enough to justify a final written warning, holding him 'at least in part responsible' despite his otherwise spotless record. The warning was issued in August 2024 – but further issues were raised just a month later after Mr Mbala allegedly left orders of monkfish, scallops and lobster out to spoil. The lobster was left out for a week and the scallops had been left out for five days without being processed.  Mr Mbala was not on shift when they were delivered – but was the most senior person on shift in subsequent days and should have seen fit to store them properly.  The allegations were either partly or completely upheld in each case, and he was dismissed without notice. But Mr Mbala maintained that he had been the victim of a conspiracy. He told the tribunal that Chef de Cuisine Luke Truelove, who conducted part of the investigation, 'was like a bully' who would 'shout at me like a young boy' in front of customers. The tribunal heard that Mr Truelove did also bear some responsibility for failing to book in the seafood, but was satisfied that senior Harrods bosses who led the probe were genuine in their belief that Mr Mbala had committed misconduct. The fish and chips at Tom Kerridge's restaurant courted controversy over its £37 price tag - and eight chips Employment Judge Judith Richter said in a written decision: 'I am satisfied that the misconduct found concerned the handling of food items which do present real risks to public health. 'I am satisfied that (Harrods) was therefore entitled to treat the breaches as contravention of its behaviour policy and categorise them as misconduct.' The judge sympathised with Mr Mbala, whom she said had found it '...impossible to accept that he was at fault in two sets of incidents which occur within close proximity'. She added: 'Ultimately however, for the reasons I have set out, I am satisfied that the complaint of unfair dismissal is not well founded and must be dismissed.' During the proceedings, Harrods conceded that it had wrongfully dismissed Mr Mbala as it had given him only eight weeks notice rather than the proper 12. He was therefore awarded £4,024 for wrongful dismissal. Tom Kerridge's fish and chips restaurant in Harrods permanently closed in August 2025 after the department store cut ties with Mr Kerridge, Gordon Ramsay, Calum Franklin and Japanese chef Masayoshi Takayama in a rejig of its celebrity tie-ins. It had been derided for its high prices, charging £37 for a straightforward plate of fish and as little as eight chips. Mr Kerridge himself defended the high price point, comparing his meal to a top-of-the-range supercar. 'Do the people who shout about the price of my fish and chips also shout at Ferrari when it launches a new car?' he told The Times. ‘If you're getting the best you can get, that's how much it is.'