Popular on social media, chef Eloi Spinnler decided to break his silence about the violence and humiliation he suffered in the kitchen when he was just a 13-year-old apprentice. Today, at 30, he owns two restaurants and has made it a mission to protect the welfare of his employees.
Cover photo: ©Pierre Lucet Penato
A chef by training, entrepreneur and well-known face on social media, Spinnler stands out for his managerial approach based on respect and valuing staff. In his videos, followed by more than 250,000 followers on Instagram, it is easy to recognize him by the iconic orange leather case in which he stores his knives. However, behind his success lies a difficult past, marked by traumatic experiences that drove him to want to change the system.
“I was a victim of molestation when I was 13 years old.”
“I was molested in my first year of my apprenticeship,” Spinnler tells francetvinfo.fr. “ I was very young, only 13 years old. I still carry a lot of anger inside me." One of the most humiliating episodes involves a gesture known in French schools as “olives”: an older colleague stuck a finger in his buttocks over his clothes, without his consent, to catch him by surprise. “This has nothing to do with a work environment,” denounces the chef. “A 22-year-old adult has absolutely no right to do that to a 13-year-old boy.”
“Hot spoons and fridge doors slammed on arms.”
But this incident is just the tip of the iceberg. The restaurant industry, for a long time, has normalized violence against apprentices. “Before we go to certain extremes, there's a whole mechanism of accepting violence,“ Spinnler explains. ‘Spoons heated until they're red-hot, refrigerator doors slammed on apprentices’ arms, slaps, ear-pulls, insults, humiliating phrases like ‘You're worthless, you'll never get anywhere.’” Although mindsets are changing, the chef stresses that it is still crucial to pay attention to these problems. He himself, in the early years of his career as a chef, risked perpetuating the toxic pattern he had fallen victim to. "In my first position as a boss, I was overworked, stressed out, and didn't feel supported. One day I yelled at one of my employees and saw him return to the kitchen with tears in his eyes. It destroyed me."
A new management model to protect employees
Aware of these dynamics, today Spinnler is committed to creating a healthy and respectful work environment. Together with his partner Benoît Piante, he has taken several measures to protect the mental and physical well-being of his employees in the two restaurants he manages. One of these is an electronic timekeeping system, which is not only used to control tardiness, but also to monitor the number of hours worked. “It allows us to figure out how many hours they actually work, and based on that, we can adjust shifts,” the chef explains. “They used to work four days a week, now we are trying to reduce them to three and a half days.” In addition to better shift management, Spinnler has introduced a reward system linked to the company's profits and is considering offering coaching sessions for staff psychological well-being. His dream? To create a “seal of approval” for restaurants that abide by a workplace wellness charter.
An industry in trouble: the turnover problem
Spinnler's initiatives could help improve the image of an industry that is increasingly struggling to recruit and retain employees. In 2024, according to Lightspeed, the average length of stay of a worker in the restaurant industry in France is only two to three years. Moreover, the turnover rate is alarming: according to INSEE, while the national average is 15 percent, it is as high as 44 percent in the restaurant industry. In an industry that often burns out its workers, Spinnler's management model could provide a new starting point. “Treating your staff well should not be the exception, but the norm”, the chef concludes.
