Dinner turned deadly Sunday night after a dispute between a celebrity chef and two patrons of his restaurant in Germany led to the chef's demise. The offense? The two men believed their noodles to be poorly prepared.
Miki Nozawa was the chef at a restaurant on the North Sea island of Sylt. He was famous for his Italian-Japanese fusion cooking and by all accounts was an excellent cook. Two of his customers, however, believed otherwise.
Accounts vary as to what happened next. One German publication, Sylt Rundschau, claims that the two men demanded that they get their money back for the food because they were not satisfied
"We have heard that the men wanted to get back their ten euros for the food. We see this as a racist act," Nozawa's ex-wife said. He had reportedly been called other racial epithets while working on the island in the past.
Another story, however, claims that the two suspects never paid for the meal, and instead walked out of the restaurant with a free meal. At any rate, it is currently believed that the two men and Nozawa, 57, ran into each other later that night at the table-dance establishment "Z1."
It was there that things got ugly. Both of them were alleged to be intoxicated and proceeded to have words with Nozawa, eventually leading to a physical confrontation. From that incident Nozawa received a blow to the head that caused a lethal amount of hemorrhaging, though his ex-wife does not believe it could be his fault.
"My ex-husband was not aggressive, absolutely good-natured man," she said, according to a translation of the report. "He never would have started a fight."
The two suspects were originally taken in by the local police but have since been released from custody. Some believe that it's a sign that the officers are unfairly siding with suspects, though the two men are still being questioned and it is possible that they will still be arrested.
Nozawa was a famous chef and world-renowned for being one of the best at his craft, having served the likes of Mikhail Gorbachev, Denzel Washington, and Phil Collins during his career.
"And Miki has prepared the best Italian food in the world - that's why I wanted him to come to me," said Andreas also Bernert, who leads the Permanent Representation in Westerland.