A Korean restaurant cook threw a wok full of boiling oil over the head chef during a petty kitchen row, inflicting serious burns, a jury heard today.
Yoo admits throwing boiling oil
Jinhee Yoo, 37, doused Lim Gye at the Jin Go Gae restaurant in Burlington Road, New Malden - inflicting burns that required skin grafts.
She is claiming self-defence, insisting she feared being stabbed by Ms Gye, who was chopping onions at the time, Kingston-upon-Thames Crown Court heard.
Yoo, of The Avenue, Worcester Park, Leeds has pleaded not guilty to inflicting grievous bodily harm, with intent, at the restaurant on May 23, 2022.
Prosecutor Jonathan Rosen told the trial both women had previously worked together at the restaurant in 2017, with Yoo in the senior role.
When she returned she was now under head chef Ms Gye, who criticised her on the day of the attack for leaving the spice pots untidy.
There was a confrontation between the pair, with Yoo grabbing the head chef’s hair and them both rolling around on the kitchen floor.
Ms Gye bit Yoo’s finger in self-defence and they were pulled apart by other staff.
However, not long after they were again in the kitchen together following the lunchtime rush.
“She was boiling four to five litres of oil in the wok on the stove and Ms Gye was chopping onions,” explained Mr Rosen.
“They were back-to-back in the galley-style kitchen and Ms Gye thought it was odd she was boiling oil as there were no customers in the restaurant.”
Suddenly, Yoo shouted in Korean: “I can’t take it any longer,” turned and threw the wok full of boiling oil over the victim, burning her back, shoulder, chest, neck and arm.
Ms Gye recalled see Yoo standing there with the empty wok, challenging her to another fight and blocking her escape from the kitchen.
Ms Gye took a cold shower before being taken to hospital by the restaurant boss’s daughter, where she was treated for burns and blisters.
There were blisters to 70% of her back and 12% of her body was treated for burns, with a skin graft taken from her thigh during a second operation.
Yoo claimed a large chunk was bitten out of her finger by Ms Gye and she simply grabbed the closest thing to defend herself from a potential knife attack.
“This was a purposeful and deliberate action,” said Mr Rosen. “She had been boiling the oil for five minutes and there was no threat from a knife.”
The trial, which is expected to last approximately one week, continues….
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