Waimea Weekly Locally Owned and Operated
Wednesday 10 May 2023
Reuniting after half century Page 6
Ben reaches new heights
Page 24
Gas explosion: ‘community is behind us’ ANNE HARDIE A metal splashback on the wall was vital protection for the chef at Eat Italy in Richmond when a gas explosion blew him across the kitchen last week. The new restaurant at Berryfields Crossing had been open not quite a week when its owner, Cherif El
Bakkali, got a phone call from his brother to say the kitchen had blown up. “I thought it was a joke,” he says. “But then he said it again and I felt the tone in his voice.” Cherif had just left the restaurant on the morning of 3 May. He had just been in the kitchen with his young son, right where the explo-
sion blew out the wall and sent kitchen equipment flying. The explosion was triggered after a contractor accidentally drilled a screw into an LPG pipe while putting a shelf on the wall. The pipe supplied gas to the kitchen’s cooking hobs, but the pipe’s rupture went unnoticed until the chef arrived to prepare
food for the restaurant when it opened for lunch. When he flicked the switch to the gas, the resulting spark triggered the explosion immediately, blowing out the wall and throwing the chef and cookware across the kitchen. Thrown onto his back, Cherif says the chef ’s reaction was to leap up
and hit the emergency button on the wall to shut off the gas. “I’m so proud of my chef for pressing the emergency button,” he says. “It was a relief no one was injured. It could have been worse.” Cherif attributes the metal splash
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To celebrate Mother’s Day, Henley School students are taking part in an art exhibition at Richmond Mall showcasing portraits they’ve drawn of their mums. Identical twins Olivia and Amelia Mackay, both 5, surprised their mum Rebecca with their creations at the weekend. “The pictures are both very different and I like how they’ve got my eyelashes just right,” she says. With more than 200 submissions from junior through to senior classes, the public can go and view the artwork until just after 14 May. The display is opposite Whitcoulls in the old Santa’s grotto area. Photo: Jo Kent.
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