SYDNEY - One of Sydney's best-known pubs has said only a kitchen mutiny or "sabotage" could be responsible for the alleged serving of ice-cream smeared with faeces.
The Coogee Bay Hotel yesterday welcomed the involvement of police and health authorities to try to determine how human excreta couldhave found its way into the dessert.
Sydney woman Jessica Whyte claims to have become "violently ill" after eating a complimentary bowl of ice-cream at a hotel function on October 5.
Staff offered the dessert as a placatory gesture after an argument with her family about seating at the grand final lunch.
Whyte said she realised something was amiss when she brought a spoonful to her lips and "the stench went through my nostrils".
"I retched and spat it out into the napkin," she told News Ltd.
Independent testing of the substance allegedly showed it had "properties similar to human excreta", the Whytes claim.
General manager Tony Williams yesterday leaped to the hotel's defence, saying the refurbished open-plan kitchen had been open for just three weeks, and conformed to the highest hygiene standards.
Williams said a detailed internal investigation was under way, and he welcomed health department and police involvement.
New South Wales Primary Industries Minister Ian Macdonald agreed a "hostile act" must have taken place.
The Food Authority would be willing to investigate once a formal complaint from the Whytes had been lodged, the minister said.
Williams accused the Whytes of trying to blackmail the hotel into paying them A$1 million in "hush money". He said they made off with the "material" and did not allow the hotel to retain "even a small sample for outside testing".
The hotel recently reopened its doors after a multimillion-dollar revamp aimed at shaking its boozy backpackers image. It ranks second in a police list of the 100 most violent pubs in NSW.
