Kaprica chef loses it at customer in Melbourne with foul-mouthed rant

• Melbourne chef seen ranting at customer
• Footage shows him pulling plates off a table 
• DO YOU KNOW MORE? Email caitlin.powell@dailymail.com.au 

By CAITLIN POWELL FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA

Published: 06:37 BST, 13 June 2025 | Updated: 06:51 BST, 13 June 2025

Alarming video has shown the moment a Melbourne chef unleashed on a customer, trashing their table and throwing them out of the pizza restaurant.

A group of friends were visiting the Italian eatery Kaprica in Carlton in April after the venue had gone viral on TikTok.

One of them was recording a message for their boyfriend complaining about how spicy the prawn past was when chef Pietro Barbagallo appeared behind them.

‘I literally had like, the chilliest food tonight, and it was so spicy,’ the unnamed customer said to the camera in footage published by Nine newspapers.

Appearing behind them, Mr Barbagallo can be heard saying: ‘Really? Really you have to do that?’

The customer responded: ‘What’s wrong?’ but the chef, voice raised, went on: ‘This is what you’re doing in my restaurant, in my house.’

‘This is so abusive,’ the customer replied, but Mr Barbagallo started to tell the group they needed to leave and appeared to attempt to grab at the recording phone.

‘You get out now,’ he said, and can then be seen to grab the tablecloth, plates falling to the floor, as if to drag the dinner setting and food off the table.

Video of chef Pietro Barbagallo (pictured) has been circulated of him angrily throwing customers out of his popular Melbourne-based pizza restaurant 

‘Turn that f***ing phone off! You and your f***ing phone!’ he shouted at customers.

‘Get out of my f***ing restaurant!’

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Kaprica for comment on the incident.

An Italian-born chef, Mr Barbagallo has been on the Melbourne restaurant scene since 1998, when he opened the restaurant I Carusi in Brunswick East.

He then opened I Carusi II in St Kilda and most recently another Italian restaurant, Kaprica, in Carlton South.

He was credited by The Age in 2005 with kick-starting Melbourne’s ‘pizza revolution’. 

In 2011, he was then declared bankrupt which led him to end his involvement with the I Carusi venues and close his pizza-pasta house on Lonsdale Street.

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Kaprica chef loses it at customer in Melbourne with foul-mouthed rant

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