15-year-old develops through work, violates labor laws

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - Ben Braxton's baby face stands out among the tattooed, white-coated cooks in the kitchen at Pazzo on a recent Saturday night.

As the sous chef barks instructions, Ben works the salad station, grabbing a slice of beef carpaccio and laying the thin slice on a white plate. Another cook heaps dressed arugula on top, and Ben finishes the dish with shredded Parmesan cheese and fried capers. The chef nods and Ben hands off the salad to a waiter.

That scene repeats itself several more times until Ben clocks out at 7 p.m., before the dinner rush really starts. Those are the rules for 15-year-olds, a lesson Pazzo's chef-owner has learned the hard way.

Seth Kingsbury took Ben under his wing two years ago, taught him kitchen skills and saw the boy improve his grades and even get off ADHD medication. Despite Kingsbury's good intentions and Ben's gains, the chef unknowingly violated child labor laws. The U.S. Department of Labor has fined him almost $8,000.

So Kingsbury, 37, is talking publicly about the experience to help educate his peers in the restaurant industry, many of whom, like himself, started in the business at Ben's age or younger.

"Maybe one person can learn from my mistake," Kingsbury said.

Two years ago, Ben's parents were regular customers at Pazzo in Chapel Hill, N.C. One side is a sit-down Italian restaurant, the other a casual pizzeria.

While the family dined one night, Ben, then 13, had a kitchen view. Watching Kingsbury caramelize crème brûlées, the boy asked to go back into the kitchen. Kingsbury showed him how he made the dessert's signature sugar crust with a small torch.

Eventually, Ben asked if he could hang out in the kitchen regularly. Kingsbury laid out conditions: Ben had to listen to the chefs, get good grades and mind his parents.

Ben was soon peeling potatoes, washing dishes and plating salads. He had his own white chef's jacket. The kitchen crew nicknamed him "Little Chef." For Christmas, he asked his mom for a 10-inch Shun Ken Onion chef's knife, and then he saved enough money to buy three more knives to complete the set.

"He has nicer knives than anyone in the kitchen," Kingsbury says.

Adds his mother, Beth Braxton: "He won't let me use them."

At Cedar Ridge High School in nearby Hillsborough, the boy took three honors courses and got a 3.6 GPA. He used his time at Pazzo toward 400 hours of a food service internship to earn a national certificate. He talked about attending the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y.

Last winter, Kingsbury realized Beth Braxton had never obtained a worker's permit for her son. He also realized he might have run afoul of child labor laws that forbid someone under age 16 from working in a restaurant with a liquor license. He himself reported the violation to the N.C. Department of Labor.

Beth Braxton petitioned state Labor Commissioner Cherie Berry for a waiver to let her son to continue working at Pazzo.

In her letter, she wrote: "The structure of the kitchen environment has helped Ben with his ADHD. ... And for the first time since the third grade, he did not have to take an (end-of-grade) test over because of a low grade. He was so proud. ...' "

Ben's doctor and a school official wrote similar letters. In May, Berry let the teen return to work with restrictions, such as no cooking over an open flame and no handling of alcohol. Kingsbury was fined $300.

Then a local magazine profiled the young chef-in-the-making. In what Kingsbury now acknowledges was "an incredible lapse of judgment," he helped stage a photo showing Ben making penne a la vodka with one hand on a flaming pan and the other holding a bottle of vodka.

The story published in May, and the photo's obvious violations of child labor laws caught the attention of federal labor officials. In August, they fined Kingsbury $7,975. He appealed and decided to go public.

Kingsbury said that he worked kitchen jobs in violation of child labor laws, first in Florida and then in Durham. At 14, he was starting work at 6 a.m. to do the restaurant's baking or leaving at midnight after working on the hot line; both in clear violation of the law. Kingsbury says his path is not uncommon among chefs: "We all worked in violation."

While Ben Braxton now can legally work in Kingsbury's kitchen, worker's permit and waiver from state officials in hand, Kingsbury has learned a lesson, one he hopes will help his peers.

"Look at how much trouble I got in," he says. "You don't want to be me."

Federal child labor laws are outlined at http://www.dol.gov/elaws/esa/flsa/docs/haznonag.asp .

(Contact Andrea Weigl at aweigl(at)newsobserver.com.)