Hahahahaha, let’s all pose in coolie hats and do ching-chong eye-stretchy karate-y things! Let’s encourage this small child to participate merrily and racistly in our racist merriment!

Eater explains that as part of an event in which chefs from around the world swap recipes, Chef Gianluca Gorini of daGorini restaurant in Bagno di Romagna, Italy, tackled the recipes of Victor Liong of Lee Ho Fook restaurant in Melbourne, Australia. And posted this photo. Which is now deleted. But several people got screenshots.

Yikes. Who does Gianluca Gorini think he is, Jesse Watters?

When people on the Internet expressed dismay, Gorini took down the photo and put up an apology. It was…not good.

This is not a good lede: “JEEZ, who could ever guess that a photo could cause so much hullaballoo!” Gianluca, you should have been able to guess. And using a head-clutching GARSH photo, like a confused Dad confronted with a Diaper Genie in a commercial, is way minimizing of the offense committed.

Gianluca goes on to fail to say what he’s apologizing for. (And remember, the photo is gone. Unless you know the backstory, you have no clue what this apology is for.) Those gestures he and his staff and the little boy are making were “dictated by the excitement and enthusiasm that the confrontation with a new culture has generated in our daily work”! See? They we were simply filled with zesty high spirits when faced with upscale Chinese-Australian recipes! But now Giancarlo realizes he doesn’t “know the subject of the question well enough” — no one has ever taught him that it’s bad to mock Asian people —  so he has “underestimated its meaning.” The meaning of racism? The meaning of coolie hats? The meaning of making wacky-pretend “Asian eyes” with your fingers?

Gianluca gives the tired, inadequate “to all those I have offended” apology (nope, apologize to EVERYONE, unreservedly); tells us about his intentions (not relevant; actions are what matter); and asks Victor Liong, the chef at Lee Ho Fook, to forgive him (do not ask for forgiveness; earn it).

In addition to the, y’know, racism of presenting Lee Ho Fook as a caricature of Chinese-ness, Gianluca and his team have demeaned Victor Liong as a chef, as a creator. The restaurant specializes in new-wave food reflecting a wide variety of cultural influences. Its name is from the opening lyrics of Warren Zevon’s perfect “Werewolves of London” (I saw a werewolf with a Chinese menu in his hand/Walking through the streets of Soho in the rain/He was looking for a place called Lee Ho Fook’s/Gonna get a big dish of beef chow mein”). Zevon’s werewolves are sophisticates, sporting exquisitely tailored clothes and perfect hair, hobnobbing with the Queen and having cocktails at Trader Vic’s. And in that spirit, Lee Ho Fook is clearly playful and sophisticated; a recent Instagram post featured a shot of Chow Yun Fat in John Woo’s breakout action movie A Better Tomorrow, lighting a cigarette with a hundred-dollar bill, to showcase a special dinner made by young breakout-talented Chinese-Aussie chefs. It’s a generous gesture, to use your successful restaurant to spotlight new talent.

In an interview, Liong said, “You spend all of your youth rejecting – well, I did anyway – Chinese culture and not trying to be too Chinese and not seeing any value in it. I went through a bit of a self-discovery process and part of that [has been] opening Lee Ho Fook and cooking Chinese. If anything [it’s] something that I’m quite passionate now – going on a journey to rediscover that culture.” Reducing that journey to a racist caricature, as Gianluca and his staff did, is pretty sickening. We hope Giancarlo has reached out personally to Liong, not just waved at him on social media.

SorryWatch must remain hopeful that Gianluca can learn and grow from this experience. (If we didn’t think people could do better, we wouldn’t do this site.) Years ago, the Italian company Barilla turned its homophobic debacle into an opportunity to become much, much better. Maybe Gianluca can do the same.