A ROW over how to marinade chicken led to two Chinese takeaway chefs engaging in a meat cleaver fight leaving one with a fractured skull and another arrested for attempted murder, a court heard.

Qiang Gao was either fired or quit in the aftermath of the blazing row which started when head chef Kok Yuan Woon told him how to handle the raw meat.

The argument began after Gao took exception to Mr Woon interrupting his food preparation and led to the defendant storming out of the kitchen, demanding he be paid for his work, jurors were told.

The two men twice had to be separated by co-workers after going face-to-face with each other, before they took their argument outside.

It is claimed that Mr Woon initially swung a meat cleaver at Gao in a courtyard round the back of the takeaway and smashed him around the ankle with a heavy duty metal ladle before heading back into the kitchen.

Gao – who suffered a cut to the arm and heavy bruising to his ankle – then retaliated, furiously hitting Mr Woon twice over the head and in the shoulder and leaving a series of horrific injuries, the court heard.

Gao later claimed he had lashed out with the cleaver in an act of self-defence after Mr Woon had hit him first in an “adrenaline-fuelled frenzied attack”.

Alan Gardner, prosecuting, said: “Mr Gao struck Mr Woon at least twice to the head with the meat cleaver and Mr Gao did so with enough force to fracture Mr Woon’s skull.

“The prosecution says that when the defendant did that with the cleaver, it can only have been done with the intent to kill Mr Woon.”

He told the nine male and three female jurors: “The prosecution case is that, even though there may be discrepancies between the accounts of the prosecution witnesses, it is clear there came a time, after Mr Gao and Mr Woon’s various confrontations with each other, when the defendant launched an attack on Mr Woon with a meat cleaver - striking him on the head.

“He hit him with enough force to fracture the skull. The only sensible conclusion from that is, when Mr Gao struck Mr Woon in that way, his intention was to kill Mr Woon.”

The incident happened in the kitchen of the Szechuan Express takeaway in High Street, Thatcham, at around 12pm on May 28 when the two men, who were both on duty in the kitchen, started arguing.

Mr Gardner told the court: “This appears to have been triggered by some sort of disagreement between them about the preparation of chicken in the kitchen.”

Alistair Grainger, defending 39-year-old Gao, accused the victim of being the aggressor and said it was Mr Woon who had in fact started the argument between the pair.

He suggested to Mr Woon that he had caused the argument by “getting in his [Gao’s] face” and constantly interrupting the defendant as he tried to work. The victim, who gave evidence from behind a screen, denied this.

Mr Woon said the argument had started after he had asked Gao to cut up some chicken into pieces before washing and marinating it and putting it into the chiller.

“You were engaged in an adrenaline-fuelled, frenzied attack,” Mr Grainger said. “Your parting shot was to throw your cleaver at Mr Gao – fortunately you missed.”

Gao, of Acorn Drive, Thatcham, denies attempted murder and wounding with intent. Both charges relate to the same incident.

The trial at Reading Crown Court continues.