A celebrity chef's name can do a lot to make a restaurant a success,
but it's no insurance against accusations of employee mistreatment, financial malfeasance,
or professional misconduct. Here are some of the worst examples.
Gordon Ramsay has fame and acclaim that few celebrity chefs on earth can match.
But not everything the Scottish chef touches turns to gold. Ramsay opened his Los Angeles
restaurant The Fat Cow in November 2012, and it quickly became a popular destination in
The Grove shopping district. Before long, however, things started to fall apart.
TMZ reports that in April 2013, the contractor who built the restaurant sued Ramsay,
claiming the chef still owed roughly $45,000 in unpaid bills. Just two months later,
former employees of The Fat Cow filed a class action lawsuit against Ramsay. According to
the Daily Mail, the employees alleged that their former boss failed to pay them minimum
wage or overtime for hours they worked. They were also forced to work through their meal
breaks and were not paid what they were owed at their time of resignation or termination.
The final blow came when a restaurant owner in Florida claimed legal ownership over the name "Fat
Cow," the International Business Times reported. Instead of taking on another legal battle,
Ramsay shuttered the eatery in March 2014.
"Can't take it anymore. I cannot take it anymore."
The stage was all set for Gabe Erales and his Austin, Texas,
restaurant Comedor to move into the national limelight in 2021. There's
almost no better publicity in the culinary world than winning "Top Chef," which is exactly what
Erales did on the hit show's 18th season. But a post-victory scandal ended with his termination.
Just days after the "Top Chef" finale aired, the Austin American-Statesman reported that Erales
had been fired from Comedor the previous year because he violated the restaurant's harassment
and discrimination policies. Prior to filming "Top Chef," Erales had started a consensual
relationship with a female colleague. The relationship ended after Erales returned
to Austin, at which point he began cutting the woman's work hours. He originally said
the move was based on performance, a claim that Comedor chef-partner Philip Speer labeled false.
Erales eventually came clean, telling the paper,
"After I returned from 'Top Chef,' I made some business decisions as a manager that affected
this employee and were found to be discriminatory, and I realized that those were bad decisions."
John Besh has checked off nearly every box a chef could dream of: James Beard Award winner,
cookbook author, television host, and, of course, owner of a suite of acclaimed
restaurants. But that reputation took a major hit in 2017, when NOLA.com reported that an
employee of the Besh Restaurant Group filed a discrimination complaint against the organization.
The employee claimed to have been sexually harassed by Besh and other
male colleagues. After an in-depth investigation,
NOLA.com uncovered a total of 25 current and former employees of BRG who claimed to have
been victims of sexual harassment, including inappropriate touching and suggestive comments.
"There was, you know, comments about what we were wearing, how we looked in the office."
In a statement, Besh wrote,
"I also regret any harm this may have caused to my second family at the restaurant group,
and sincerely apologize to anyone past and present who has worked for me who found my
behavior as unacceptable as I do. I alone am entirely responsible for my moral failings."
For a time, Graham Elliot was the darling of Chicago's culinary scene. After earning
three James Beard Award nominations and becoming the youngest chef to garner a four-star review
from a major news outlet, Elliot opened a restaurant named after himself in 2008.
It was soon awarded two Michelin stars, putting Elliot in the national spotlight.
In March 2012, however, Elliot was sued by Gregory Curtis,
a former waiter. According to The Chicago Tribune, Curtis claimed he was not paid
minimum wage and had to pool his tips with other employees who were not entitled to tips,
which would be a violation of federal labor laws. By the time the lawsuit was filed,
Curtis' attorney said the restaurant had already revamped its tipping policy, telling the Tribune,
"It appears based on our investigation that this restaurant has changed their practice,
so that cooks and food runners no longer share the tip pool. The problem is that they have not sought
to reimburse everyone who was victimized by this practice, including our client."
The suit eventually reached class-action status with a total of 14 former staff members. According
to TMZ, Elliot reached a settlement with the former employees. The settlement amount was
not disclosed, but just over a year later, Elliot announced he was closing his namesake restaurant.
In May 2017, Food Network host Anne Burrell opened her first restaurant,
Phil & Anne's Good Time Lounge, in Brooklyn's Cobble Hill neighborhood.
The business was a co-venture with local bar owner Phil Casaceli. But what started
as a friendship between the co-owners quickly turned into a full-blown feud.
The problems began almost immediately, according to Eater New York. The pair
reportedly argued about nearly every aspect of the business, from the operating hours to
the type of music to play. When Burrell started making changes independently,
Casaceli said he was ready to walk away. However, he claimed Burrell offered absurdly
low buyout offers that he couldn't accept after pouring his life savings into the operation.
In April 2018, Page Six reported that Burrell shut the restaurant's doors,
a move she made without informing Casaceli. In a statement, one of Burrell's representatives said,
"Unfortunately, she and Phil have had differences of opinion during
their business relationship that made running a restaurant together impossible."
There's no shame in getting a bad review. But what The New York Times
had to say about Food Network star Guy Fieri and his Times Square restaurant,
Guy's American Kitchen & Bar, was way beyond a bad review.
In 2012, Times food critic Pete Wells dined at the establishment several times. To say he
was not impressed would be the understatement of the century. In a review composed entirely
of questions, Wells eviscerated every aspect of Guy's American Kitchen & Bar,
from its food and drinks to its service. For example, Wells asked,
"How did nachos, one of the hardest dishes in
the American canon to mess up, turn out so deeply unlovable?"
The review quickly went viral, with some calling it "the most brutal restaurant review ever,"
according to the Daily Beast. Fieri defended his restaurant on the Today show two days later.
"Is it perfect right now? No. Are we striving for it? Yeah."
In the end, it wasn't enough. Guy's American Grill closed its doors in 2017.
In June 2017, Iron Chef Cat Cora consulted on the opening of the
Southern-themed restaurant Fatbird in New York City. Just a few months later,
Cora found herself in a legal battle with the co-owner. According to Reuters,
the celeb chef had agreed to give her name, likeness, and recipes to the restaurant in
exchange for a financial stake. But by October, she claimed to have not received any payments.
Cora also alleged that the restaurant was being run so poorly that it was damaging
her reputation. This all led to her filing a lawsuit against her partner, seeking monetary
compensation and a revocation of the rights to her name and likeness. Her lawyer said,
"Cat expended a significant amount of time, effort, energy and expense
on this project. This suit seeks to recover for her what she was promised."
Amid the lawsuit and negative reviews, Fatbird closed its doors in December 2017.
Cora didn't walk away empty-handed, though. Just over a year later, according to Page Six,
Cora won her lawsuit and was awarded more than half a million dollars.
By 2008, Tom Colicchio was already a successful chef, restaurateur,
and cookbook author. But then he became one of the judges and hosts
of the increasingly popular "Top Chef" and entered the stratosphere.
That celebrated status, as well as the reputation of his growing Craft restaurant chain,
was threatened when a former employee filed a lawsuit in December 2008. According to
The New York Times, the former waitress, who worked at Craftbar in New York City,
claimed management broke federal and state laws by withholding overtime pay and sharing
tips with employees who weren't eligible for them. One of the plaintiff's lawyers said,
"The Craft restaurants [...] have earned Mr. Colicchio and his partners great
success. This success, however, has come at the expense of the restaurant's hourly
service workers to whom the defendants have denied proper minimum wages,
overtime compensation, and tips they earned from customers."
Colicchio disagreed, telling the Times that he thought the lawsuit was "baseless." He added,
"We're confident that a thorough investigation in the courts will
find that Craftbar and Craft Worldwide Holdings have conducted themselves
with the highest integrity and concern for the wellbeing of their employees."
The lawsuit was reportedly settled, and Craftbar remained open for nearly
another decade before a rent hike forced it to close in 2017.
From 2005 to 2018, "Iron Chef" and James Beard
Award winner Jose Garces opened or managed a whopping 29 restaurants,
according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. Multiple lawsuits filed against the celebrity chef
allege he spread himself too thin and then stiffed people with whom he did business.
Over an eight-month span from fall 2017 to spring 2018, Garces was hit with six different lawsuits,
the Inquirer reported. Four came from food suppliers who had not been paid,
one from a landlord looking for back rent,
and another from a pair of investors who claimed they were owed returns.
In that last lawsuit, a New Jersey couple said they had invested $2.5 million in
Garces' restaurants. Things were going well until 2016, when Garces opened a New York City location
of his flagship Amada eatery. The investors claimed to have contributed $700,000 in exchange
for a promised 20% return, but say Garces ceased all payments. The pair went as far as
claiming Garces never had any intention of paying the money back. Whether or not
the lawsuit was the final blow is hard to say, but Amada New York shut its doors that spring.
In the early 2000s, Johnny Iuzzini quickly became the golden boy of America's pastry
world. He won a James Beard Award, served as a judge on "Top Chef: Just Desserts," and was head
pastry chef at Jean-Georges, one of New York City's most lauded culinary establishments. He
was alleged to have sexually harassed several female co-workers there between 2009 and 2011,
according to an investigative report by Mic. The outlet spoke to four former
Jean-Georges employees who worked under Iuzzini, and a few weeks later,
reported that four more women had similar accusations against the celebrated chef.
"You can take that pound cake and soak it in your favorite alcohol.
Soak it in a little brandy, soak it in a little Chambord or something to
liven it up a little bit or you need a little help gettin' her to say yes."
Iuzzini confessed to some, but not all, of the claims. He told Mic,
"I began working in kitchens when I was 15 years old,
back in a time when it was rare to see women in the kitchen,
and behavior was more bawdy than professional. [...] This was the behavior I learned as a boy,
and for too many years participated in during my restaurant career. And it was wrong."
"Top Chef" alum Mike Isabella parlayed his television fame into Mike Isabella Concepts,
a multi-million-dollar company with more than a dozen restaurants in the Washington, D.C.,
area. But the empire came crumbling down after the former director of operations at one restaurant,
Isabella Eatery, filed suit in March 2018. According to The Washington Post,
the plaintiff accused Isabella his business partners of sexual harassment. The complaint
alleged that Isabella and others created a "bro culture" that included unwanted touching,
offensive name calling, and other sexist behavior, Washingtonian reported.
Isabella claimed innocence and vowed to fight the charges in court. But the damage
was already done. Isabella Eatery closed in August 2018, and the following month,
the chef filed for bankruptcy. FSR Magazine reported that later that year,
he announced he was shutting down the company and nearly all of his restaurants. In the
bankruptcy filing, Isabella laid the blame on the lawsuit and ensuing scandal, stating,
"Under the present circumstances, I am facing the sad realization that
I no longer believe that any restaurant associated with my name can recover from
the negative press that has enveloped me for nearly the entirety of 2018."
Few, if any, celebrity chefs have been harder hit by a scandal than Mario Batali. In December 2017,
Eater New York published a scathing exposé of Batali and his inappropriate behavior
toward women that dated back to the 1990s. At the time, Batali co-owned
roughly two dozen restaurants as partner of the Batali & Bastianich Hospitality Group,
including famed Michelin-starred eateries Del Posto and Babbo.
Batali owned up to his inappropriate behavior and agreed to remove himself
from the company's operations. In a statement to Eater New York, he said,
"Although the identities of most of the individuals mentioned in these stories
have not been revealed to me, much of the behavior described does, in fact,
match up with ways I have acted. That behavior was wrong and there are no excuses. [...] I have
work to do to try to regain the trust of those I have hurt and disappointed."
Batali's informal departure from his restaurant empire became official just over a year later.
In March 2019, he surrendered ownership of all his restaurants, agreeing to a
buyout with the hospitality group that once bore his name, the New York Times reported.
If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault,
help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network
website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).