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John Besh Resigns Due to Sexual Harrassment


DonRocks

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"Celebrity Chef John Besh Resigns Amid Sexual Harassment Allegations" on cbsnews.com

Lemme tell you something ... if this spreads to Washington, DC restaurants, the shit is going to hit the fan. And I don't mean maybe.

The thing that troubles me is that, based on many anecdotes I've heard, some women may feel very isolated - if the sample size of what I've heard over the years is anything close to an accurate representation of the truth (and I have absolutely no reason to believe it isn't, because some of the events described to me happened one-day before; some of the events happened ten-years before) ... take comfort in knowing that you are not alone.

I suspect the entire male gender - in many professions - is going to need one, gigantic mulligan from females.

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I happen to be in New Orleans this week, and the outrage of people is  astounding.  People also are very worried about Alon Shaya, who seems to have been a fall guy in some of this. Besh  is attempting to disallow Shaya from using his own name on a restaurant.  Apparently, Besh is not really a very nice person. 

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I hope it does hit DC and hope that shit is crammed right down their disgusting throats. I worked in the restaurant industry as a server as a young woman and it is disgusting. It is about damned time. I hope you don't think this is a bad thing...

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There are common names that many, many women talk about in DC, and I'll bet in a few weeks we will hear one specific name for sure. 

It's not stopping with tech, Hollywood, and restaurants. Everyone knew in med school which surgeons got a little handsy in the operating room or required "extra attention" from female staff and students. Floodgates are open. 

 

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It is almost liberating to hear this. I have been working as a teacher and even this past year a teacher would make sexual remarks every chance he got. He still works for the system...but his ass should be fired. And yes, I did contact administration but I left and I found out he was asked to leave. Why is this still happening now? 

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16 minutes ago, RaisaB said:

Why is this still happening now? 

Entire books would need to be (and probably have been) written to address your question.

I first saw John Besh the year after his company was founded, in 2006: I was at an awards ceremony which was honoring the culinary heritage of New Orleans (not long after Hurricane Katrina).

After this goofy parade (with a makeshift jazz band), where the leading culinary figures of New Orleans marched and danced up onto the stage - for whatever reason, John Besh stood out to me as the most charismatic of the bunch - I didn't know who he was, and I don't know why I took away that impression. He almost came across as a quiet, pensive, Charlie Trotter-like persona (but we now know that Charlie Trotter wasn't merely quiet and pensive).

This was also the time I saw Willie Mae Seaton break down into tears, crumpling into her daughter's arms, when she won an award - she simply could not imagine that her little fried-chicken shack could ever get so much attention, and there wasn't a dry eye in the house.

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I've eaten at several of his restaurants and all were excellent. Had wanted to go to Shaya for the longest time and actually had recommended it to people (just based on internet hype) and all universally loved it. 

Besh always conjured up a folksy, genuinely nice guy persona as someone who had spent his whole life in New Orleans and was determined for it be seen as more than a place for gumbo, Mardi Gras and Bourbon Street. He was a finalist in the first season of Next Iron Chef, losing to Michael Symon. 

Based upon everything I knew about him, this was shocking. But based on everything I know about the restaurant industry from reading memoirs and through my brother-in-law who cooks in some of the best kitchens in Charlotte, it's not. Will be very interesting to see the ripple effect this has across the country, as I would suspect many big names are shaking in their boots (I know of none, but just speculating). 

Moral question: should I get rid of his cookbooks I own? Am I wrong to still want to cook from them?

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29 minutes ago, Deac said:

Moral question: should I get rid of his cookbooks I own? Am I wrong to still want to cook from them?

I have a friend who's an opera lover (and who is Jewish). I once asked him if he felt any moral conflict about seeing Richard Wagner's operas (Wagner was a raging anti-Semite), and his response stuck with me: 'If my money was going to support anti-Semitic causes, I wouldn't pay a cent, but since Wagner is long-deceased, I have no moral conflict - there's no denying that his music is genius, so why not enjoy it?' 

No, don't get rid of your cookbooks - you're not harming anything by continuing to own and cook from them.

Regarding Besh and his benevolence with New Orleans and other causes, this same friend (at a different time), also once said to me: 'Some people are perfectly normal ... except that they're murderers.'

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On 10/24/2017 at 1:31 PM, NolaCaine said:

We are all focusing our national rage on the famous but I"m going out on a limb here; most women experience sexual harassment at some point in their career.  I'm thinking of my list right now. Assholes. 

And it is not just sexual harassment at work, it is pretty much everywhere. It sucks.

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