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Accusations of Sexual Misconduct in the Restaurant Industry


DonRocks

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Mario Batali - Accusations of Sexual Misconduct - (Al Dente)

On 12/11/2017 at 3:02 PM, Al Dente said:

More shameful behavior:

"Mario Batali Steps Aside from His Restaurants Amid Sexual Misconduct Allegations" by Laurel Wamsley on npr.org

I knew when Besh went down that this could be an endless cascade - I know of big, BIG names (some just as big as Batali) who are probably going to be called out, and I guarantee they're losing sleep at night. 

batali.jpeg

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On 12/12/2017 at 11:19 AM, Simul Parikh said:

Wonder if it's best to wait til people come forward and then take the hit, or to come out and apologize before the story comes out. Lot of names gonna get continue to get named. I'd be so anxious.. probably better to take ownership. 

This is a serious epidemic that seems to affect every industry and discipline. Who knew this behavior was so common?

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Ken Friedman - Accusations of Sexual Misconduct (TrelayneNYC)

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12 hours ago, Pool Boy said:

Pretty much every woman, past, present and future.

May I dare to add that the problem isn't adequately being addressed? 

The solution isn't exclusively to change the male-as-predator makeup; it's also to get women in positions of power.

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That's an extremely important part of solving this problem. How to make that happen has been a serious issues for centuries. Hopefully stories like this will help the process, and aid in women getting more leadership opportunities. 

On this specific example, if it's true, April Bloomfield let down many of her employees and I'll say it, her gender, by not sticking up for them and not taking Ken Friedman to task, or hell, reporting him to police. She has significant notoriety, is a major culinary voice of NYC, and would have been listened to. It's a failure on her part, if it's true. She could have started this whole thing years ago, rather than (possibly) be complicit in allowing it to happen. The idea that "these complaints didn't go through the proper channels" or "the employees didn't file formal complaints" are pretty weak when your employees are getting assaulted and there is a "rape room" upstairs. Oh my god. A rape room. W in T F'ity F!

On a side note- it's pretty impress that "new media" reported the Batali situation, and Buzzfeed is doing some really good journalism, too. Not just Top 38 restaurant lists and cat pictures these days. 

 

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21 hours ago, saf said:

Women.

The food and beverage (f&b) industry has sexual predators.  Maybe more than other industries maybe not.  I don’t know.   Some elements of the industry are purposefully sexual.  There is a lot of liquor there.  There are scum bags in the industry but that is also true elsewhere. 

I know the bar school has heard about sexual predators from grads who landed work at places that sent us leads for staff. That has been going on for years.  When we heard about it we stopped sending out leads on behalf of that employer.  (No we never reported it anywhere). We heard about other inappropriate things also. We just stopped sending out leads from those employers.  

Who knows best about it?  As @saf said above women in the industry have voluminous stories to tell.  There is nothing in the makeup of a chef that would make them immune to being abusive.

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On 12/14/2017 at 7:41 PM, DonRocks said:

My guess is that the mere threat of being outed by #MeToo is going to be a substantial deterrent going forward, just like the thought of getting a DUI has greatly reduced the number of impaired drivers.

I"m starting to think that maybe we should ENFORCE THE LAWS we have already on the books.

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