Besh Restaurant Group fosters environment of sexual harrassment
October 23, 2017 7:40 AM Subscribe
The John Besh Restuarant Group (BRG) and Besh himself, a married father of four, have been accused of sexual harassment by 25 current and former employees. Brett Anderson, restaurant critic for nola.com/The Times-Picayune, published this report on Saturday, October 21. It is the result of an 8 month investigation and includes several descriptions of sexual harassment by Besh and his BRG partner Octavio Mantilla.
Two women have filed EEOC complaints for sexual discrimination and retaliation. BRG did not have a human resources department until October 11, 2017, so women had no recourse for protection from the "bro-culture" that pervaded the restaurant empire's corporate office, kitchens, and dining rooms. As of yesterday, Harrah's New Orleans casino, host of Besh Steak, has severed ties (Todd Price, nola.com) as a result of the allegations.
In addition to the sexual harassment allegations, Besh is embroiled in a nasty trademark dispute (Todd Price, nola.com) with his former partner and multiple James Beard Award winning chef Alon Shaya. Besh and Shaya have worked together since 2003. Shaya opened his first restaurant, Domenica, in partnership with Besh in 2009. He went on to open a more casual location of Domenica in 2014 and his namesake Restaurant Shaya in 2015. Shaya was awarded Best New Restaurant in the U.S. by the James Beard Foundation that year.
If you've visited or live in New Orleans, chances are you've eaten at a John Besh restaurant. If you haven't, you might have seen him on television or own one of his four cookbooks.
Two women have filed EEOC complaints for sexual discrimination and retaliation. BRG did not have a human resources department until October 11, 2017, so women had no recourse for protection from the "bro-culture" that pervaded the restaurant empire's corporate office, kitchens, and dining rooms. As of yesterday, Harrah's New Orleans casino, host of Besh Steak, has severed ties (Todd Price, nola.com) as a result of the allegations.
In addition to the sexual harassment allegations, Besh is embroiled in a nasty trademark dispute (Todd Price, nola.com) with his former partner and multiple James Beard Award winning chef Alon Shaya. Besh and Shaya have worked together since 2003. Shaya opened his first restaurant, Domenica, in partnership with Besh in 2009. He went on to open a more casual location of Domenica in 2014 and his namesake Restaurant Shaya in 2015. Shaya was awarded Best New Restaurant in the U.S. by the James Beard Foundation that year.
If you've visited or live in New Orleans, chances are you've eaten at a John Besh restaurant. If you haven't, you might have seen him on television or own one of his four cookbooks.
This post was deleted for the following reason: Heya, nothing wrong with seeing this as post-worthy, but we've had sort of a storm of sexual harassment-related posts the last week, to the point where it's getting kinda overwhelming, so we're suggesting folks consolidate this stuff in one of the existing threads where folks have been discussion sexual harassment. -- cortex
« Older The Taylor Compressor | "Displacement is not beautiful": Vancouver and... Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by Kutsuwamushi at 7:43 AM on October 23, 2017