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OAKLAND — A star chef who stepped away from his popular Oakland restaurants last month following shocking allegations of workplace sexual harassment faced renewed calls Tuesday for him to divest from his company, with nine former employees saying his six-month leave of absence isn’t punishment enough.
The women, some holding hands and others with tears in their eyes, detailed years of harassment by Charlie Hallowell, a prominent figure in the Bay Area restaurant scene, first at Chez Panisse in the late 1990s before later opening Pizzaiolo, Boot & Shoe Service and Penrose.
In the wake of allegations against top Hollywood executives, media personalities and other powerful men, the women and their civil rights attorney on Tuesday morning said the restaurant industry, too, is rife with inappropriate behavior against female workers.
“I have been charged to help stop the silence,” said attorney Mika Hilaire. “The restaurant industry has been fraught with gender bias and harassment for quite some time. We are hoping that this case not only helps the current employees but also helps the restaurant industry as a whole and America as we continue to have this dialogue about how women are treated in the workplace.”
Later Tuesday, an attorney representing Hallowell held a separate news conference and said after a four-week investigation the chef is taking an unpaid, half-year leave of absence from his company.
Hallowell, 44, stepped away from the restaurants in December after 17 former employees came forward with stories of an abusive work environment. The employees said the chef regularly talked explicitly about his sex life, made inappropriate comparisons between female anatomy and food, and openly discussed his attraction to pregnant women, including to one employee who was pregnant at the time.
The San Francisco Chronicle first published their accounts, and three of the former employees later confirmed the accounts in interviews with this newspaper.
The allegations drew outrage from the Bay Area’s restaurant scene. A handful of managers at Hallowell’s restaurants quit in protest, and regularly picketed outside the Grand Avenue businesses. In an “open letter” shared with the Bay Area News Group last month, Hallowell said he “takes full responsibility” for his actions and admitted that his “unfiltered” and “completely inappropriate” behavior had created “an uncomfortable workplace for women.”
Sydni Skorich, a former server at Boot & Shoe and one of three former employees who spoke out Tuesday, said in Hallowell’s restaurant “to survive was to avoid him.”
“We escaped into other rooms when he entered the restaurant, warned new female hires about his handsy ways and confided in each other,” she said.
Jessica Moncada, a former bartender at Boot & Shoe who was one of the first women to publicly denounce Hallowell’s behavior, said she was coming forward to protect other women, including her three younger sisters. Moncada has said the chef made crude comments about food and sex, even after she confronted him about it.
“Please know this process has been terrifying, invasive and time consuming,” she said. “There have been attempts to bully and smear us but we will not be intimidated. This is not about a moment in the spotlight but one we recognize as an opportunity and duty to participate in a movement that started long before us.”
So far, attorney Hilaire is representing close to 12 victims but said she expects dozens more to come forward. The attorney said the case is not a “he-said, she said” in that numerous women have made accusations against Hallowell. However, Hilaire would not discuss whether she plans to file a lawsuit if the restaurant’s owners do not give in to the former employees’ demands.
At the later news conference, Yasmeen Omidi, an attorney representing the chef, said the restaurant group decided on at least a six-month unpaid leave of absence for Hallowell after a four-week investigation by outside attorney Maureen Bogue, who interviewed 55 of his 150 employees.
Omidi would not reveal the results of the investigation, but did say the restaurants are hiring a new female chief operating officer who will take control of the three eateries.
Hallowell will give up part of his stake in the company to the new COO but retain part ownership, Omidi said. If he does return, Omidi said, he will not serve as a manager but rather focus on the “creative” side of his restaurant empire.
The company is also working with a consultant on sexual harassment training and updating company policies. Hallowell will also participate in a restorative justice process, she said.
“These restaurants are his life work. He is walking out of them,” Omidi said. “This is not to diminish any pain that any employee has experienced or felt in this process but what Charlie is doing is also a difficult process. I think it’s one that should be encouraged because it’s one that goes to repair(ing)” what’s occurred.
