A Louisiana celebrity restaurateur whose TV appearances include Iron Chef, Tonight With Seth Meyers and even NCIS, has been accused of sexual assault and creating a ‘bro culture’ in his establishments.
In a discrimination filing, John Besh, 49, is accused of performing oral sex on a colleague after he ‘insisted [she] drink heavily’ and became ‘easily overwhelmed’ by him; he says they were in a consensual relationship.
And 24 other women have complained about a male-dominated culture in which they were harassed, groped, humiliated and mocked in both another filing and interviews with NOLA.com.
Celebrity chef John Besh (seen here in an episode of Tonight With Seth Meyers) has been accused of sexually assaulting one woman and creating a toxic environment in his restaurants
Besh owns or has a hand in more than 10 restaurants and bars in the New Orleans area, has made guest appearances on several shows, including the dramas NCIS: New Orleans and HBO’s Treme.
The accusation of sexual assault comes from an unnamed former employee of Besh’s in an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filing from December.
Besh is alleged to have pressured a woman into a relationship, during which he performed oral sex on her while she was blackout drunk. Besh says their relationship was consensual and denies all abuse claims
She alleges that she had a sexual relationship with him for months while working under him, and that he had ‘continued to attempt to coerce (her) to submit to his sexual overtures.’
In one instance, during a work trip to LA in the summer of 2015, she said, Besh ‘insisted’ that she down a great deal of alcohol before she retired to her hotel room.
Besh then arrived at her door and ‘immediately started to kiss and fondle’ her, she alleged in the filing, in which Besh was repeatedly referred to as ‘JBesh’.
She ‘was barely conscious, and easily overwhelmed by JBesh, who engaged in oral sex and fell asleep,’ the woman, who is not being named, alleged.
That incident, which occurred when she was 24, came around the beginning of what she described as a ‘long-term unwelcome sexual relationship’.
In a trip to New York in October 2015, the filing says, Besh pressured her into saying that she loved him, then insisted he stay at his hotel room.
‘From that time until at least May 2016, JBesh continued to expect [the claimant] to stay in his hotel room and engage in a sexual relationship,’ it said.
In May, the suit claimed, she tried to ‘disengage’ from her sexual relationship with Besh, after which Besh ‘asked [her] to help him find her “replacement.”‘
Octavio Mantilla, co-owner of the Best Restaurant Group, then asked her to sign a non-disclosure agreement for a ‘small sum of money’, the filing said.
When she tried to negotiate a larger amount, it alleged, he told her to get her lawyer to call his lawyer – and began to receive angry texts from a chef at the restaurant who accused her ‘of being disloyal to JBesh.’
Responding to the allegations, Besh characterized their relationship as a ‘consensual’ one that he had ‘thoughtlessly’ engaged in.
Besh (seen with Michelle Obama at an event in 2015) is also accused of making inappropriate comments to other women. Some 25 women say he or employees at his restaurants behaved inappropriately in one form or another
TV chef Anthony Bourdain printed part of a complaint filed against Besh’s group, saying it was ‘the beginning of the end of institutionalized Meathead Culture in the restaurant business’
‘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,’ he said.
‘I alone am entirely responsible for my moral failings. This is not the way the head of a company like ours should have acted, let alone a husband and father.’
He also said his company, Besh Restaurant Group, has an ‘unyielding commitment to treating everyone with respect and dignity, regardless of gender, race, age and sexual preference.’
But complaints from several women say that Besh oversaw a ‘bro culture’ at his businesses – and some of them say that it may have been influenced by his own actions.
He would say, “Hey, you want to see a picture of a baby’s arm?” And he’d show you and it would be his penis… [he also asked for my breast milk] because he wanted to drink it
An unnamed worker at one of Besh’s restaurants, talking about how a male colleague – not Besh – treated her
‘[Besh and Mantilla] had hit on basically every woman in the office who was young and pretty,’ said Lindsey Reynolds, who was the company’s social media manager for six months.
‘It was like Mad Men,’ added, who made the second of two EEOC filings against Besh Restaurant Group (BRG), which is now 12 years old.
She complained of ‘vulgar and offensive comments, aggressive un-welcomed touching and sexual advances were condoned and sometimes even encouraged by managers and supervisors’.
At one point, she said, Besh told her: ‘”Do you have any idea how pretty you are? I’m sure you get that all the time.”‘
‘I mean, what am I supposed to say to that?’ she asked.
Reynolds said she was harassed ‘virtually every day’ and left without recourse because the company didn’t ‘have a decent HR person,’ she claimed.
When asked for a response, Mantilla suggested that his reputation was enough to dismiss the claims. ‘I think people know me pretty well,’ he said.
He also said that he replied to her resignation letter, saying he was concerned about her complaints and asking for a meeting to discuss the details.
Besh denied that claims that he had harassed women.
Some women said that Besh fostered an environment in which men felt like they could harass them without fear of recrimination; his company has admitted its HR could have done more
He also said that she hadn’t complained about harassment until her resignation email, which read like a ‘manifesto,’ and questioned why – in the absence of HR people – she didn’t speak to one of the female managers.
‘These are talented women who wouldn’t stand for that c**p,’ he said of the women bosses.
But in total 25 women – some named, some who chose anonymity – have claimed that working at Besh’s restaurants was a deeply unpleasant experience.
Another complainant was Madie Robison, who was hired out of college, aged 22, to be a graphic designer at the company.
She said that there had been workdays scheduled at a senior employee’s pool, which she felt compelled to attend.
‘All pool days that I participated in involved drinking in our swimsuits and the male chefs/Octavio coming to visit us at the pool,’ she said.
The second time, she said, a chef began ‘talking about getting some naked massage. That was when I was like, “Ew, this is a little weird.”‘
Madie Robinson was hired when she was 22; she said scheduled pool sessions during workdays involved her sitting around in a swimsuit, drinking with other employees
On another occasion, she said Mantilla had introduced her to a group of men in business suits while she was still in her swimsuit, telling them she was ‘our design goddess’.
And she says that Mantilla touched her ‘excessively,’ saying ‘first it was your leg and then it was your lower back… In my mind, it always got a little worse.’
Another colleague told the paper that she had seen Mantilla touching Robison, but that Robison had said she didn’t complain because ‘I don’t want to embarrass him, he’s my boss.’
Mantilla said he didn’t remember the ‘goddess’ comment, and that the pool sessions were ‘constructive’, although he only attended one and left as soon he was done there.
He also said: ‘”I don’t remember touching [Robison] at all, not on intention or anything.’
Robison also said that she was the first person to hear of Besh sleeping with the allegedly drunk woman, saying the woman ‘sounded scared’ and couldn’t remember how Besh got into her room.
In pizza restaurant Domenica, a waitress who did not wish to be named said that in the two years she worked there she was sexually harassed by a male colleague.
‘He would say, “Hey, you want to see a picture of a baby’s arm?” And he’d show you and it would be his penis,’ she said.
She quit in 2015, just before her first child war born; she said the man had asked repeatedly for a sample of her breast milk ‘because he wanted to drink it.’
He’d always talk about anal sex with me or using toys on me or me being a ‘backdoor beauty’
Allison Consoli, waitress at Domenica, on the same unnamed male employee
Another waitress there, Allison Consoli, said she tried to file complaints about the same member of staff four times.
On a fifth occasion, she said, the management stood and watched him harass her to the point of tears.
‘He’d always talk about anal sex with me or using toys on me or me being a “backdoor beauty,” she said
‘It was along those lines, but I don’t remember exactly what he said. There were so many things, it’s hard to pinpoint exactly what it was that time.’
She said she was fired to an issue unrelated to the man. He was fired afterward. Chef Alon Shaya, who oversaw the restaurant, said he ‘was being inappropriate to some of the female servers. I recall making the decision to fire him with that manager.’
Shaya was also linked to alleged problems at the restaurant that bears his surname, which he opened in collaboration with Besh.
Chef Alon Shaya, who co-ran three restaurants in Besh’s group says he told Besh to get a HR system in place so complaints would be dealt with. Besh’s associate says Shaya’s just covering his back. Complaints have been leveled at Shaya’s management too, but he denies them
One line cook, who resigned from Shaya in January, said in her resignation letter: ‘While working as a line cook at Shaya, I heard daily “jokes” about rape, including one joke about pedophilia.
They ‘would call grapeseed oil “rapeseed” and use that as an opportunity to joke about rape,’ she said.
‘They also would say in a weird accent, “She run, but I always catch her.” A [male colleague] one time said a food item was “dryer than an eight-year-old.”‘
They would call grapeseed oil ‘rapeseed’ and use that as an opportunity to joke about rape
An unnamed female line cook on male colleagues’ ‘humor’ at Shaya
That cook didn’t want to be named for fear of hurting future job prospects; one of her colleagues there, line cook Elizabeth Campbell, said she also heard such remarks.
Mostly, she said, she ignored them as part of the environment, but after 13 months she was found crying at work, and fired.
She claimed that as he terminated her contract, Shaya told her: ‘It’s really a shame, because you’re talented, but you have to not cry at work. You really have to be stronger and don’t let your environment get to you.’
Campbell mused: ‘It bothered me, because it was an environment that he created.’
Shaya provided NOLA with documentation showing that disciplinary action had been taken against the man who showed photographs of his penis, and said he ‘regretted’ that she had still quit.
‘I’m not trying to minimize anybody’s complaints or concerns,’ he added.
He also said that ‘we worked to help [Campbell] with her situation’ but her crying was ‘disrupting the customer experience in the restaurant.’
Shaya, who was chef at Domenica, Pizza Domenica and Shaya, himself pointed fingers at Besh and Mantilla during NOLA’s eight-month investigation.
In an August meeting with a reporter for the site, he said that he had asked for a proper HR company to be set up on ‘multiple’ occasions since 2014, and that ‘they said no’.
He also said that the three restaurants he oversaw were mostly independently operated from Besh’s group, and that inappropriate behavior was ‘not tolerated, not one bit’.
A male colleague one time said a foot item was ‘dryer than an eight-year-old’
The Shaya employee recounts another of her colleagues’ ‘jokes’
Shaya was fired from all three in September; in October he told a reporter that he thought he was fired ‘for talking … and for standing up’.
‘Alon never requested an HR Department, let alone on multiple occasions,’ Raymond Landry, general counsel for Besh and BRG, said.
Mantilla said that the reasons for his firing were complex, and added: ‘I think [Shaya] saw this article was hurting him, and he wanted to distance himself.’
Issues were reported at restaurants outside of Shaya’s control. Meghan Wright was a server at Franco-German brasserie Lüke; she said her ‘banter’ with two male co-workers spiraled into them ‘grabbing’ her.
Besh runs a string of restaurants in the New Orleans area, and is a local celebrity. He denies all claims of abuse and harassment made against him
She complained but it was shrugged off because management thought they were good at their jobs – and when they found out, their behavior got worse, she said.
‘The guys were like, “We know what you said, you better watch your back,”‘ she said.
‘It got to the point where my boyfriend had to drop me off and pick me up at work. Like literally drop me off and pick me up at the door.’
Further complaints went nowhere and a request for a transfer to another restaurant was refused and she was told she would be placed on a schedule that kept her apart from them, she alleged.
The rescheduling never happened, she added.
In a statement from its general counsel, Landry said Besh Restaurant Group had only just learned that women at the company were concerned about a lack of a ‘a clear mechanism’ to voice concerns.
‘I want to assure all of our employees that if even a single person feels this way, it is one person too many and that ends now,’ he continued.
The guys were like, ‘We know what you said, you better watch your back.’ It got to the point where my boyfriend had to drop me off and pick me up at work. Like literally drop me off and pick me up at the door
Meghan Wright, a server at Lüke, on threats she faced after she tried to report male employees groping her
He said that the company had ‘a complaint procedure in place that complies with all existing laws’ but that they ‘needed to do more’ and that they had ‘revamped our training, education and procedures accordingly.’
Landry added that ‘we believe going forward that everyone at our company will be fully aware of the clear procedures that are now in place to safeguard against anyone feeling that his or her concerns will not be heard and addressed free from retaliation.’
Speaking to NOLA.com, Mantill and Besh said that they had struggled with these issues due to the company’s quick growth, particularly since 2015.
‘Prior to that, probably no one [at BRG] could make a move without me, without me knowing about it,” Mantilla said. ‘That has changed because we grew so quickly.’
A BRG spokesman also stressed that around 60 of the company’s 140 managers are women, and that ‘In addition, 15 women hold senior executive positions as general managers, heads of departments, Chief Operations Officer, or owner/partner.’