The walls are coming down, and women nationwide are coming forward with stories of sexual misconduct, harassment, and rape coming from powerful male figures such as Harvey Weinstein, Louis C.K., Brett Ratner, Roy Moore, and now,
celebrity chef John Besh.Besh left his company after 25 women — all current and former employees —
said they were victims of sexual harassment while working for the Besh Restaurant Group.
In one complaint, an employee alleges, “I, and other similarly situated females, were harassed, sexually harassed, and verbally assaulted almost every day,” with “un-welcomed touching and sexual advances” that were “condoned and sometimes encouraged by managers and supervisors.”
Celebrity chef Tom Colicchio, who has been the head judge on every season of Bravo's reality TV show Top Chef,
penned an open letter to male chefs, in which he said, "
This isn’t just a matter of a few bad eggs and we all know it. For every John Besh splashed across Page Six, we can assume hundreds, if not thousands, more with kitchens just like the ones his female employees described."
Colicchio's letter is powerful, and we want to urge him to take his advocacy for women a step further.
Please sign this petition to ask Top Chef to film a webisode highlighting sexual harassment in the restaurant industry. The new season of Top Chef premieres in December. The more outlets we can utilize to blow the lid off of harassment in the industry, the better.
Please sign to urge Top Chef to help raise awareness of this issue!