Geoffrey Zakarian, the famous chef/restaurateur whom you may recall from TV's Chopped, is filing for bankruptcy, the Times reports in a sensational article that details a million dollar class action lawsuit against the chef, filed by some 152 disgruntled kitchen staffers. Zakarian runs The Lambs Club and The National in NYC, as well as the food and beverage program at the Water Club at the Borgata in Atlantic City; he's also opening another restaurant at a Miami Beach hotel, and starring in the Next Iron Chef. And yes, he's filing for bankruptcy, presumably so the workers he allegedly screwed out of overtime pay can't bleed him dry.
The 152 plaintiffs were all employees at Zakarian's failed restaurant Country, near Madison Square Park. They say he never paid them time and a half for overtime, falsified pay records, and charged them for staff meals they never even ate. The lawsuit seeks $1 million in damages and $250,000 in penalties, but Zakarian's bankruptcy filing temporarily stops the lawsuit in its tracks. "Isn’t it interesting that a TV celebrity chef, who opens multiple new restaurants around the country, can file for bankruptcy?" the workers' lawyer asks the Times. Yes, it is interesting!
Zakarian, who is "sequestered" in LA shooting Next Iron Chef, denies any wrongdoing. But what's interesting about this lawsuit is that his former partners at Country have sided with the workers; one of them, Adam Block, tells the Times, "I know that Geoffrey Zakarian’s narcissistic behavior and arrogance caused Country to fail and inevitably allowed whatever wage and hour violations occurred while he was Country’s operator." According to the lawsuit, when one worker confronted Zakarian about the overtime pay he was owed, Zakarian—who rents a $3 million four-bedroom house in Greenwich, Connecticut—told him, "Go peel some asparagus."
