Rob Gentile is nearly to open West Hollywood’s “most enjoyable” new Italian restaurant.
Development is almost completed. The menu is being created. Within the area that used to deal with old-school Italian joint Madeo, Gentile shall be serving up Italian meals with an emphasis on native elements, together with specialties akin to Sicilian su filindeu pasta, along with his enterprise accomplice, Janet Zuccarini, a Canadian restaurateur.
However amid bulletins of its anticipated opening in early 2024, the most recent in a wave of flashy Italian eating places in L.A., The Instances obtained inner investigative paperwork from King Avenue Meals Firm, the Canadian restaurant group the place Gentile used to work, which present the pinnacle chef was discovered to have contributed to a hostile office at a high-end Toronto restaurant.
The paperwork, together with interviews, revealed the celebrated chef was fired from his final job as head chef of Toronto restaurant Buca and that, individually, outdoors counsel employed by the corporate discovered that he had engaged in office harassment and made sexually and racially demeaning feedback about employees members.
The signal for Stella went up this month on the area that used to deal with Madeo.
(Michael Blackshire / Los Angeles Instances)
“As a accomplice within the enterprise, [Gentile’s] position was to behave as a task mannequin and to curb disrespectful and harassing behaviour,” wrote the unbiased investigator, Lauren Bernardi, in a abstract of her findings. “As a substitute he engaged in it himself. The impression on particular person recipients and the tradition of the office as an entire can’t be overstated.”
The allegations in opposition to Gentile are simply the most recent to emerge within the Los Angeles meals scene. Final yr, fashionable American restaurant Horses was buffeted by accusations of animal abuse and cat killing by one of many head cooks, Will Aghajanian.
Different eating places akin to Jon & Vinny’s have been accused of withholding suggestions from staff, whereas Silver Lake staple Café Tropical shut down amid a fierce household authorized battle over cash.
The allegations in opposition to Gentile didn’t seem like critical sufficient to spur his accomplice Zuccarini to decelerate opening the restaurant or contemplate one other chef. Gentile admitted to a number of the offensive texts he despatched that got here up within the investigation, however denied that they had been consultant of his character or of his type of operating a kitchen.
“That’s not who I’m,” Gentile stated in an interview with The Instances. “Janet is aware of me. I used to be as truthful and sincere as I could possibly be.”
Gentile had not shared details about his unceremonious ouster from Buca with Zuccarini, she advised The Instances. Gentile was fired from the group in the course of the pandemic after his companions turned conscious that he was doing outdoors catering work regardless of his contract, he advised The Instances.
Nonetheless, Zuccarini stated she believed in giving individuals second possibilities and that she trusts Gentile to steer Stella.
“I’m a feminine proprietor of a restaurant group. I’ve been within the trade 28 years. I imagine it’s important to guard your repute along with your life,” she stated. “I perceive the tradition in kitchens. Particularly with males, and it may be very poisonous. As a feminine proprietor I’ve zero tolerance for any of this.”
Zuccarini added that the chef de delicacies of Stella is a lady.
King Avenue Meals Firm declined to touch upon the investigation or Gentile’s termination from the group. Zuccarini stated she spoke with the corporate and was knowledgeable that the investigation was not solely into Gentile, however was a broader inquiry into office tradition following a sexual harassment allegation in opposition to one other chef.
A Toronto Life article had cited critical monetary and office points at Buca, however a lot of the allegations within the article weren’t about Gentile, although it was reported that he demanded excellence whereas not hiring sufficient cooks to get the job executed. Gentile additionally admitted that he had realized lots about being a kitchen chief since he began at Buca and that his administration type had modified.
Gentile has labored in eating places since he was a baby, beginning as a dishwasher in a diner in Ontario, Canada, when he was 13. He went to culinary faculty and labored at a number of Toronto eating places earlier than turning into chef of Buca in 2009. Buca was ceaselessly featured on lists of Canada’s greatest eating places.
Zuccarini additionally opened Felix Trattoria in Venice, which is one in every of The Instances’ 101 Finest Eating places in L.A.
The allegations detailed within the paperwork reviewed by The Instances additionally described Gentile as crass, sending sexually and racially disrespectful messages to co-workers and to group chats that included co-workers.
Sarah Fiore, who would be the chef de delicacies at Stella, stated she started working with Rob Gentile in highschool, that he has all the time been a mentor for youthful cooks and he or she feels no points reuniting along with her former boss.
(Michael Blackshire / Los Angeles Instances)
In a “cooks” Instagram group chat, Gentile messaged employees members who reported to him a couple of picture of a tattooed girl in a bikini, in keeping with the investigative paperwork. Gentile speculated the lady was “drunk and excessive on coke” and made a crude reference to the lady having intercourse with a number of Black male companions, in keeping with the messages.
In a separate occasion, Gentile allegedly threatened one in every of his staff with crucifixion.
“If she doesn’t do that, I’m going to place her on a crucifix with nails in her fingers. I’m going to crucify her and cling her up there for everybody to see,” Gentile wrote, in keeping with the investigator.
Gentile denied sending the message, saying the investigator’s recitation was “embellished.”
In different messages reviewed by The Instances, Gentile threatened to choke and punch staff, which he initially denied to the unbiased investigator, in keeping with her report.
Sarah Fiore, who would be the chef de delicacies at Stella, stated she started working with Gentile in highschool and that he has all the time been a mentor for youthful cooks. She went on to work underneath Gentile at Buca in Toronto earlier than opening her personal restaurant.
Regardless of the allegations within the investigation, Fiore stated she feels no hesitation about reuniting along with her former boss.
“Rob was not a chef that promoted poisonous conduct in any respect. He didn’t stand for it. He’s not a malicious particular person. He all the time desires to offer assist to different cooks within the trade, not simply ones working with him,” Fiore advised The Instances. “Rob has spoken to me concerning the messages … He’s been remorseful of it and I don’t suppose they’re a mirrored image of him in any respect. I’ve watched him develop and alter.”
Nonetheless the investigator discovered that even throughout her interview with Gentile, the chef was not completely forthcoming.
“Rob initially denied making the above feedback together with claiming that the allegations he needed to punch somebody had been false and denying the Instagram posts regardless that such allegations had been simply provable,” the investigator wrote.
When confronted by the investigator with the messages, Gentile admitted to sending them.
“It’s not acceptable, I will provide you with that,” he advised the her, in keeping with her report. “I don’t even notice within the second that I’m writing these items to be sincere with you. Wanting again, it’s clearly unacceptable. It’s not okay. It’s my vocabulary and the best way it comes out, it’s not okay.”
