What To Do About Sexual Harassment In Restaurants

In the wake of the sexual misconduct allegations against Mario Batali, the chef has stepped away from his restaurant empire, is no longer a host on The Chew and has had all his products removed from Eataly locations across the country. In addition, Food Network has also canceled its anticipated reboot of Molto Mario.

And while many are calling for more action, including a boycott of Batali's restaurants, chef José Andrés Tweeted yesterday that doing so would be the exact opposite of solving the restaurant industry's sexual harassment problem. "We will actually punish the people we are supposed to be supporting," he says—namely the hourly paid men and women working in both the front and back of the house.

Even our common sense and logic will tell us to do so, Nobody should boycott any restaurants because leadership or ownership SH issues. We will actually punish the people we are supposed to be supporting.....hourly paid men and women, front and back, specially women... https://t.co/SXNfE5nLOV

— Chef José Andrés 🕊️🥘🍳 (@chefjoseandres) December 13, 2017

Andrés's Tweet has received mixed responses on social media, especially in the light of NYC power restaurateur Ken Friedman's history of aggressive sexual harassment that was revealed yesterday in The New York Times.

Do you agree with José Andrés? Let us know in the comments.