As season 18 of Top Chef came to a close, with Texas-based Chef Gabe Erales winning the top prize of $250K, viewers of the popular cooking competition raised a red flag about Erales being fired as executive chef from Comedor, an upscale Mexican restaurant and fixture in the Austin dining scene. The co-owners simply stated that he was terminated for misconduct but did not elaborate.
Lakshmi felt it was necessary to weigh in on the controversy, stating that as the victim of sexual harassment, she is particularly sensitive to this allegation against Erales. However, she defended herself and the show, claiming that she was unaware of the allegations against Erales. She also said that during the filming of the show with Gabe, there was no indication of any inappropriate behavior.
The Austin Chronicle reported in 2020 that the co-owners of Comedor, Philip Speer and William Ball, announced via email that Erales was no longer with the restaurant. Their statement read, "Effective immediately, Comedor Executive Chef Gabe Erales is no longer with the restaurant due to repeated violation of our policies and for behavior in conflict with our values.” So, there is a lot to unpack here. First and foremost, the co-owners have been specifically vague about exactly what were the violations, mostly because of any desire to avoid legal exposure if Gabe’s termination goes to court. Did he sexually harass a fellow employee? Or did he buy Camarones at a discount and pocket the difference?
Gabe was terminated on Dec. 15, 2020, and Top Chef was filmed in September and October of 2020, putting the timeline in Lakshmi’s and the show’s producers’ favor. However, a lot of time passed between the report of Gabe’s firing and the show’s first episode airing on Bravo on April 1, 2021. Surely, the network and producers must have known about allegations before the airing of the show. If they did indeed know about the firing, should they have canned the whole season because of it? That would certainly be a costly move by the network.
Like the co-owners of Comedor, Lakshmi is metering her every word regarding this matter, on the one hand showing no tolerance for misconduct, but on the other hand, being diplomatic, “This should be investigated & the network should consider its best action.”
Source: Padma Lakshmi, The Austin Chronicle
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