Chef Report

Homeless Philadelphians, Chef Foo may soon be teaching you the finer points of cooking.

Thanks to a deal reached with prosecutors, Susanna Foo, a nationally acclaimed chef and restaurateur, is to teach cooking to the city’s poor and homeless instead of facing trial for allegedly striking a Parking Authority ticket writer.

Foo, 63, of Villanova, was to have had a hearing yesterday in Municipal Court on assault charges arising from the Sept. 29 incident. Instead, prosecution and defense attorneys told Judge Francis Cosgrove that they had agreed to drop a simple-assault charge if Foo stays out of trouble for six months and devotes 50 hours to community service.

She will perform that community service for Project HOME, whose cofounder, Sister Mary Scullion, said she was excited to learn of the idea yesterday from the law firm defending Foo. “We have different programs that could utilize her expertise,” Sister Mary said in a telephone interview. “She’s such a phenomenal restaurant person.” more…

Follow up to this story

Fiance: Officer Miscarries After Fight With Chef

Susanna Foo’s alleged victim has miscarriage

JACKSON TOWNSHIP, N.J. (AP) — An Ocean County woman who police say tried to poison her live-in sister and her sister’s boyfriend by putting rat poison in their sandwiches has been charged with two counts of attempted murder.

Dana Simons, 43, was arrested Friday after her sister called police to report finding rat poison pellets in the couple’s sandwiches on two separate occasions.

The sister, 51, and boyfriend, 50, did not eat the sandwiches and were unharmed.
The first time Simons’ sister noticed something odd was earlier in the week, when Simons brought home sandwiches for the couple that appeared to have a blue-green pellets mixed in with the chicken. more…

BAGHDAD, Oct. 9 — Hundreds of Iraqi army and police officers became violently ill after breaking their Ramadan fast Sunday evening at a base in southern Iraq, in what authorities are investigating as a possible mass poisoning attack.

At least 10 people died and 1,200 were sickened at a base in Numaniyah after eating a chicken dinner that may have been laced with cyanide, according to recruits and an army colonel with knowledge of the investigation. He said the food was undergoing laboratory tests.

Brig. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, a spokesman for the Iraqi armed forces, said the head of the base’s mess hall and several other employees there had been arrested. But he said that only 350 to 400 people fell ill, that four had to be treated at a hospital and that none died. more…

A parking authority officer allegedly attacked by a celebrity chef has miscarried, says the officer’s fiance.Parking authority officer Juanita Lewis is recovering in her West Philadelphia home. In Monday, NBC 10 spoke with her fiance, Phillip Rhedrick.”She’s not doing good emotionally. Devastated. Shocked. Terrified. She’s under a lot of pressure,” said Phillip Rhedrick.Rhedrick says Lewis is having a tough time. Since Friday, the parking authority officer has been recuperating from what police are calling a beating by Susanna Lan, also known as Susanna Foo. Foo was later arrested by police.Rhedrick also told NBC 10 over the weekend that Lewis, a mother of five children, was two months pregnant and miscarried after the confrontation.Witnesses tell police that Lewis was issuing a parking ticket to a deliveryman outside Foo’s restaurant near 15th and Walnut when Foo started swinging.Rhedrick says Lewis had not had any problems with her pregnancy before she was attackedNow, the couple has hired an attorney. more…

Video 

A chef at a restaurant in the Westin Copley Place hotel pleaded not guilty to a murder charge this morning after prosecutors and police said he stabbed a bartender Friday night during an argument at work.

The chef, Ivan Sosa, 37, appeared in Boston Municipal Court this morning in a white jumpsuit. He kept his head bowed and said little during the brief proceeding as his mother and sister looked on. A judge ordered the Dorchester man held without bail until his next court appearance scheduled for Oct. 17.

More than 50 friends and relatives of the victim, Carlos E. Borrero, Jr., 30, packed the courtroom. Borrero’s mother and wife were overcome by grief during and had to be carried outside.

According to police and prosecutors, Sosa and Borrero got into an argument early Friday night at Turner Fisheries, the hotel’s popular seafood restaurant. The pair tussled in an employee-only area and then police say Sosa grabbed a knife. He is charged with stabbing Borrero four times, including once in the chest, which punctured his lung and heart.

Police responded to a report of a stabbing at 4:27 p.m. at the Back Bay hotel and found a Borrero bleeding from a knife wound. more…

Philadelphia police are taking a closer look at restaurateur Susanna Foo’s alleged assault of a Philadelphia Parking Authority employee because the alleged victim suffered a miscarriage over the weekend.

Juanita Lewis, 38, was seven weeks pregnant and writing a ticket when the confrontation occurred next to Foo’s Center City restaurant Friday afternoon, according to Phil Rhedrick, who identified himself as Lewis’ boyfriend.

Though Rhedrick was not at the scene, he described Foo as “real violent, punching, kicking, scratching… She was just outraged.” Lewis, he said, “tried to ward her off.”

The police report of the incident says the 63-year-old Foo - arrested under the name Susanna S. Lan - struck Lewis in the stomach and the face with an open hand after seeing Lewis ticket a van making a delivery to her restaurant. Foo was arrested and spent the night in a holding cell before she was released on her own recognizance Saturday morning.

Thomas J. Bader, an assistant professor of clinical obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, said direct trauma was unlikely to cause a miscarriage so early in a pregnancy. It is later - when the uterus has expanded with the fetus - that direct trauma could seriously injure the baby, he said. more…

Susanna Foo

(AP) A waitress filed a $20 million lawsuit Wednesday against a high-end Japanese restaurant in one of the city’s trendiest areas, claiming its head cook groped her, molested her with kitchen utensils and sexually harassed her.

Satomi Southward, 31, of Fukuoka, Japan, said that from January 2005 into spring she worked without incident at the Megu restaurant, in Manhattan’s TriBeCa area, but in the following months became the victim of sexual “ridicule and insult.”

“I felt very miserable,” Southward, who worked at Megu for 15 months, said during a telephone interview. “I felt I don’t deserve this. I had low self-esteem (because of the harassment) and was unconfident about myself.”

The divorced, single mother of a 2-year-old boy says in court papers she was a waitress in Seattle when Megu’s head chef, Mitsuo Endo, invited her to work at his restaurant.

In papers filed in Manhattan’s state Supreme Court, Southward says that starting in the spring of 2005, Endo began “to degrade, humiliate and intimidate (her) by continually touching Southward’s breasts, buttocks, thighs and hips with his own hands or with various kitchen utensils.” more…

BOISE, Idaho (Reuters) - A 2-year-old boy who drank a spinach shake died from E. coli in a case that is likely related to the U.S. health scare around spinach, a health official said on Friday.

Kyle Allgood, of Chubbuck in the heart of Idaho’s potato country, died on Wednesday night at a hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah, said Ross Mason, a spokesman for the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare.

“His mother or someone in the house made him a spinach smoothie,” Mason said.

“It’s pretty likely that he died of E. coli,” he said.

The outbreak of E. coli had killed one person and made at least 157 ill. Farmers have stopped harvesting their spinach crops and supermarkets are no longer selling the vegetable traditionally known as a healthy food as investigators seek to find the source of the problem.

It was not clear if the child had eaten the spinach before or after officials warned against eating fresh spinach, Mason said. more…

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - A grand jury will decide whether country singer Hank Williams Jr. will stand trial on misdemeanor assault charges filed after a cocktail waitress said he yelled obscenities and choked her at a local hotel.

Criminal Court Judge Gwen Rooks ruled Monday that probable cause was established and bound the case over to a Shelby County grand jury.

The waitress, Holly Hornbeak, testified that she had red marks and bruising on her neck and that she was hoarse the next day.

A private attorney hired by her parents demanded $250,000 from Williams two days later, but Hornbeak denied that the case was being driven by money.

“It was a serious attack and this is not something you take lightly,” said Hornbeak, who was 19 when the incident allegedly occurred in the Peabody hotel’s lobby bar March 18.

Afterward, she said, Williams’ publicist, Kirt Webster, gave her his phone number and offered her tickets to a Williams concert that weekend.

Williams, 57, who lives in Paris, Tenn., remains free on his own recognizance. Assault carries up to 11 months and 29 days in jail and a fine of up to $2,500.

Williams sat quietly as his attorney, Leslie Ballin, sought to portray the incident as “a hijacking” rather than as an assault.

“She didn’t go to a doctor, she didn’t take pictures of these alleged red marks and bruises. C’mon now,” Ballin said later as Williams stood at his side smiling. “Talking about victims? I’m representing one here. This is an attempt at a financial hijacking. There was no assault.”

Williams would not comment on the case. more…

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A grand jury will decide whether country singer Hank Williams Jr. will stand trial on misdemeanor assault charges filed after a cocktail waitress said he yelled obscenities and choked her at a local hotel.

They had worked together for a half-dozen years in the posh hotel restaurant in the Back Bay. But after they argued last Friday afternoon, Ivan Lorenzo-Sosa , 37, assaulted his longtime co-worker, then fatally stabbed him, a prosecutor said yesterday.

Carlos E. Borrero Jr. , 30, the father of an 8-year-old boy, was stabbed in the chest, hand, thigh, and bicep, said Cory Flashner , a Suffolk assistant district attorney. The wound that killed him punctured his lung and heart, Flashner said yesterday in Boston Municipal Court, where Lorenzo-Sosa was arraigned on charges of murder.

Borrero was a bartender and Lorenzo-Sosa a cook at Turner Fisheries , the hotel restaurant. Prosecutors said the motive behind the stabbing and the nature of the argument remained under investigation.

Flashner said a video camera inside the Westin Copley Place , where the men were fighting about 4:30 p.m., caught part of the confrontation , though not the actual stabbing.

“The incident ended when co-workers restrained” Lorenzo-Sosa, he said.

During the arraignment, some among the dozens of Borrero’s relatives and friends stared at Lorenzo-Sosa, who wore a white jumpsuit and kept his head lowered. As his mother and sister sat expressionless behind him, Lorenzo-Sosa was ordered held without bail. A not guilty plea was entered on his behalf. more…

Police say cook killed co-worker at Westin

A confrontation in an employee area of a popular seafood restaurant in Copley Square led to homicide when a cook fatally stabbed a co-worker, bringing the Friday night dinner rush to a crashing halt, police said.

Potential patrons and curious passersby gathered last night near the suddenly off-limits Turner Fisheries at Copley Place where a sign read: “Closed until further notice.”

“I’m honestly in shock; I can’t believe it,” said Amber Mann, who had brought her boyfriend to Turner Fisheries for his 19th birthday dinner.

Boston police said officers received a 911 call at 4:27 p.m. indicating someone had been stabbed at the Westin Copley Place hotel, which houses Turner Fisheries.

Police arrived to find a 30-year-old male suffering from grievous knife wounds. He was rushed to Boston Medical Center.

“He has since died,” said Deputy Police Superintendent Daniel Coleman about two hours later. The stabbing occurred in a restricted area for employees in the hotel and restaurant complex, he said.

The suspect, Ivan Sosa, 37, of Dorchester, was arrested and charged with murder, police said.

According to a police official with knowledge of the investigation, the suspect was a cook and the victim a co-worker. Police would not release the victim’s name. more…

CHICAGO — Don’t come between foodies and their foie gras.

That was the message sent by Chicago diners who dug into foie gras dishes Monday, on the eve of the city’s ban on foie gras. High-end restaurants had special foie gras tastings to protest the ban, and even a few down-home sandwich and pizza joints added it to their menus for the occasion.

At the 676 Restaurant & Bar on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile, chef Robert Gadsby topped foie gras with Pop Rocks candies, wrapped it in prosciutto, and blended it into hot chocolate as part of an “Outlaw Dinner” that also featured such controversial ingredients as wild morels, absinthe, unpasteurized imported cheese, and hemp seeds. While the seven-course, $140 dinner was completely legal, all the ingredients have been banned at some point.

Gadsby called the foie gras ban ridiculous.

“What’s next?” asked Gadsby, who also hosted an Outlaw Dinner last month at his Noe Restaurant & Bar in Los Angeles, where foie gras will be subject to a statewide ban by 2012. “They’ll outlaw truffles, then lobster, beluga caviar, oysters. There are diners who eat to fill a hunger urge, and there are diners who eat to be dazzled. If you take away the luxury ingredients, how can you dazzle them?”

(CBS/AP) NEW YORK A waiter at a trendy brasserie linked to celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain was charged with stealing credit card information from customers.

Dennis Szyller is accused of using the information to make 12-thosuand dollars in unauthorized purchases.

The district attorney’s office says the customers dined at Les Halles in Manhattan between May, June or July. more…

CLARKSTON, Ga. A bride wounded when a man opened fire on a crowded wedding party at an Ethiopian restaurant says she did NOT know the shooter.

Twenty-five-year-old Mahehelosh Mangesto says she and her new husband were dancing near the stage at Ledet in Clarkston Sunday night when — quote — “The guy came out of nowhere and started shooting us.”She tells The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in an interview yesterday that she is glad she wasn’t killed.DeKalb County police charged 37-year-old Debebe Abebe yesterday in the shooting. The suspect fled in a car a short distance before police caught him.Witnesses say the gunman shot the groom — 33-year-old Samson Abraham — in the back and the bride in the calf. The two had been invited by the restaurant owner for a champagne toast to celebrate their wedding.A spokeswoman for Grady Memorial Hospital — Denise Simpson — says Abraham and a friend of the bride — 30-year-old Ashelash Gezaie — remain hospitalized. They were both listed in stable condition yesterday.The bride and two other men injured in the shooting were treated at a hospital and released. more…

A chef from a ritzy Manhattan hotel was discovered naked and strangled in the living room of his Westchester County home, authorities said yesterday.David Webb, 44, had just returned home from an eight-hour shift at the tony Benjamin Hotel and was preparing to take a shower when he answered the door wearing only a towel after 1 a.m. Monday, cops said.

A housemate found Webb, known for his love of music and extravagant clothing, dead on the floor. An autopsy later ruled the death a homicide.

Since Webb’s strangulation bore a resemblance to Tuesday’s mysterious slaying of Martin Barreto, a former press aide to Mayor Rudy Giuliani, New Rochelle police have contacted the NYPD.

“We’ve been in contact with New York City about similarities in the cases, but, as of now, we have no other concrete similarities,” said New Rochelle Detective Lt. Christopher Hearle. more…

With Chicago’s ban on foie gras taking effect in less than two weeks, restaurants are holding farewell feasts and plotting a legal challenge to the law.Some are even planning to flout the spirit — and possibly the letter — of the law by giving away the pricey duck livers and charging an exorbitant price for the accompanying garnishes, the Chicago Tribune reports.

“My guests like it, they expect it to be on my menu and it’s going to continue to be,” said Michael Tsonton of Copperblue Restaurant. “If we’re the first ones to be hauled off to jail, so be it.” more…

Celebrity chef GORDON RAMSAY has been slammed by road safety campaigners for driving without wearing a seat belt.
In a scene for his British TV show THE F WORD, which has already been screened, Ramsay can be seen warning some female passengers, “Seat belts on please, ladies.” However, the chef doesn’t take his own advice and drives off without fastening his own seat belt, much to the annoyance of road safety campaigners. more…

Celebrity chef Kylie Kwong blamed a single glass of white wine for landing her in a Sydney court today.It cost her $750 and the loss of her driving licence for three months.

The chef and author, who fronted the ABC TV cooking series Kylie Kwong: Heart and Soul, had downed the drink at her Paddington home four hours before police pulled her over in Surry Hills last year, the court heard.

But the 35-year-old, who has prepared countless meals for diners at her popular Billy Kwong restaurant and before that as head chef of the acclaimed Wockpool, said she had not eaten all day.

She returned a blood alcohol reading of 0.07.

Kwong pleaded guilty in the Downing Centre Local Court today to low-range drink driving over the incident on November 30. more…

A 21-year-old woman represented by a Newport Beach law firm has won a $3.25-million jury verdict in a food poisoning case against a Dana Point restaurant.

An Orange County Superior Court judge has yet to rule on the verdict, which was handed down July 11.

Alexis Sarti, of San Clemente, suffered a rare form of food poisoning after eating an ahi tuna appetizer at the Salt Creek Grille. Bremer, Whyte, Brown & O’Meara LLP represented Sarti in the lawsuit.

Tim McCune, president and co-founder of Salt Creek Ltd., which runs the restaurant, said he and co-founder Pete Truxaw are appealing the jury’s verdict.

Also…

O.C. restaurant hit with $3.2 million verdict

A San Clemente woman left with permanent nerve damage after eating an Ahi tuna appetizer at Salt Creek Grille was awarded $3.2 million by an Orange County jury.

The Dana Point eatery plans to appeal the July 11 verdict for Alexis Sarti, 22. She sued the 10-year-old Craftsman-style eatery after a near fatal incident stemming from “cross contamination” of her raw fish with campylobacter jejuni, bacteria found in raw poultry.

The bacteria attacked her nervous system, causing temporary double vision and paralysis from head to toe after the April, 2005 incident, according to the lawsuit she filed last year.

A jury ordered Salt Creek to pay her $3.2 million in damages, considered one of the largest punitive fines levied against a California restaurant in a case involving this specific bacteria, said Sarti’s Newport Beach attorneys Keith Bremer and Tyler Offenhauser.

TAMPA, Fla. — A six-member jury found restaurant owner Lawrence Storer not guilty of manslaughter Thursday for running over and killing a man who robbed him. more…

A bar waitress checking to see if a customer was legally old enough to drink looked down to see a familiar photo.

It was her own.

The 22-year-old waitress, whose name was not released, called police last week and said she had been handed her own stolen driver’s license by a woman trying to prove she was 21.

The woman, who became suspicious of the delay as the waitress went to call police, fled the Moosehead Saloon, but her companion provided her name.

Maria Bergan, 23, of Lakewood, was charged Sunday night with identity theft and receiving stolen property. She was arrested at her home in suburban Cleveland. more…

Maria Bergan

Tampa, Florida – Jurors are now decided victim or vigilante in the the trial of a restaurant owner charged with killing a robber..

A restaurant owner charged with killing a robber took the stand in his own defense today.

Lawrence Storer is on trial for manslaughter, after he chased and ran over his armed attacker, Shantavious Wilson.

Storer’s entire defense rests on his shoulders now. A blow to his case came this morning when his lawyers tried to introduce a witness who was also robbed by Wilson in 1998, but the judge ruled the woman could not testify, due to legal reasons.

Now Storer’s own words could make or break him.

When asked if he knew Wilson’s weapon was only a pellet gun, Storer replied, “It looked real to me.” more…

A Tokyo restaurant employee threw boiling water over an armed robber early Monday, forcing him to flee the scene empty-handed, police said.

At about 3:40 a.m. on Monday, a man broke into the Bamiyan restaurant in Itabashi-ku, threatened a 43-year-old female part-timer with a knife and attempted to steal money, local police said.

However, another employee who was in the kitchen filled a bowl with boiling water and threw it over the robber. He fled the scene without stealing anything. more…

A TOPLESS waitress from New Jersey faced criminal charges after police found a severed hand and six human skulls in her home.

Linda Kay, 31, was due to be arraigned for improper disposition of human remains. Police said she was arrested on Friday.Officers responded to a report of a man wanting to kill himself with a hammer, but instead discovered a hand inside a jar filled with formaldehyde on a dresser in a bedroom. Six human skulls were found in an upstairs bedroom, South Plainfield Police Captain Paul Brembt said.

“The Middlesex County medical examiner responded to the scene and determined that the hand and all the skulls were from humans,” Capt Brembt said. more…

Also…

Woman in Severed-Hand Case a Court No-Show

Stripper’s home ‘cult-like’

A waitress who went on trial yesterday for allegedly throwing her newborn son from a fifth-floor window told the court she didn’t know she was pregnant before giving birth in a bathroom, and killed the baby to avoid losing her job.Zhang Weixian, a 20-year-old from Yunnan Province, told the Zhabei District People’s Court she felt sick to her stomach on February 26 and asked her boss if she could have the day off work. She then returned to the dorm room provided by Shaoxing Restaurant on Xizang Road N.

At around 6pm, she went to the washroom and soon gave birth, she told the court. The unmarried woman said she only has a primary school education so she didn’t realize she was pregnant until she had the baby. more…

A D.C. restaurateur was sentenced today to 18 months in prison for failure to turn over more than $2 million in sales taxes that his four restaurants collected from customers during a six-year period.

Gholam H. Kowkabi, 46, of suburban Vienna also was required to pay $1.77 million in restitution to the D.C. government as part of a plea agreement. The deal allowed him to plead guilty in February in U.S. District Court to one count of mail fraud and one count of failure to pay-over collected sales taxes to the city. The D.C. government and Kowkabi also reached agreement to resolve tax liability issues related to his restaurants filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2004 after the D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue began investigating him, according to prosecutors.

Under the plea agreement, Kowkabi admitted to knowingly filing tax forms with false monthly sales figures while pocketing about 80 percent of the 10 percent sales taxes that his customers paid as part of their restaurant checks. The fraud began in 1998 and continued into 2005 at the four restaurants Kowkabi owned in the District: Sole Restaurant at 3050 K St. NW, Restaurant Piccolo at 1068 31st St. NW, Alamo Grill at 1063 31st St. NW and Tuscana West at 1350 I St. NW. more…

NEW BEDFORD, Mass. Massachusetts authorities say a restaurant worker stabbed his boss to death because she repeatedly reprimanded him for putting pans through the dishwasher.

Ryan Jones is being held without bond. Prosecutors say he stabbed Valerie Oranski 20 times with a steak knife. The manager’s body was found Saturday on a restroom floor at a restaurant in Dartmouth.Jones allegedly had made daily comments for several weeks to co-workers about wanting to kill the manager. Prosecutors say he said a masked man killed Oranski. more…

A robbery Wednesday night at the KFC at 1707 Cotton Grove Road has resulted in one arrest, according to a news release from the Lexington Police Department.

Officers allege that Eric Eugene Lilly, 23, of Twelve Oaks Drive, robbed the restaurant about 11:30 p.m. Wednesday. There is no information available about the amount of money stolen nor whether it was recovered. No employees or customers were harmed in the course of the incident. more…

WINDER, Ga. Winder police have arrested a 21-year-old man in connection with the shooting death of a man at a Mexican restaurant in April. Police Lieutenant Dennis Dorsey says police arrested Yonlenon Roblero on Saturday night and booked him into the Barrow County Jail on a charge of murder. Police say additional charges are possible. more…

Philadelphia - The family of a young culinary student are looking for the person responsible for killing their son on his way home from meeting with friends.

Tyrone Moore/Stepfather: “I want the killer caught. It’s as simple as that. I want the killer caught.” Tyrone Moore expresses his desire for justice in the slaying of his stepson, Patrick Spencer.

It was Sunday, April 9th. The 19-year-old culinary arts student at Community College was returning home after meeting with friends. He was walking home, when he was gunned down on the 1100 block of Orianna Street. Not far from his home. more…

It was not a hate crime. It was not a random act of violence. Police say it was arson for hire- that left a father and son critically burned at the Steak Thyme Restaurant. West Chester Police say the suspect turned himself in Thursday morning. 22 year-old Joshua Hunter of Xenia is behind bars on third degree felony arson charges.

Investigators say Hunter told them Steak Thyme owners Musa and Essa Shteiwi hired Hunter to set the restaurant on fire. The Shteiwis were injured in an explosion July sixth, before Hunter arrived to do the job. Police believe the Shteiwis were at Steak Thyme checking the site before Hunter was to set it off later that night. The father flicked his lighter right before the explosion. more…

Arrest Made In West Chester Restaurant Bombing

Police in West Chester say that explosions that happend a local restaurant might be tied to the manager’s son.

Joshua Hunter (courtesy: Cincinnati Police Dept.)

ARLINGTON, Tenn. — Police say a grocery store employee stabbed eight co-workers Friday morning, critically injuring four before a witness tackled him.

The suspect, whose name wasn’t immediately released, was arrested and then taken to a hospital after complaining of chest pains, Memphis Police Sgt. Vince Higgins said. Higgins said authorities hadn’t determined a motive for the attack.

The attack started in the manager’s office of the Schnucks supermarket in Arlington, on the outskirts of Memphis, then spilled out into the store, Higgins said.

By the time the suspect was tackled, six women and two men were bleeding from stab wounds, he said. Police said two large kitchen knives used in the attack were found at the scene. more…

The Memphis store where several workers were stabbed.

EASTON, Conn. A top chef at a Connecticut grocery chain is accused of beating up a female colleague in a dispute over cold hors d’oeuvres.

The 60-year-old executive chef for the Stew Leonard’s grocery stores, George Llorens, is charged with assault. He’s due in Bridgeport Superior Court on July 31st.He allegedly punched another chef, Pascaline Pruvost, in the face and head on July as they prepared food for a private wedding. Police say he was apparently upset because her canapes were cold. more…

Also… Police Say Chef Beat Up Co-Worker

Chef Jay James, who runs Chef Jay’s Bistro at 122 E. Broughton St., told police he warded off a man who came into his kitchen on the morning of Thursday, July 13, and demanded money.

According to James, the suspect, who had his hands hidden in the pockets of a sweatshirt, stated, “Give me all your money or I’m gonna hurt you.”

James said he held up his knife and told the robber to leave or else he would hurt him, at which point the robber fled down the alley on foot without taking anything. more…

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Seven astronauts are in space, and their lives depend on the good work of thousands of people on the ground.The WESH 2 I-Team has investigated a major federal lawsuit questioning whether those NASA employees are at risk.We’re not talking about working conditions at the Kennedy Space Center. We are talking about bad or rotten food.
…Vargas worked at the headquarters cafeteria for three years. She claimed that her superiors would force her and others to put food out on the cafeteria line that was old and past its due date — food that sometimes would be spoiled.

“We have three racks of raw chicken. Two days later it’s still sitting there,” Vargas said. “I said, ‘That chicken is smelling. That chicken is no good.’ It was rank,” she said.WESH 2 I-Team reporter Stephen Stock asked Vargas what they did with the meat and if they served it.”They cooked it,” Vargas said. “Yes. And served it.” more…

By Gabrielle Banks, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
A former manager at More restaurant in Oakland who had worked there for decades was sentenced yesterday to 26 to 52 months in prison for embezzling nearly a half million dollars from the family business.

Tina Marie Horn, 46, of Oakland, was ordered to pay the More family $400,624 in restitution, continue drug and alcohol treatment, and serve five years’ probation.

As Common Pleas Judge Randal B. Todd rendered his sentence, restaurant owner Elisa More, who said she had considered Ms. Horn “like family” during her 28 years of employment, burst into tears.

When the defendant left the room in handcuffs, escorted by a sheriff’s deputy, her mother collapsed onto the courtroom floor and was taken away on a stretcher minutes later. Before that commotion, a tipstaff had asked the defendant’s sister to leave the courtroom because she was laughing and making comments to the victims. more…

Food-loving scammers are hitting up New York restaurants with the old ‘dine and dash’

Several times a month, Bolivar Arias, a dining-room manager at Havana Central in Times Square, nips a “dine and dash” in the bud.Though one might think it’s something only a drunken frat boy might pull, there is no shortage, it seems, of New Yorkers who love feasting on lobster and steak, but don’t much like paying the bill afterward.

“It happens much more than people realize,” says Arias, and “usually, they’ve planned their move before they step foot into the restaurant.” Typically, the “dashers” will head to the bathroom around check time, he says, leaving only one diner at the table, poised to bolt. “One person went so far as to change shirts in the bathroom so we wouldn’t recognize him on his way out.”

“The bill is usually high - a few hundred dollars - but others will try it for just a beer and a sandwich,” he says. “Some people just want to beat the system.”

It’s happened so many times at the Cuban restaurant that staffers now alert Arias at even the slightest suspicion. “I’m built like a wrestler, and I go to the table and give the last person sitting there a look,” he says. more…

Police investigating a series of bomb attacks on the luxury Basque country resort owned by the French master chef Alain Ducasse have arrested and questioned a member of his staff.

Mr Ducasse, who at 33 became the youngest chef to win three Michelin stars, holds a record for simultaneously running three three-starred restaurants in Paris, Monte Carlo and New York.

Now 49, he has designed food for astronauts with the European space agency and catered for Prince Albert of Monaco’s trek to the north pole, but has focused on expanding his group of restaurants and country inns across the world. more…

OSSIPEE, N.H. –Anthony Balliro is innocent of two arson charges and did not kill the cook found inside his burning restaurant, his public defender said Friday.

“We maintain Anthony’s innocence. He did not commit these crimes,” public defender Jesse Friedman said after Balliro’s arraignment on the arson charges in Southern Carroll County District Court. The charges are felonies, so he could not enter formal pleas.

Prosecutors say the cook found dead Wednesday night in the burning Moose Tracks Restaurant in Bartlett had been stabbed repeatedly, but as of Friday afternoon no charges had been filed. more…

The relationship of the suspects in a hold up at a Columbia McDonald’s in May is not a typical pairing.

WEST CHESTER, Ohio — A restaurant owner and his son were airlifted to University Hospital after they were burned over most of their bodies in a fire late Thursday.The blaze broke out at Steak Thyme Subs on the 8100 block of Princeton-Glendale Road shortly before 9 p.m.According to a report in the Hamilton Journal News, the restaurant has been vandalized three times since late May. Each time, it appeared that someone had tried to set fire to Steak Thyme.”A rock was thrown through a window, and there’s evidence people were inside the business trying to ignite a fire with accelerant, so there’s been progression,” West Chester police Lt. Dave Tivin said. more…

A Queens couple convicted of nearly starving their baby girl to death could be freed later this month after the state’s highest court threw out their felony convictions yesterday.Lawyers for Joseph and Silva Swinton, both 35, were ecstatic after the unanimous decision found the evidence against them was “legally insufficient” to prove they assaulted the baby with “depraved indifference.”

The little girl, Ice Swinton, now 6, and her younger brother, born to the Queens Village couple after their arrests in 2002, have been living with relatives.

“This was a loving mother. She was no monster,” said defense lawyer Kevin Costello. “She sends me pictures all the time. They are such nice-looking children. It’s hard to believe they were once sick.”

Ice was fed what prosecutors called a bizarre diet of mostly vegetables, fruits and nuts. At 16 months, she weighed just 10 pounds, had a distended belly and brittle bones, authorities said. more…

Police captured Bartlett restaurant owner Anthony Balliro yesterday after his cook was found stabbed to death inside the burning restaurant and Balliro’s apartment apparently was set ablaze.The 45-year-old was arrested without incident at a North Conway home about 3:15 p.m. following a day-long search for the former Seacoast man some residents described as having more swagger than smarts. more…

Wellington, New Zealand (AHN) - The Judge at Christchurch District Court jailed two Indian chefs at the Two Fat Indians restaurant, for raping a schoolgirl. The convicted Kirti Ram, 40, and Manish Kumar Tyagi, 30, were found guilty of raping the 17-year-old girl in their restaurant on January 2 last year.

The trial heard that the two men had taken the girl to the restaurant and had subjected her to sexual assault. The girl later managed to escape when she was being taken to a taxi.

However, the two men alleged that the act had been consensual and it had been arranged in lieu of payment. more…

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Police said four people were shot inside a north side restaurant early Sunday, including one fatally. more…

When a woman claimed to have found a human finger in a bowl of Wendy’s chili, Denny Lynch was the point man for the giant fast-food chain.“This was grotesque, gruesome,” Lynch said. An expert at damage control for decades, Lynch went to work. With the help of the local restaurant’s staff and a carefully chronicled record of deliveries from suppliers along the food chain, he was able to prove that the woman was a liar.

Something similar happened when Jim Taylor went after a woman’s claim that she found a mouse drowned in her soup at a Cracker Barrel Old Country Store restaurant.

Borrowing a page from what could be a “CSI: Rodents” script, Taylor found scientists who could prove the mouse was dead before it landed in the soup. Clues: No soup in the lungs and a telltale broken skull.

Major fast-food chains have established rapid-response teams that are dispatched at the first hint of such claims. And the chains say they are becoming much more aggressive. more…

Suspects accused of trying to pass drink recipes to rival company PepsiCo

Coca-Cola and Pepsi are usually bitter enemies, but when PepsiCo Inc. got a letter offering to sell Coke trade secrets, it went straight to its corporate rival.

Six weeks later, three people face federal charges of stealing confidential information, including a sample of a new drink, from The Coca-Cola Co. and trying to sell it to PepsiCo Inc.

“Competition can sometimes be fierce, but also must be fair and legal,” Pepsi spokesman Dave DeCecco said. “We’re pleased the authorities and the FBI have identified the people responsible for this.” more…

Three people face federal charges of stealing confidential data — including a sample of a new drink — from Coca-Cola and trying to sell it to rival PepsiCo.

WAKE COUNTY, N.C. — Knocking on doors, handing out flyers, and talking with neighbors is standard procedure when investigators want to crack a case. But in this case, there are two homicides to solve. And two agencies — Raleigh police and the Wake County sheriff’s office — have joined together to do that.“We have not said that we linked the two cases, but we’re just saying that we’re working cooperatively on them,” said Raleigh police spokesman Jim Sughrue.The first case took place in May. Samuel Haj-Hussein worked at the In and Out Food Mart and was found shot to death inside. Three weeks later, an employee found Leroy Jernigan shot and killed inside the Circus Restaurant. more…