Feeling the heat in the kitchen of controversy, Gabe Erales, the Austin-based winner of Bravo’s most recent season of Top Chef, issued a detailed apology on his Instagram on Friday over his previous work conduct. Earlier this month, reports revealed that, in December 2020, two months after the competition show concluded shooting, Erales was fired from his position as head chef at the restaurant Comedor following allegations against him of harassment and discrimination.
In Erales’s note, which covered three black Instagram squares, he wrote that his three weeks of silence since the news broke was because he “needed time with my family to start the healing process.”
He continued, “to clarify, unbeknownst to my wife, I had a consensual relationship with a co-worker and later reduced her work hours, which in combination was a poor [judgment] call and led to my termination after I filmed Top Chef.”
Philip Speer, “chef-partner” at Comedor, an Austin restaurant, previously said that Erales was “fired for repeated violations of the company’s ethics policy as it relates to harassment of women,” according to the Austin American-Statesman.
Erales wrote that “part of an executive chef role is to set the culture and uphold the values of the restaurant,” and that his “main focus now is my family.”
Erales was awarded $250,000 for winning the 18th season of the popular Bravo show. Variety called the season, which was shot during the pandemic in Portland, “a joy to watch” with Erales’s modern interpretation of Mexican cuisine (featuring a lot of mole) an impressive highlight. The showdown between him, Houston’s Dawn Burrell, and Seattle’s Shota Nakajima was “one of the toughest finales in Top Chef history,” according to the trade paper.
When news of Erales’s firing became public earlier this month, Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi stated she was unaware of the allegations made against Erales and called for an investigation. At the time, Erales was reported to be developing his own restaurant in downtown Austin called Bacalar, highlighting the cuisine of Mexico’s Yucatán region. (Comedor, where he no longer works, also features a robust menu with items such as bone marrow tacos and over 100 different mezcal options.)
Bravo has yet to issue any comment, according to Variety.
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