A pastry chef at the New York Palace Hotel is accusing honchos there of making his workplace a living hell after he accused the 19th-century landmark’s celebrity chef of hitting on him.
Danny Yoo, of Queens, filed a discrimination suit Wednesday in Manhattan federal court against the Madison Avenue hotel and executive chef Michel Richard, who slings $34 eggs-and-bacon dishes and $10 bowls of Frosted Flakes at the hotel’s high-end, but flagging, bistro Villard Michel Richard.
Yoo, who has worked at the hotel as a “tournant,” or relief chef, since 1997, says his troubles began last Thanksgiving when he was assigned to work with Richard, a renowned Washington, DC French chef who relocated to the Big Apple and has been described as a dead ringer for Santa Claus.
“Noticing a bubble on the éclair plaintiff Yoo had worked on, defendant Richard all of a sudden began tapping plaintiff Yoo’s chin and lips repeatedly with his fingers, saying ‘bubble, bubble,’” the suit says.
“Taking this to be a sexual advance,” Yoo claims he was “shocked and horrified” and reported the bubbly remarks he had to endure to human resources management at the hotel.
He claims he then tried to avoid overtime opportunities and other shifts where Richard would be around — only to have the hotel retaliate by assigning him the same schedule as Richard.
When the fill-in chef complained, he was told to either accept the shift or be bumped down to a job with no seniority paying a dollar less per hour, the suit says.
He took the latter and claims to now be suffering “severe anxiety and depression” over the alleged sexual harassment.
Following a series of bad reviews, the hotel announced in July that the bistro — where Richard once hawked $34 lobster burgers and $185 tasting menus — would only be open for breakfast.
The suit seeks lost wages and unspecified money damages.
The hotel and Richard declined comment. Yoo declined comment at his home Wednesday night.
Additional reporting by Jennifer Bain.