Fifteen women have accused acclaimed Seattle chef Edouardo Jordan of sexual misconduct, and his employees have quit in en masse

On Sunday, 15 women accused acclaimed Seattle chef Edouardo Jordan of sexual misconduct in an investigation by The Seattle Times. Prominent chefs and restaurateurs have been accused of sexual misconduct and creating toxic work environments in recent years, including Mario Batali, Mike Isabella, and Ken Friedman, to name a few. Jordan now joins the list, and like men before him, seems to have a lot of trouble remembering incidents of his alleged misconduct that occurred in and out of his restaurants. He cannot recall grabbing a line cook’s butt at a party, nor talking about a server’s breasts, nor sending a lewd text to a cook, nor suddenly kissing an employee after a night of drinking, nor attempting to get in an employee’s bed one night after work, among many other allegations. In a carefully worded statement, Jordan denies “many of the reported allegations” (precisely how many we’d like to know) and is now in a deep state of reflection. Meanwhile, the staff of his restaurants have quit en masse. “The general consensus, I’m talking about primarily all of the staff, was we wanted to leave just because it’s just wrong,” one former employee said.