THE knives are out again for Donegal chef Conrad Gallagher amid new claims he didn’t pay staff at a New York restaurant.
The Letterkenny culinary king has been trying to carve out a new career in the States, but faces being thrown out of America if he loses a court case against him.
His venture in the Big Apple was so bad, that one newspaper critic refused to give it any stars in a rating from one to five.
Last week Gallagher set up yet another new venture in Orange County, California, offering five-star catering services to clients. He has had rave reviews there already, one blogger writing the Donegal man’s food was “better than anything I’ve ever tasted in the USA.”
However a lawyer representing former staff at ‘The Purple Fig’ – which went bust 14 months ago in Manhattan – claims he’s been unable to track down Gallagher to serve him with court papers.
Robert Wisniewski is representing 40 former staff; they say they were paid below the minimum wage, but never they never received salaries or tips.
“It is our belief that due to his failure to pay his debts, he has deliberately gone off the grid,” said the lawyer, who was able to serve some of the papers in California two weeks ago.
They are also suing Paul Hurley, another Irishman involved in the venture.
Former worker Nick Robinson claims in a statement that when he asked Gallagher for payment, he was told to speak to Hurley, but when he spoke to Hurley he was told to speak with Gallagher.
The Donegal man has left a trail of debts behind him from several ventures in recent years.
After being declared bankrupt in South Africa in 2009, he returned to Ireland to star in TV3’s Head Chef show.
But he left suppliers and staff without money when restaurant ventures in Sligo and Dublin went bust.
The Purple Fig in New York was slated by the critics, with New York Post food writer Steve Cuozzo describing Gallagher as a “cut-price Gordon Ramsay.”
Cuozzo was scathing in his review – giving it No Stars.
And he also found that he had to pay cash – because the restaurant’s credit card facility wasn’t working.
The same thing happened in Gallagher’s last ‘cash only’ Dublin restaurant.
You can read Cuozzo’s review here
http://nypost.com/2012/08/01/fig-get-about-eating-here/
If Gallagher has to appear at a civil case in New York and loses, he could lose his working visa and be chucked out of America.