Former chef sues Olive Garden after ‘incessant’ sexual abuse by colleague, lawsuit says

A former cook at an Olive Garden restaurant in Baltimore is suing the restaurant chain, alleging that her superiors ignored a colleague who repeatedly sexually harassed her at work.

In the lawsuit, filed in federal court in Maryland, a woman using the pseudonym “Jane Doe” says the harassment began about a week after she started working as a cook at an Olive Garden in White Marsh Mall in August 2022.

The cook claims that a male colleague went out of his way to rub his butt against her every time she bent over or the two were in close quarters in the kitchen. This harassment sometimes occurred “more than 20 times” in a single eight-hour shift, the lawsuit says.

“Our client has experienced sexual harassment that is all too common in the restaurant industry,” Doe’s attorney, Tamara Slater of Alan Lescht and Associates, told The Daily Beast.

The cook’s manager was informed, but the employee allegedly told the victim not to worry and joked that avoiding the alleged harassment would not mean she “got rid of a husband,” the lawsuit says.

In November 2022, the male colleague allegedly followed the cook into a bathroom and slammed her against a towel rack by ripping the door open in her face, causing the cook “excruciating pain” in her back.

When the woman’s manager learned of the incident, he told the chef that the alleged perpetrator “knew not to do it again,” but that he would not be fired.

The cook told another manager about the incident, who recommended that the cook write a report of her findings, the lawsuit says. The woman also reported the alleged harassment to police, although the lawsuit does not note whether they launched an investigation or made any arrests.

According to the lawsuit, after the November incident, there were no further alleged harassment, but the male colleague intentionally made the cook’s job more difficult by leaving dirty dishes behind and neglecting other tasks.

According to the lawsuit, the restaurant also began reducing the cook’s work hours. Unable to make a living from the restaurant, the woman quit in March 2023.

The Independent has contacted the attorneys representing Darden Restaurants, the owner of Olive Garden, in the lawsuit.

In a dismissal motion earlier this month, the company argued that the former cook “failed to adequately demonstrate that her working conditions were so intolerable that a reasonable person in her position would have felt compelled to resign.”

The female victim demanded an unspecified amount of money in the lawsuit.