Report: Employees Allege Willows Inn Was a ‘Toxic’ Workplace

"A remote Lummi Island restaurant led by chef Blaine Wetzel — a Noma alum who took over the kitchen at 24 and turned the inn into a destination for multicourse, island-focused feasts — is accused in a New York Times report of routinely misrepresenting ingredients and fostering a toxic workplace. Thirty-five current and former employees say many purportedly “island” ingredients were actually sourced from the mainland or abroad (reports cite “Pacific octopus” from Spain and Portugal, “wild” venison from an Idaho farm, bulk roasted drippings made from organic Costco chickens, supermarket beets and broccoli, and frozen Alaskan scallops trimmed and reshaped to pass as pink singing scallops). Staffers describe pervasive abuse, including physical intimidation, public humiliation, racist, sexist and homophobic slurs, sexual harassment of female and teenage island employees, and a boys’-club culture in which women were routinely passed over for promotions and pressured to alter their appearance at personal expense. The operation has faced formal labor actions — a 2017 Department of Labor finding and fine over long unpaid or underpaid shifts and the use of unpaid interns, and a recent $600,000 class-action settlement over alleged wage theft (without admission of wrongdoing). The chef has broadly denied the allegations." - Rachel Sugar