When problems are as pervasive as those at Sqirl, it’s worth asking: Was any of this known by the people describing Koslow as a “pioneer” and “visionary,” with an “empire”? What’s important to realize, especially in light of the experiences of her former staffers, is that those words aren’t inherently positive. They connote gentrification, single-mindedness, and control. Restaurants don’t run on the perspective and work of one person alone, yet that is often how the media presents them: the brain-children of their chefs, so creative and unique. As chef Kate Telfeyan wrote in The New Republic , this approach creates “the toxic celebrity chef,” whose workers become servants of not just the chef but of the hype the coverage has created.From Koslow on the West Coast, to Abe Conlon at Chicago’s Fat Rice , to Trigg Brown at Brooklyn’s Win Son , reports of abusive, dismissive, and thieving behavior by chefs and owners make it clear that treating staff poorly is not the exception but the rule in the food service industry. And the media, historically, has only made an already unbalanced and inequitable situation worse.“Hype is an added pressure for staff,” says Lillian DeVane, a service industry worker and co-host of FOH Pod , a podcast about working in restaurants. “Our pride in your work is further diminished by the required worship of the brand, of the message. It’s not hospitality; it’s advertising. You probably make decent money (from a front-of-house perspective, of course); the people you deal with are noticeably worse the ‘better’ the restaurant you work in; your bosses are probably richer and own multiple places; and you eventually ask yourself why you worked so hard if this is the alleged top. It gets worse the higher you go. If you value your career in hospitality, you’ll put up with a lot to stay at a ‘good’ restaurant.”