DIRECT TABLEWARE PRODUCTS
  • Home
  • About
  • Featured Brands
    • VIP Sourcing and Procurement
    • Agnelli
    • Chilewich
    • Craster
    • CookPlay
    • Mepra
    • Hospitality Glass Brands
    • Peugeot
    • Porto Brasil
    • Staub
    • VerTerra
  • Products
  • Contact Us

New Orleans Chef on Her Lawsuit Against BP: “I Am Just Angry”

6/29/2010

0 Comments

 
Susan Spicer did not intend to be the face of the restaurant rebellion against BP over its role in the Gulf oil spill. But that’s what can happen when you file a lawsuit.

Ms. Spicer, long a respected New Orleans chef, spent most of Monday huddled with her lawyers, trying to map out a strategy after word got out that she was suing BP and several other companies on behalf of Gulf restaurant owners and seafood suppliers.

“I just hope that my motivations will not be misinterpreted,” she said from her restaurant Bayona in her first interview since the suit was filed Friday. “It’s more about solidarity in this region than about getting my piece of the pie. I can’t say I expect to see a dollar out of this thing. I am just angry.”

Ms. Spicer’s attorney, Serena Pollack, filed the suit in New Orleans federal court late Friday asking that the court grant class-action status for restaurants and seafood sellers who have suffered in the wake of the April 20 drilling rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico.

The lawyers are arguing that Ms. Spicer and other chefs in Louisiana and the region have built a reputation and a business using fresh, local seafood that is specific to the Gulf of Mexico. Since the oil rig accident, that seafood has either become unavailable or significantly more expensive.

In addition, customers are and will continue to be unwilling to pay higher prices or won’t want to eat what is available for fear of contamination from petroleum or the chemicals used to manage the spill, the suit said.
Ms. Spicer decided to step forward not because her restaurant is about to go under but because other businesses are.

“I really do believe there are people that are certainly more in need than Bayona will be,” she said, adding that there is plenty of good seafood coming from Lake Pontchartrain and unaffected parts of the shoreline.
But some places are being hit harder than others, she said.

“We are already seeing casualties right and left, human casualities, business casualties, cultural casualties,” she said.

Ms. Spicer, whose company is the lead plaintiff, opened Bayona in 1990 and quickly established herself as a chef who respected the New Orleans culinary canon but was not going to be held hostage by it. At Bayona, she offers global food and serves ahi tuna and Pacific salmon. But her longtime signature dish is grilled Gulf shrimp and black bean cake, and she usually serves Gulf oysters, often stuffed with Italian sausage, spinach and fennel. Her recent cookbook, Crescent City Cooking, has dozens of recipes based on Gulf seafood.

Earlier this month she opened Mondo, a casual, pan-cultural restaurant that is as likely to serve plantains as beignets. She has also recently gained some popular cultural currency, both as a Top Chef judge and as the inspiration for the chef in the HBO series Treme who struggles to hold onto her restaurant in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Ms. Spicer is a culinary consultant for the show.

Ms. Spicer said she was taken aback by the attention the suit is getting, particularly from bloggers and journalists who have argued that she doesn’t serve that much local seafood or that she is in it for the money.

“I was a little blindsided by all of this,” she said. “But I think it needs to be done and I hope more people will join.”

It’s not clear how wide-ranging support for the suit will be. Frank Brigtsen, who runs two restaurants, would not comment on the suit. Emeril Lagasse said he was not joining at this time.

“We are continuing to closely monitor the situation and the oil leak’s impact on Emeril’s restaurant business,” Jeff Hinson, Mr. Lagasse’s public relations manager, wrote in an e-mail message to the Times.

But the movement was getting some support from smaller businesses. Franky and Johnny’s, a neighborhood po’ boy and seafood restaurant, has signed on. And JoAnn Clevenger, who for nearly 30 years has run the Upperline Restaurant, plans to jump in, too.

She wasn’t surprised larger restaurants weren’t.

“Susan is an entrepreneurial chef. She is not big business like Emeril. For her and for other owner-operated businesses, what else are we going to do?” she said.

After Hurricane Katrina, small business owners felt like they could pick up the pieces, rebuild and pitch in to help others. That’s not the case with the oil spill.

“That can-do spirit has been quashed,” she said. “But what Susan is doing can give us that spirit back.”

The suit is designed to include restaurant owners and retailers of seafood that is marketed and sold as local or from Louisiana or the Gulf of Mexico. That means the suit could extend to chefs and seafood shops in all five Gulf states, some of whom have already filed separate suits.

The next step is a hearing scheduled for July 27, when a federal panel of judges meets in Boise, Idaho, to decide whether all the claims relating to the oil spill will be consolidated and put into the hands of a special master. The panel is also expected to decide where litigation about the oil spill will be held if it is consolidated.

Plaintiffs are fighting to keep it from being consolidated in Houston, where many oil companies are headquartered.
By KIM SEVERSON
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    BLOG

    News from our manufacturer's & re-posts from publications around the hotel and restaurant industry.

    Archives

    January 2013
    June 2012
    March 2012
    January 2012
    September 2011
    July 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010
    January 2010
    December 2009
    November 2009
    October 2009
    September 2009

    Categories

    All
    2011
    Art & Dining
    Beer News
    Booze News
    Bp
    Breaking News
    Casino News
    Chain Restaurant News
    Chef News
    Chicago
    Chilewich
    Christofle
    Commercial Foodservire Products
    Commercial Grade Foodservice Product
    Contests
    Cookware
    DEMEYERE
    Distilling & Brewing
    Food
    Galic
    Garnier Thiebaut
    Garnier Thiebaut & Hilden America
    Glassware
    GO GREEN!
    Guy Degrenne
    Guy Degrenne Flatware
    Hard Times
    Hilden America
    Hotel Business
    Hotel Industry
    Hotel News
    Hotels
    International News
    James Beard Awards
    James Fagan Jr.
    Local News
    Luxury
    Luxury Product
    Mauviel
    Mauviel Cookware
    Meat
    Michael Aram
    Mid-West News
    Mixology News
    Money
    National Restaurant Assoc.
    New Jersey
    News & Articles
    News & Articles
    Nra 2010
    Nra 2011
    Outlook
    Pennsylvania
    Peugeot
    Philadelphia
    Philadelphia Eats
    Philadelphia Hotels
    Porcelain
    Q & A
    Recession
    Recipes
    Recovery
    Resort News
    Restaurant News
    Restaurants
    Restaurant Week
    Revol
    Revol Porcelain
    Revol Usa Porcelain
    Richard Ginori 1735 Porcelain
    Rules & Regulations
    Smallwares
    Sold Direct
    Staub
    Swissmar
    Table De France
    Table De France: Christofle & Guy Degrenne
    Tech Crunch
    Trends & Forecasts
    Trends & Forecasts
    West Coast
    Wine
    World Cup - Philadelphia
    Zwilling
    Zwilling J.A. Henckels
    ZWILLING J.A. HENCKELS (STAUB

    RSS Feed

For more information, quotations, samples & technical information regarding our products and services, please contact us.
We appreciate the opportunity to compete for your business.
Sales Representative Log in
Our site is currently undergoing improvements - Stay Tuned!  In the meantime, contact us to discuss your project requirements.
ABOUT DIRECT TABLEWARE PRODUCTS

DIRECT TABLEWARE PRODUCTS is a full-service group specializing in high quality American & European manufacturer's offering tableware, cookware, buffet/ banquet display, furniture, equipment & customization. ​

​Subscribe to our newsletter

25 South Main Street, Suite 39
​Yardley, PA 19067
FEATURED BRANDS
​
PRODUCT CATEGORIES
​

GET INSPIRED
​

​
@DirectTablewareProducts
#DirectTablewareProducts
#DTP
Providing high quality products to the foodservice & hospitality industry at the best prices.
All rights reserved - Copyright ©  2023
  • Home
  • About
  • Featured Brands
    • VIP Sourcing and Procurement
    • Agnelli
    • Chilewich
    • Craster
    • CookPlay
    • Mepra
    • Hospitality Glass Brands
    • Peugeot
    • Porto Brasil
    • Staub
    • VerTerra
  • Products
  • Contact Us