This morning, two lawsuits were filed against celebrity chef Michael Chiarello and his restaurant group Gruppo Chiarello, which includes Coqueta in San Francisco and Bottega Ristorante in Yountville. The lawsuit, alleging sexual harassment and labor violations, was filed by Katherine Page and Asja Sever, two former employees of Coqueta, and outlines a series of alleged abuses during their employment.

In the lawsuit, Page and Sever detail several alleged instances in which Chiarello, Coqueta’s executive chef Dominick Maietta and other management level employees of Coqueta created an alleged “sexually charged, hostile and abusive environment.”

Examples include:

Executive chef Maietta’s conduct has also been called into question, and he is listed as a defendant alongside Chiarello.

According to the complaints, the alleged harassment extended to servers of all orientations and genders.

Also from the court document:

Additionally, a class-action suit was filed alleging that the restaurant failed to pay wages and overtime, manipulated clocks and timesheets and forced front of the house employees to pool their tips with the kitchen staff.

See the legal documents in full below:

UPDATED 3/16/16 with a statement from Michael Chiarello’s publicist:

Mr. Chiarello is very upset by the allegations made by two former employees. The allegations are not only upsetting to him, they are also against his core beliefs.

Mr. Chiarello strongly believes that a great restaurant cannot really be great without an outstanding team. Throughout his career, he has served as a mentor to the people who work with him and helped them climb the ladder in their careers. This claim flies in the face of who Mr. Chiarello is and how he has lived his life. Mr. Chiarello is the son of immigrant family, a true American success story, who became the acclaimed chef he is today by using the skills he learned from watching his mother cook when he was a young boy and caring about the people with whom he worked.

We are also disappointed that neither Coqueta nor Mr. Chiarello were provided a copy of the lawsuit prior to the former employees’ attorneys sending it to the media. Mr. Chiarello intends to vigorously defend himself, his reputation and his team against these unfounded claims in a court of law.