NEW YORK– NEW YORK (AP) — Woody Allen ‘s former personal chef claims in a lawsuit that the filmmaker and his wife fired him over his service in the U.S. Army Reserves and questions about his pay, then “rubbed salt on the wounds” by saying they didn’t like his cooking didn’t like it.
All and Soon-Yi Previn “I simply decided that a military professional who wanted to be paid fairly was not qualified to work in Allen’s home,” private chef Hermie Fajardo said in a civil complaint filed Tuesday in federal court in Manhattan.
Allen and Previn knew Fajardo would need time off for military training exercises when they and their house manager hired him as their full-time chef in June 2024 at an annual salary of $85,000, the complaint said. But he was fired the following month, shortly after returning from a training session that lasted a day longer than expected.
When Fajardo returned to work, “he was immediately met with immediate hostility and obvious resentment from the defendants,” according to the lengthy complaint.
At the time, Fajardo had raised concerns about his pay — first that his employers were not properly withholding taxes or providing a paycheck, and then that they were shortchanging him by $300, according to the complaint.
Allen, Previn and manager Pamela Steigmeyer are accused in the lawsuit of violating the federal Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act and New York Labor Code, and of causing Fajardo humiliation, stress and loss of income.
Representatives for Allen did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment.
Fajardo said he was hired after being showered with compliments following a meal of roasted chicken, pasta, chocolate cake and apple pie he prepared for the defendants and two guests. According to the complaint, he was only told after Previn fired him and he hired an attorney that his cooking skills were substandard, a claim Fajardo said was untrue.