Waiters Tell Chow To Bite The Big One

Three former employees from Michael Chow’s classy Chinese restaurants here in New York filed a [$5 million lawsuit] against the business and its namesake. They’ve accused him of abusing, harassing and degrading them—like when he forced one tardy waiter to lie on the floor for 40 minutes during a staff meeting so he could [periodically pretend to kick him](www.iht.com/articles/2007/05/08/business/chow.1-48077.php) “in order to make  him flinch in fear.” Not the kind of guy you want to order egg rolls from, huh?

Chow’s website reads, “The movements of his waiters—filling  glasses, changing tablecloths, delicately deboning rare, fresh pieces of fish—are parts in an elaborate symphony of which he is, ultimately, [the conductor](www.CNN.com/2007/ LAW /05/08/chow.suit.ap/index.html).” Control freak much?

The suit also accuses the restaurateur of  “deducting waiters tips for not listening attentively, speaking out of turn and failing to wear a perfectly starched  uniform, which  they buy with their own money.” This last part is especially alarming, considering the suit claims that Chow used some [staff members’ uniforms as blank canvases] and then forced them to wait tables dressed in his masterpiece. Hopefully, he didn’t draw the traditional cock and balls. Martin Singer, Chow’s lawyer, says the suit is “completely frivolous.”