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A former coworker has accused Daniel Mondok, the chef behind what were once some of Portland’s most famous restaurants, of sexual harassment over several months in late 2020.
The coworker, who was working as a dishwasher at a restaurant in the wine country town of Dundee, says Mondok made repeated unwanted “sexual advances” despite being told to stop. Mondok repeatedly “attempted to insert his fingers into [the plaintiff’s] anus from the outside of his pants,” according to a lawsuit filed last week by attorneys at the Oregon Law Center.
The man later reported the incident to police a year later, but Mondok was not charged with a crime. WW does not generally name the victims of alleged sexual violence.
Mondok is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit. Instead, it accuses their former employer, the Dundee restaurant Red Hills Market, of discrimination and retaliation.
The man who filed the lawsuit says he was reassigned to a less desirable position after he met with the restaurant’s owners to report the harassment. He was let go a year later, he says, after reporting the sexual assaults to the local police department. “This investigation is currently closed and no arrests have been made,” says Captain Ryan Simmons of the Newberg-Dundee Police Department.
When reached by phone, Mondok denied the accusations but said he did not want to publicly comment. He now works at another Dundee restaurant, Wooden Heart. It is not clear when Red Hills Market and Mondok parted ways.
Red Hills Market’s attorney, Chris Morgan, sent WW the following statement: “We are aware of the allegations made in [the] recent federal court complaint. I want to first make clear that Red Hills Market is a small, family business and my clients first and foremost priority is the safety and wellbeing of its staff. [The plainfiff’s] legal allegations against Red Hill as stated in his complaint are misguided, unfortunate, and false. I look forward to addressing them in court.”
Mondok has a storied history in Portland high cuisine. He was executive chef at Sel Gris when it won WW Restaurant of the Year in 2008 and was a nominee for a James Beard award the following year. He’s been a chef at a series of high-end Portland restaurants, including Genoa, June and Raven & Rose.