Horses Chef Liz Johnson threatened to kill the couple’s dog
Grub Street did an in-depth story on the Horses debacle today. Both chefs killed multiple animals, abused staff and each other.
“Once, she saw him burn Johnson with a pair of hot tongs. (In his filing, Aghajanian claimed Johnson actually burned him in the kitchen at Mimi: “Liz overcooked the chicken, became enraged at me as we talked about it, and put a metal spatula on the hot oily griddle, then pushed it against my forearm, severely burning it, and leaving a scar,” he wrote, attaching a photo of a scar on his arm. A close friend of his, who started working with him at Per Se, Samuel Burchett, says he saw the scar, too, and that it didn’t look like a cooking burn. “He told me that Liz got super-angry at him over some arbitrary thing,” then took a spoon, held it against a fryer, and burned him intentionally.)”
He also tried to feed the staff fish worms and made them dissect rabbit heads:
“Former Mimi employees say Aghajanian often seemed insulted that he was expected to prepare family meal for the staff, the standard at any buzzy Manhattan restaurant. Typically, family meal is something hearty and comforting that workers can eat before a busy service. Instead, Aghajanian often served disgusting dishes, says Halpern. She remembers a night when Aghajanian was cleaning monkfish liver: “He took all the worms from the monkfish liver and took sheep’s liver and put it through a grinder,” she says, then served that combination brusquely to the group. Another time he offered staff fish carcasses blended with water. Aghajanian denies serving fish worms in a staff meal. He says, “I would use trims of meat and fish because they were working with a tight budget and the staff at Mimi were never happy unless they had perfect cuts of meat.” Still, the staff often found the family meals so inedible that management would buy them pizza instead.”
“Another time, Aghajanian brought in a case of frozen white rabbit heads. “We’re gonna have a group project,” he told his staff, Maihle says. “‘We’re going to be cutting the ears off of these rabbit heads and stripping away the cartilage. And then we want to hack into their skulls and take their brains out without damaging them.’ After a while, I was like, Okay, I’m done with this. So I broke off from the project. And he said, ‘Okay. I just wanted to see how long everyone would do this for.’”
And the cats. They left their 3-week old kitten with their dog, which is heinous. After the dog bit the kittens head, Will killed him.
“Within weeks of Aghajanian and Johnson’s adopting the kitten, it was dead. Co-workers heard that they had left the three-week-old kitten alone in a bedroom with one of the couple’s dogs and when they came home it was having trouble breathing. Aghajanian denies that it was left alone — he says that Johnson was in the room and “wanted to introduce this very young kitten to our dog. This encounter apparently scared the kitten so much that it died.” Later at work, when a co-worker expressed sympathy, Aghajanian seemed cold. “It’s fine, cats just die,” he allegedly responded.”
by askhalid
25 Comments
Couple of sociopaths
What in tarnation
Most important clarification is that when you go there you are still putting money directly into his pockets. So many other top tier spots in LA to spend your time and money at. Miss me with “what about the employees.” Restaurants fail all the time for less nefarious reasons. There are plenty of other employees at other spots that you can support in this city with your dollar. Just admit you want the cool trendy spot to stick around for selfish clout reasons.
WTF
Fuck him. Fuck her. Both complete sociopaths. Everything bad coming to them is deserved.
Hey writers, you aren’t doing anything. Get on it!! 10 episode Netflix series.
I don’t think it’s fair to paint her with the same brush. She is more credible. Glad she is getting out of this toxic relationship, despite the fallout on her professional career. Mental health and personal safety are more important, and your career can be rebuilt.
I’m just glad I wrote a Yelp review before Yelp blocked them.
Holy crap. This is gonna give me nightmares…
This article is very strange. They point to a lot of sources backing Will being a scumbag and then rely on Will for the anti Liz stuff. Maybe that’s just what to expect from a source I’ve never heard of but how are you going to write an article destroying the credibility of the person you then rely on for unsubstantiated claims later in the same article?
Two gaping assholes who must be shunned forever! Animal abuse is unforgivable
>More disturbingly, she wrote that it wasn’t the first animal he’d abused. In fact, she claimed, the cat was one of “up to 14 animals that I know.”
Good fucking grief.
Omg RIP Horses
I can’t read this and not be traumatized. I’ll trust y’all and just not go.
One of the wildest things I’ve read recently, these people are actually horrifying, him especially so. On it’s face you might think it’s a he said she said with two volatile unstable people who should not be married but there are soooo many 3rd party stories to corroborate. I feel like this is pre serial killer stuff
WHAT THE FUCK..
i hope dumbo ends up in jail or at least flies away with those massive fucking ears of his. these two idiots definitely deserved each other
Would you trust *anyone* with that haircut? Not me.
But if he has receipts… well that does up the mystery.
Can’t wait for this to become a movie after the writers strike
After reading the article, I can’t be the only one who came away thinking those two definitely prepared and either served or ate those cats.
This made The Hollywood Reporter as I recall.
Food is too good to cancel my res tho
Are people missing that all of the allegations against him have several witnesses/people who heard him bragging about what he’d done, while the allegations against her are just him saying “actually it was her who did it not me”
This will be buried and no one will believe me, but I hit up a buddy of mine who’s high up in the industry…asked him about horses and he said it’s totally true and then some. He said they’re both pieces of shit. Man, I’m even more amazed that this shit is true and there’s even more.
It’s a little unsettling that people are sharing the stories and “canceling” the restaurant…but reservations are still booked solid through June. Can anyone help explain? Feel like if folks feel strongly about this, go eat somewhere else? Am I missing something?